Desserts from China – discover the world of unusual sweets

Chinese cuisine recipes are gradually gaining popularity in European countries, and a variety of desserts have become a separate discovery for gourmets, which have become a real eye-opener for lovers of novelty. Traditional sweet dishes are completely different from the desserts that have been served in China for the past hundreds of years.

Imagine that dessert is served not at the end of the meal, but at the very beginning, as an aperitif or simply as an appetizer. Many families prefer fresh fruit instead of cakes and sweets, which they eat with spicy meat or noodles.

Traditions associated with dessert

Combining the incompatible – this principle remains relevant even when preparing sweet dishes. Not only wheat flour, butter, and sugar can be used as a base, but also rice flour, vegetables, and hot spices. Even standard steamed buns perfectly set off the taste of any dish and can start with both fruit jam and spicy tofu. The finished taste of the dishes is always unusual, you won’t be able to say: “Just sweet”, Chinese dessert is always unusual, characterized by the subtlety of different shades.

Imagine that instead of a sponge cake, you’re going to see sweet pork, rice cake, or vegetables in sweetened jelly. Any product can turn into what we used to call a “dessert.” And this is not the only point that deserves attention. At the same time, Chinese cuisine contains recipes for cakes and sweets that are more familiar to European customers, but they no longer arouse such interest.

The peculiarity of Chinese sweet dishes, which are more interesting to ordinary people, is an amazing combination of hard, crispy or just thin crusts combined with the most delicate, whipped or semi-liquid filling. In the culinary traditions of Chinese chefs, you can clearly see how well the balance between hard and tender, spicy and bland, yin and yang is struck. This approach allows you to balance the universe, to ensure balance in life, which is so important for Eastern philosophy. You just need to try some traditional sweets from China to see for yourself.

Chinese desserts are vivid examples of the unusual

The most popular fruit in China is caramelized fruit or Tang Hulu. They taste very similar to the familiar caramels. A wide variety of fruits can be used as a base, it all depends solely on the wishes of the client. Many street vendors will create an individual mix on the spot, and serve the finished dish on a long skewer. Despite its simplicity, the dish has almost a thousand years of history: during the reign of Guang Zong, his wife fell seriously ill and only one witch doctor was able to cure her, advising her to regularly take hawthorn berries in sweet caramel before meals. Some chefs serve the fruit plate not in a hard caramel crust, but drizzled with hot caramel syrup. In this case, the dish is served with a bowl filled with cold water. Pieces of fruit are picked up with chopsticks and dipped into the water, cooling the portion. Be prepared that in this case, the caramel may cool down, but the fruit inside may not, and unexpectedly burn with juice.

Fried milk is no less rarely seen on the Chinese table during a meal. Despite the fact that this dish can be found in the cuisine of India, Spain or Italy, it has become no less popular in China. The base is cow, coconut or soy milk, which is mixed with a dry base and frozen in molds. It is then deep-fried and served with fruit, jams, condensed milk, etc.
Translated from DeepL.com (free version)