Back then, I was lucky enough to go to Menghai, Yunnan, where I tasted the local specialty snack - Qizi Pancake, which I will never forget.

The name Qizi Pancake comes from its production process, which requires dividing the flour into seven parts along a circular mold, then filling them with different fillings, and finally baking them. The fillings filled into the seven parts are: sesame, bean paste, meat floss, spices, coconut, mung beans and date paste.

Each Qizi cake is not big and can fit in the palm of your hand, but it has a variety of flavors. The numbing aroma of sesame, the sweetness of bean paste, the salty aroma of meat floss, the spiciness of spices, the fragrance of coconut, the lightness of mung beans, and the sweetness of jujube paste are all intertwined and make people reluctant to stop eating.

Historically, Qizi cake was a necessary food for folk sacrifices and weddings in Yunnan. Today, although the production and sales methods of Qizi Pancake have changed, it is still one of the well-known snacks in southern China. When people think of Yunnan cuisine, they will think of the fragrant Qizi Pancake.