Ryukyu Court Sweet · Cracked Sugar Doughnut

Sata Andagi

Its name literally just means "fried sugar" (sata = sugar, anda = oil, agi = fry), and for most of its roughly 500-year history it was too expensive for anyone but Ryukyu Kingdom royalty to eat regularly, since sugar itself was a luxury good in Okinawa until as recently as 1972.

A stiff, only lightly sweetened dough of flour, egg and sugar is rolled into a ball and deep-fried until one side splits open into a golden, tulip-like crack, producing a dense, slightly crisp doughnut hole eaten plain or in flavors like purple sweet potato and brown sugar.

Why it's made this way: The technique traces to a Chinese sweet called kaikouxiao ("open-mouth smile") brought to the Ryukyu court around five centuries ago by kitchen staff trained in China, and it stayed a royal and ceremonial treat in Okinawa long after the mainland moved on to other fried sweets.

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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.