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Have you ever tasted a foreign snack that immediately reminded you of a familiar flavor from your home country?
While culinary traditions often overlap between countries, particularly among neighboring countries due to cultural exchange. The true beauty lies in how each nation uniquely takes on and turns it into something in its tradition.

It is interesting how true this is for desserts especially, where the basic combination of flour, sugar, butter, and milk alone (maybe a little twist, too!) serves as a foundation for countless variations from all over the world.

Take “Chin Chin” for an example, now Chin Chin is originally a classic Nigerian snack that is widely enjoyed during the Christmas season in most Nigerian homes. And the ingredients breakdown for Chin Chin is as simple as everyone can find them in their home kitchen. This article is all about exploring this amazing snack and its similar variations across other countries and cultures.

So, what do we talk about when we talk about Chin Chin?

To dig deeper into this, we recently had a conversation with Gaelle Fodjo, the human behind the brand “All African Delights” which specializes in authentic Chin Chin, Gaelle has made her own Chin Chin from scratch in her kitchen and is on her tasty mission of bringing the flavors of her roots to Canada through her brand.

Gaelle’s sharing about Chin Chin’s basic ingredients:

• A dough of flour, sugar, butter and milk.
• Other ingredients like eggs, salt, and baking powder.
• Flavours: Gaelle currently offers Vanilla flavor in stick shape, but she also makes something less traditional like lemon and chocolate flavors which available for large orders.

Traditionally, Chin Chin can be cut into different sizes and shapes, then deep-fried in oil. And voila! A sweet, crunchy, cookie-like bites of fried dough that are not only great for snacking, but also perfect to be paired with milk or tea, and absolutely can be enjoyed as a topping of salad, yogurt, or ice cream (or even dipping in preferred sauces or syrup!). The cool thing about this snack is that it is so easygoing that we can enjoy it in so many creative ways!

“ The most interesting experience in my journey is that I got many people from different countries came to me and said my Chin Chin takes them back to something familiar from their own countries, something nostalgic, maybe a snack their mom used to make when they were kids.” – said Gaelle.

We couldn’t help but be curious about this, so we decided to do some digging ourselves. We wanted to find out why Chin Chin seemed to trigger these nostalgic feelings for so many people. Here’s what we discovered:

1. Mandazi (Kenya)

This East-African snack, so-called Mandazies, are simply fried donuts made from simple pantry staples like flour, sugar, and coconut milk (just like chin chin), and with a hint of cardamom that brings similar spice to Nutmeg Chin Chin.

2. Pasta Fritta (Italia)

Moving to the other continent – Europe, where we have Italia, a place that is known as one of the world’s best cuisines, also has something similar to offer: Pasta Fritta (or Gnocco Fritto). It is fried dough that Italians have enjoyed since childhood, it can be eaten in savory style with meats and cheeses, or with sugar and cinnamon.

3. Olliebollen (Dutch)

Also known as Dutch doughnuts, Olliebollen (or Oliebol) is traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve. This “crisp outside, soft inside” doughnut is made from yeast dough, and dusted with powdered sugar on top, sometimes, raisins and apples are often baked inside which perfectly elevates this delicious treat.

4. KalKal (India)

No surprise when a flavorful, spices-focused cuisine like India can miss a spot on the list. Made from maida flour, milk (and sometimes eggs), Kulkuls are traditional sugar-glazed curls type-of-snack that resemble small worms (similar to Italian gnocchi) that originally from Goa – an Indian state that is influenced by Portuguese culture. This deep-fried sweet snack is usually served in festive seasons like Christmas and New Year.

5. Khapsey/ Khapse (Tibet)

Tibetan biscuit – Khapsey – with Kha meaning ‘mouth’, and Sey meaning ‘eat’, is indeed a very mindful definition to name a snack that comes from the cradle of Buddhism. Khapsey is made with very similar ingredients to Chin Chin and is also made in different shapes and sizes. The only thing is, some Khapsey can be as huge as the spread of an arm, and some can be as tiny as a fingertip. The most interesting thing is that Khapsey can be made into a whole bunch of different shapes, from a donkey ear to a circle, to even a hand-twisted rope. Whatever it is, this beloved “mouth-eat” snack has been an important part of Tibetan cuisine tradition for centuries.

6. Uraro (Philippines)

This one is a little different version of all the above, Uraro also known as arrowroot cookies, because it is made from 100% arrowroot flour (then butter, sugar, and eggs, of course!). However, instead of deep-frying them, Uraro is meant to be melt-in-the-mouth with a dry and powdery texture, and baked until dry and crunchy, leaving a simple and clean flavor in the end with a hint of buttery taste.

That wraps up our list of Chin Chin variations we’ve found so far. What about you? Is there any snack in your country that is similar to Chin Chin?