开口笑点心的做法步骤讲解

What does “开口笑” (kaikouxiao) mean in Chinese cooking?

开口笑 (kāikǒuxiào) literally means “open-mouth laugh,” and that’s exactly what happens to this dough ball in the fryer: rolled in sesame seeds, it splits into a wide crack as it puffs and browns, and that crack reads as a smiling mouth. The crack isn’t a flaw — a good batch is judged by how “wide” it laughs. Popular across northern China around Lunar New Year, it’s eaten as a wish for a laughing, happy year ahead.

The literal name (开口 “open mouth” + 笑 “laugh”) is doing real work: Chinese snack names are often built to be auspicious, and a pastry that visibly “laughs” as it fries is read as a good omen — the same logic behind fish (鱼 yú) standing in for “surplus” (余 yú). It’s also called 笑口枣 (xiàokǒuzǎo, “laughing-mouth date”) for its date-like size. The steps shown here — rest the dough, dip the balls in water before rolling in sesame — keep the seeds from falling off in the oil.