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Mystery Ingredients

liuzhou

By liuzhou
in Cooking

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liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
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Posted
7 hours ago, Shalmanese said:

 

They look like Mexican Piloncillo sugar.

 

 

10 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Jaggery?

 

I'm going to give it to you both. Your answers are essentially the same thing. It is raw, unrefined cane sugar.

 

Here in China it is molded into these ingot shapes known as 元宝 (yuánbǎo), so the sugar is 元宝糖。 Yuanbao were gold or silver ingots used as currency in the past and a symbol of wealth or good luck.

 

Piloncillo is really the same thing - just a different shape.

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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andiesenji

andiesenji

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Posted

Isn't it the same as bing pian tang just a different form.  I have a flat block of it - Chinese cane sugar - raw, dark "bronw"  

from the local Asian market.  

 

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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Posted (edited)
7 hours ago, andiesenji said:

Isn't it the same as bing pian tang just a different form.  I have a flat block of it - Chinese cane sugar - raw, dark "bronw"  

from the local Asian market.  

 

 

冰片糖 (bīng piàn tāng) is just "brownish sugar" of any kind in a block - usually more yellow to light brown. The very dark sugar is referred to as 红片糖 (hóng piàn táng).

 

 I'm fairly certain the bīng piàn tāng in my supermarket is just regular sugar with molasses for colouring, as is most "brown sugar" in the west. Yuan bao sugar has a rich complex flavour quite different from bīng piàn tāng , My local supermarket sells both very separately at very different prices.

Edited by liuzhou (log)

...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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Thanks for the Crepes

Thanks for the Crepes

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I'm fairly certain the bing pian tang in my supermarket is just regular sugar with molasses for colouring, as is most "brown sugar" in the west. Yuan bao sugar has a rich complex flavour quite different from bing pian tang, My local supermarket sells both very separately at very different prices.

 

I do not love how less processed and "refined" things are always sold at higher prices (at least here). I can get panela here and tend to hoard it, because it's much more expensive than mainstream stuff. I have a small chunk in the pantry that's probably good for about twelve cups of tea. It's the only thing it's good for now, because I have let it become hard as a rock over time, and must chip off small pieces to melt in the tea.

 

Which product is more expensive in China, @liuzhou?

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

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liuzhou

liuzhou

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Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

 

I do not love how less processed and "refined" things are always sold at higher prices (at least here). I can get panela here and tend to hoard it, because it's much more expensive than mainstream stuff. I have a small chunk in the pantry that's probably good for about twelve cups of tea. It's the only thing it's good for now, because I have let it become hard as a rock over time, and must chip off small pieces to melt in the tea.

 

Which product is more expensive in China, @liuzhou?

 

While it can be annoying and seemingly illogical, it is in fact simple economics. Processed and "refined" products are nearly always more popular. Yes, there is more work in producing white granulated sugar, but then it sells by the ton and can be processed by megatons. The more artisan products have fewer "processes" to go through but sell in relatively tiny quantities.

Yes. granulated white sugar (白砂糖 (bái shā táng)) is the cheapest here with 500g costing ¥3.88 today, while 冰片汤 (bīng piàn tāng) was ¥6.20 and 元宝糖 (yuán bǎo táng) was ¥7.30.

 

Incidentally, my supermarket tonight had 12 different sugars on sale. I'll try to put something together on them over the next few days. I had a 5:30 start this morning and just got back at 8pm. Exhausted.

Edited by liuzhou
error in price (log)
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
Posted (edited)

I buy jaggery at the Indian market - I used to get it in large "cones" but now they sell it in smaller cones, in slabs and even "ground" although the latter is quite coarse.

 

The stuff I bought at the Asian market looks like this:

Screen Shot 2016-10-09 at 12.54.45 PM.png

 

And I got some "Taiwan handmade black sugar"  "For good health and for strong life." 

Looks like this.

Screen Shot 2016-10-09 at 12.48.10 PM.png

 

The latter is "recomend to take with ginger or ginsang tew"  ? spelling.  

It also was entirely in Chinese characters with a sticker with the "English" printing - applied to the package.

 

Edited by andiesenji (log)
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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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liuzhou

liuzhou

Posted
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Posted
11 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Coconut shoots?

 

10 hours ago, MelissaH said:

How big are they?

 

Between 5 and 6 inches long on average.

 

5 hours ago, Lisa Shock said:

Lilies of some (non-poisonous) sort?

 

None of the above.

 

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

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