锅巴 originally meant the crunchy golden rice crust scraped off a wok or pot — a prized leftover, especially in Sichuan and Jiangsu cuisine where it is poured over with hot soup or sauce ('
锅巴肉片'). The packaged snack version, sold in supermarkets, became popular in the 1980s.
巴 here means 'something stuck-on'.
