Nanchang White Sugar Cake (白糖糕): The ¥1 Fried Snack to Eat Hot
Nanchang's crisp-outside, chewy-inside fried sugar cakes — what they are (not the Cantonese kind), how to eat them, and where to find them.
By Hello Nanchang · Last updated
The ¥1 snack worth burning your fingers for
Somewhere on every Nanchang food street, a vendor is ladling pale batter into bubbling oil, and a small crowd has formed to wait. What comes out a minute later — golden, blistered, almost too hot to hold — is baitanggao (白糖糕), the city's favourite cheap sweet: crisp and shattery outside, soft and faintly chewy within, dusted in sugar and best eaten on the spot, the moment it stops scalding your fingers. It costs a yuan or two. You will not stop at one.
What it is — and what it isn't
Nanchang's white sugar cake is built on rice flour left to ferment until the batter turns light and a little sour. Spooned into hot oil, it balloons and crisps, the ferment lending an airy, faintly tangy lift beneath the sweetness. The contrast is the whole point: a brittle, sugar-dusted shell that crackles when you bite, then a warm, tender, slightly stretchy middle.
One warning for anyone who knows Cantonese dim sum: this is not that baitanggao. The southern classic of the same name is a soft, white, steamed rice cake, eaten cool. Nanchang's is deep-fried — golden, crunchy, hot — a completely different snack that happens to share a name, and (locals will insist) the better one.
Baitanggao — fermented rice-flour cakes fried crisp and dusted with sugar; eat them hot.
A snack with a long memory
Fried sweets like this go back generations in Jiangxi — the kind of thing made at home for festivals and sold from baskets at temple fairs long before there were food streets to sell them on. For a lot of people in Nanchang, baitanggao is childhood: the after-school treat, the thing a grandmother fried up in a wok of oil. That nostalgia is part of why it's still everywhere — cheap, simple, and tasting of home.
How to eat it
The rule is simple: hot. A baitanggao gone cold is a sad, dense, chewy thing; fresh from the oil it's airy and crisp and well worth the small burn. Buy it by the piece or the bag, eat it standing, and don't let it sit. It's a natural partner to a savoury breakfast — the sweet-against-spicy of a bag of these next to a bowl of fiery banfen and a pot of clay-pot soup is the city's classic morning one-two — but it's just as good mid-afternoon with nothing but a walk to go with it.
Where to find it
Everywhere there's a fryer: breakfast carts, wet-market corners, and the food lanes around Shengjin Tower and Wanshou Palace, where they're often sold alongside sesame balls and other fried snacks. Look for the vendor frying to order rather than selling from a cold tray — the difference is everything. Point, pay a couple of yuan by phone (a little cash helps), and you're set.
Worth it?
For next to nothing, baitanggao is one of the small, reliable joys of eating in Nanchang — grab a bag while they're hot and keep moving. Fold it into a wider graze through Nanchang's food, or chase a bowl of banfen with one. Want a local snack route mapped out? Plan your trip with us.
FAQ
What is Nanchang white sugar cake? Baitanggao (白糖糕) is a deep-fried fermented-rice-flour cake — crisp outside, soft and slightly chewy inside, dusted with sugar — a cheap, popular Nanchang street snack, best eaten hot.
Is it the same as Cantonese baitanggao? No — the Cantonese version is a soft, steamed white rice cake. Nanchang's is deep-fried, golden and crunchy: same name, very different snack.
When do people eat it? Most often at breakfast, alongside banfen and clay-pot soup, but it's sold all day as an anytime snack.
How much does it cost? Usually a yuan or two per piece — pocket change.
Where can I find it? Breakfast carts, markets and the food streets around Shengjin Tower and Wanshou Palace; look for a vendor frying to order.
Last verified: 2026-06 — prices and stalls change; please double-check locally.