Authentic Chinese 'Valentine's Day' Food — Qiaoguo Recipe

[00:01] Coming up in just a couple days – so PSA for all  you guys out there with a Chinese girlfriend –   is “Chinese Valentines Day”. Now if you’re new  to this, so you might ask, “so what do people  

[00:14] do on Chinese Valentine’s Day?” “How do they  celebrate”, and of course “What do they eat”. Now that’s a good question, so:  generally what people will do is  

[00:26] the guy will get some pretty flowers, drive  your snuffle-pumpkin to a romantic restaurant,   maybe have a candlelit dinner. Great  time to pop the question gentlemen! 

[00:41] And you’ll enjoy some beautifully  plated salad, maybe some pasta,   and maybe some steak… but of course don’t forget  the very sweet cheesecake and the chocolates.

[00:54] Now you may be a little confused…Chocolates?   Steak? Are these traditional  Chinese valentines day food? Well, OF COURSE NOT, BECAUSE QIXI…  was not a goddam Valentines day.

[01:12] Welcome to one of my biggest pet peeves of modern  Chinese society– the valentines daysssssssss.  Yes, it’s plural, more on  that at this end of the video…

[01:25] Because say what you will about Valentine’s  day in the west, at least the Hallmarks of   the world invented it, they didn’t take  anything away, they make something new. And that’s my biggest annoyance… because  historically Qixi did used to be a female holiday,  

[01:43] it had nothing to do with the modern date  night cliché, and it used to be a lot of fun. So traditionally, for Qixi, you’d do a  couple things to prepare for the holiday. 

[01:56] One would be ‘ranzhijia’ which  literally means “dying your nails”,   it’s an old fashioned manicure,  where you’d wrap flowers petals   around your nails and dye them red. You’d also buy – or make, recipe later  

[02:11] – some festive snacks with meaningful  patterns on them… and someone in your   friend group might grow some beansprouts  for an old Qixi game later on that day.

[02:23] Then on the evening of Qixi, women of  all age groups would gather in the yard   or on a balcony so that you can see the  stary sky – because Qixi was a holiday   celebrating legends about the two brightest  stars in summer sky, zhinv and qianniu.

[02:41] Then they’ll light up incenses, put  out offerings of flowers, fruits,   festive snacks, and start playing various games. And because the star Zhinv is the goddess that  reigns in traditional female intelligence like  

[02:56] weaving and embroidery. So women  would put colorful threads through   many needles to compete in sewing skill; Or they’ll put little spiders in small boxes  

[03:09] to observe the spider web, because according  to legend, the better the web the spider makes   meaning that a better skill set the girl will get. Or they’ll throw the previously grown bean sprouts  

[03:25] into a bowl of water, using its shadow of the bean  sprout to tell one’s fortune and intelligence. So now we know how they used to party,  but then what about the party food? 

[03:38] Unfortunately the books from ancient times  didn’t specify how those festive snacks are made,   all we know is that they were  made with flour, syrup, and oil.

[03:50] Fortunately though, there’re still  pockets in China that celebrates   Qixi in its traditional form, and  make the festive snacks – Qiaoguo. which is a little bit similar to a scone  but with a little twists on its shapes. 

[04:07] And similar to scone, Qiaoguo’s  also very easy to make.  So first, just whisk one egg with 12g sugar, 1g  salt, 1g yeast, 3g good peanut oil, and 3g lard, 

[04:23] when everything’s well combined, just add in 100g  AP flour, and knead it until it’s smooth, no need   to be obsessive, so roughly 3 minutes’ enough. And now leave the dough to rest for 20 minutes.

[04:40] And after that time, we’ll roll  it out into a half cm-ish sheet,   So people in Shandong would use this kind of  beautiful wooden moulds to create intricate  

[04:54] patterns on the Qiaoguo. If you happen to have  one, just oil your mould thoroughly first,   and then roll your dough into a log, and  then just lay your log over the mould,  

[05:09] stuff inside roughly enough dough and mould it.  And then gently knock it out. And now you have   But I guess most of you watching this  video right now probably don’t have this  

[05:22] kind of wooden moulds, but it’s ok. Because  cookie cutters are also a perfect choice. So what you’ll do is roll  it into a half-cm-ish sheet,   and then cut it out using your  cookie mould, then set them aside. 

[05:40] As for the remaining dough, you can roll it out  thin again, cut them out into various shapes   like diamond or triangle. This is also what you  can do if you don’t own a cookie cutter neither.

[05:55] After cutting or shaping, there’s no need  to rest, just pop them into a preheated 220C   oven and bake for about 7 minutes with  our size here around 5cm in diameter. 

[06:10] Although you do need to adjust the baking  time if your Qiaoguo size is different. And that is it, simple. A traditional festive  snack for the traditional festival of Qixi.

[06:22] So now, let’s party! So if you’re new to this kind  of traditional Chinese pastries,   it’s normal that you might find them to  be a bit too dry and not an ideal snack. 

[06:40] Well, I think one very important  thing to know… is that, this kind   of traditional Chinese pastries and snacks  are always… always meant to go with tea. 

[06:52] They’re usually lighter in flavor and drier  in texture compare to western desserts,   but when it’s eaten alongside with some tea, which  is also lighter, the taste actually goes pretty  

[07:06] well together, and they complement each other. Especially when it’s eaten alongside some nuts,   some fruit, be it fresh or candied, all of them  together can be a quite enjoyable tea experience.

[07:23] So right! Qixi is probably  the most famous “Chinese   Valentine’s Day” these days, but there’s more! Lantern festival – couple weeks after Spring  Festival – has also become a Valentine’s  

[07:38] Day… which bastardization might be  even more absurd become it’s solely   based off of one single Song dynasty lyric, so  definitely get flowers and presents for that…

[07:51] time as well, don’t you dare forget about that. And you’ve also got 520! Can’t forget that, but at  least that one’s it’s an madeup holiday – because  

[08:08] apparently 520 ‘Wu-er-ling’ (in Chinese) sounds  like “wo ai ni” (I love you)? I don’t know. Maybe.   But at the very least you need to send  your girlfriend 520 yuan on WeChat.

[08:24] And of course, there’s the birthday, anniversary,  and if you’re a more international couple,   you should also expect to be giving flowers and  gifts on Christmas! A very romantic holiday…

[08:41] Oh, and also there’s Thanksgiving  because you need to give thanks, I guess? Oh right, how could I forget children’s  day! A lot of girls also expect the  

[08:54] Valentine’s treatment on Children’s  day, read into that as you will. So if you know someone out there that’s thirsting  on the ‘traditional gender role’ or whatever,  

[09:07] just remember – live by the  sword, die by the sword guys.  Luckily, there’re still pockets in  China that still celebrate Qixi in   its traditional form. We have a  little list in our substack post,  

[09:24] free as always. And finally, thank you for  everyone that’s supporting us on Patreon,   and subscribe for more Chinese cooking videos. Oh, and at the end, happy Qixi Festival,  

[09:36] hope you have fun with your gals! You want some, gal? It’s good for you.