Playing with my food is what I do in my kitchen. We need to eat daily, as it turns out, so why not make the most of it? These ‘pie fries’ remind me of a snack we used to make when I was a kid in Hong Kong: The dough is prepared pretty much the same way (but with lard?) and rolled out and cut into strips as in your photos. Then a slit is cut in the center along the length. Pick up the strip and slip one end of strip through the hole. Drop the twisted strips into hot oil, fry until they float up to the surface. Drain, cool, and serve. But the variations seem to be many. The dough could contain eggs or not. Could be salty with sesame seeds or could be on the sweeter side. Could be drizzled with melted malt sugar or honey before serving, or sprinkled with sugar, or could be as is. Could be as big as a saucer or could be small thumb-size, or something in-between. Sometimes two thinner layers of strips are stacked together to make a ‘double-bow’. And so on. Our kitchen did not have an oven – the closest thing was a toaster – so they were always fried and not baked. At our home we did not make these very often, but we always had these for the Lunar New Year. They kept quite well in the chilly month that time of the year. But, really, a piece of good pie dough unadorned is a treat by itself. Thanks, PJ, for reminding me to make some very soon! Anne, this sounds very much like Norwegian fattigmand, which my grandma would make every now and then. So good, deep fried and sprinkled with confectioners' sugar, which is how she'd do it. Some baking traditions appear all over the world, don't they? Thanks for sharing - PJH

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