Xi'an Oil Crisp Cake with Thousand Layers

Xi'an is well known for its long history and rich culture around the world. You not only can view famous historic sites such as the Terracotta Army in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, but also you can enjoy the delicious traditional Chinese foods.

As a Chinese young man who likes to learn English, every time I write about the traditional Chinese food, I find it is especially difficult to give the food a proper English name, which is very frustrating. In addition, I think most of the translators have the same experience and feeling, just like you can't truly understand Shakespeare if you don’t learn English. Like the food below:


What would you like to call it? Translated literally, it can be called as oil crisp cake with thousand layers. In fact, this kind of cake doesn’t have thousand layers. This is one difference. We Chinese people like to use the words thousand and ten thousand to express the meaning of so many. In the name of the Chinese foods, we like to use adjective words, especially some featured side dishes.

In addition, Chinese people like to add the stories on the foods. The oil crisp cake with thousand layers also has its own origin in the Tang dynasty about more than one thousand years ago.