Chinese Sugar Figure Blowing

[minas6907]

Hi All.

 

I wanted to see if anyone has seen this in person, or has any more information about it. Recently, while searching youtube for sugar related videos, I saw a few videos that were shot on the streets of China. The individual was selling blown sugar figurines attached to a stick. Apparently, it isn't meant to be edible, just decorative. They would gather some sugar, pull it a bit, then make a piece as you normally would to start blowing it with a pump, but instead they stretched out the tube to be very thin and used that thin strand of sugar itself as a way of blowing the pieces. Sorry if it doesnt make too much sense, you'll see it in the video.

 

I've searched around for this quite a bit and havent come up with too much more then it being a traditional folk art in China. Does anyone have more information on this? Would this work with your typical formula for blown sugar, or would it have to be modified? After watching the videos, I get the sense that the sugar they are using is quite soft. Anywho, just wanted to throw it out there.

 

[keychris]

it's like balloon animals for foodies

[Lisa Shock]

The sugar used is different, more corn syrup, although mainly the trick here is that his hands have been burnt so much over the years that he probably doesn't feel much pain. (watch carefully at the beginning, he still winces a little) I have seen this done live. These guys practice a lot, they also tend to make a set series of figures (dragon, cat, alligator, horse) over and over again and they don't vary it much. If you made 20 each of, say, five animals a day, you'd get fast and good at it too.

 

The blowing isn't really that different from what western pastry chefs do, I have seen some famous pastry chefs blow sugar with their mouths as well. You have a lot more control that way. Catch is, it's a health department violation, so you can't do it and call your work 'edible'. Also, it's terrible for showpieces because the air is so humid, the blown item won't last very long. I've seen them go bad in a few hours' time, which is unacceptable in a lot of professional situations where a showpiece is commissioned for a convention and has to last through lunch and dinner.

[liuzhou]

Much more common than blowing, which I've never seen (and YouTube is blocked here in China), is a method of pouring liquid sugar to create animals, and other things. They are definitely for eating. 

 

I walk past these people nearly every day.

 

 

More here

Edited January 9, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[BonVivant]

I didn't see the blowing version but I really liked this way of making the animals using only a bamboo skewer and spatula-like tool.

 

Pics of it I made (can't grab the image but do click on links to open): making it (board with faded animals on his left). Happy boy.

 

I was struggling with buying some berries from a shoulder pole street vender and then out of thin air this same boy -who spoke good English- appeared...

Edited January 9, 2015 by BonVivant (log)

[Lisa Shock]

I originally saw this guy (he comes almost every year) at Phoenix's Matsuri festival and then started looking for more info about the art. I found a few info sites about it, but not many and that was maybe a decade ago. I think various artists do what they can with their training and abilities, I have seen several people doing this sort of thing, some blow the sugar, some do not. By the time they are performing in public, I think they tend to have some serious practicing under their belts.

 

It's definitely fun to watch, but be warned about trying it at home, molten sugar is dangerously hot, and being hygroscopic, it will not only burn you it will actively keep burning it's way into your flesh -unlike, say, small amounts of boiling oil which will roll off the steam created by burning flesh. When I was in culinary school, a student burned herself and permanently lost most of the use of her hand because of a few tablespoons of molten sugar.

 

edited because youtube is denying permission to embed

Edited January 10, 2015 by Lisa Shock (log)

[David J.]

I took a four day Sugar Showpiece class with Chef Stephane Glacier last year and I can say it looks a lot like what we were taught in the blowing portion. Chef worked bare handed, but the rest of us wrapped bandaids around strategic fingers and wore latex gloves and still managed to get a few burns. Blowing sugar requires a good deal of practice.

I failed at first due to too warm sugar. It inflated nicely but then deflated like a bubblegum bubble because it was too thin and warm. If you let it cool too much though, it freezes before you finish your figure.