Netizen Shares Origin Of Malaysia’s Favourite Cakoi

Known by many names such as You-tiao or cakoi, the beloved Chinese doughnut is produced in strips of golden brown coloured dough and is typically deep fried.

Taking to Twitter, this netizen took a deep dive, uncovering why and how the doughnut came to be.

“Cakoi comes from the Cantonese word 炸鬼 (油炸鬼）yao zhae gwai – literally Oil Fried Ghost.”

“A corrupted word from ‘油炸檜’ which means Oil Fried ‘Gui’.”

“The word was in reference to a corrupted grand chancellor 秦檜 (Qin Gui) during the Southern Song dynasty. He and his wife framed ‘岳飛’ who was a local hero.”

“After that the city made flour dough in the couple’s likeness and toss them into a hot pot of oil to symbolise the couple being deep fried.. Burn in Hell.”

“Today we call them “Yao Zhar Gwai” – deep fried hantus.”

Taking to the comments sections, netizens added their own theories and comments as to why there are different variations of the Cakoi today.

Well, now you know!

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