Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, August 3 – I’m really glad that the Chinese like Taiwanese desserts and have plenty available because I LOVE the kind called “bao bing.” It is finely shaved ice, sweetened and sometimes in a milky sauce, then with a variety of toppings. My favorites are the sweet potato, purple potato and taro balls, black pearls, red (adzuki) beans, and coconut jelly. You can also get peanuts, herbal jelly, mung beans, Job’s tears, lotus seeds, and fresh baked taro or sweet potato. Places vary and may have different options. Then, there is often fresh mango on top! Tonight, Jim had to stay at work, so we had a “Girl’s night out.” Japanese dinner, saw “Secret Life of Pets” at the local cinema (very cute!), then shared a huge bowl of bao bing (top picture) :-) The bottom picture is a dessert I had in Guangzhou last week, the base was coconut milk instead of shaved ice. The other picture was a cute ad for buying the sweet potato and purple potato balls to make your own desserts at home. This is the answer to a heavenly dessert for gluten intolerant people like us!
Black Sesame Dessert
Life in China 2016: A Picture A Day, July 18 – Black sesame is another food/drink that you don’t see much in the USA but it is common in China. It is often used in desserts as a soup/paste/porridge or drink, or as a filling inside rice balls. For the soup, it is usually mixed with rice, water and sugar. You can buy “instant” powder that you just add water to, or, it’s supposed to be easy to make your own, but we haven’t done that yet! We have found that the powder in the supermarkets also usually have milk and peanuts in them (a no-no for me!). The brand we buy is from Hong Kong and is peanut and dairy free and has less sugar than the others. You can also buy special flavors like red date, walnut, etc. Black sesame is also used in Traditional Chinese medicine as it is high in B vitamins, iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc and vitamin E. It is used for anti-aging, a lactation aid for nursing mothers, and to treat anemia, digestion and constipation, and to reduce blood pressure! I don’t know why, but it tends to keep me awake at night, so I stick to having it in the daytime. I like to add enough water to drink it, but I think it is supposed to be thicker if you have it true Chinese-style. The supermarkets have quite a large section as you can see by the area of black packages in the picture. On one side is oatmeal and the other is walnut milk powder.