Zhaliang (Chinese fried dough wrapped in rice noodle)

This is basically Chinese fried dough wrapped up in a sticky layer of rice noodle. If you ever see it on a menu, you have to order it. I don't care if you're on a diet, allergic to gluten..or whatever..everyone needs to experience this shit. It's exactly why I'm so obsessed with Asian food. I mean, its a noodle-wrapped donut for crying out loud.

The first time I saw this dish was on @TheWoksofLife blog and since it seemed like a lot of work to make from scratch - I went to the Asian grocery store to pick up the ingredients so that all I really had to do to create everything was assemble the pieces and parts!

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What you need:

• Chinese fried dough (Youtiao/Chinese crullers)
• Fresh rice noodle sheets (Cheung Fun)
• Sweet soy sauce 

What to do:

1. Heat the fried dough sticks in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes until they are golden brown and a little crispy.
2. Separate the rice noodle sheets so that they are laid out flat. I like to put them on my granite countertop that's been brushed with a bit of neutral oil since they are kind of sticky.
3. To split or not to split. When the fried dough is done, you'll see that you can easily split them in half longways. You don't have to, but I think splitting them makes the presentation a bit nicer.
4. Wrap each fried dough piece in the rice noodle, it should cover the whole thing and overlap about an 1/2 inch where the ends of the rice noodle meet. (I sliced up the sheets as I rolled so that the sizes for wrapping were appropriate. 
5. Top with or dip into the soy sauce. A lot of people said to add peanut sauce or hoisin - but I'm allergic, so if you want...try that too!