Rock sugar? Dried Sweet Potato?

[Pan]

What is rock sugar usually used for in Chinese cooking (from which part of China)? I see it for sale all the time in Chinese grocery stores large and small in Flushing, Queens, New York, and Chinatown in Manhattan.

Oh, and what about those dried sweet potatoes? They are so ubiquitous, but I can't see the merit in them. I bought a bag once, only to find out that they taste just like fresh sweet potatoes that have been dehydrated and made overly chewy. Someone told me that Chinese mothers give them to their toddlers to help them develop their jaw muscles, but I find it hard to believe that's the full explanation.

Edited April 30, 2004 by Pan (log)

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Rock sugar is used in certain sweet and savory stews like pig's foot, and also in sweet soup tonics, like with white cloud fungus, or legumes and red jujubes.

I am sure there are other uses, these are just the ones I grew up with.

Pat

[chengb02]

my favorite use would be in ba bao cha!

[Pan]

A bao with tea in it? What's "ba," other than the word for the number 8? (I imagine this "ba" has a different tone! And you can see just how harmful a very small amount of knowledge of a language can be... )

[Gary Soup]

my favorite use would be in ba bao cha!

A more vile concoction was never devised, IMHO. But anything that tastes that bad must be good for you, right?

My wife makes a soup that's essentially a big ba bao cha with a silky chicken thrown in when she or her daughter are feeling peckish. I'd rather die than eat the stuff.

Nothing against rock sugar, however. Combined with Zhenjiang vinegar, it makes for a tang cu with balls.

[Gary Soup]

A bao with tea in it? What's "ba," other than the word for the number 8? (I imagine this "ba" has a different tone! And you can see just how harmful a very small amount of knowledge of a language can be... )

It's "eight treasure" tea. Eight somethings that look like a bunch of nuts and berries and twigs sitting there in a gaiwan on your table, just daring you to infuse the lot.

[trillium]

What is rock sugar usually used for in Chinese cooking (from which part of China)? I see it for sale all the time in Chinese grocery stores large and small in Flushing, Queens, New York, and Chinatown in Manhattan.

Oh, and what about those dried sweet potatoes? They are so ubiquitous, but I can see the merit in them. I bought a bag once, only to find out that they taste just like fresh sweet potatoes that have been dehydrated and made overly chewy. Someone told me that Chinese mothers give them to their toddlers to help them develop their jaw muscles, but I find it hard to believe that's the full explanation.

If you're not following the references, those dried sweet potatoes (there are two varieties) are used mostly in the more tonic type of soups, which are brewed up more for their healthful qualities then taste.

regards,

trillium

[Hest88]

my favorite use would be in ba bao cha!

Okay, you're bringing up some very ugly childhood memories. Blech!

My mom mostly used rock sugar for horrid tonics as well. I don't remember her ever using it for normal dishes, other than the occasional boiled sweet potato concoction.

I loved stealing pieces of rock sugar, though I loved stealing bars of brown sugar even more.

[Pan]

What is rock sugar usually used for in Chinese cooking (from which part of China)? I see it for sale all the time in Chinese grocery stores large and small in Flushing, Queens, New York, and Chinatown in Manhattan.

Oh, and what about those dried sweet potatoes? They are so ubiquitous, but I can't see the merit in them. I bought a bag once, only to find out that they taste just like fresh sweet potatoes that have been dehydrated and made overly chewy. Someone told me that Chinese mothers give them to their toddlers to help them develop their jaw muscles, but I find it hard to believe that's the full explanation.

If you're not following the references, those dried sweet potatoes (there are two varieties) are used mostly in the more tonic type of soups, which are brewed up more for their healthful qualities then taste.

Thanks, Trillium. Of course, I meant to say "I can't see the merit in them," and I just edited my original post and the quote here to reflect that.

Why do they use dehydrated instead of fresh sweet potato for those soups? And are such soups really common in home cooking?

Edited April 30, 2004 by Pan (log)

[trillium]

Cantonese go nuts at home with these soups, where you find a Cantonese granny you'll usually find a soup pot brewing up something specific for whatever may be ailing someone in the family. Other regions aren't as crazy about health tonic soups as the Cantonese (not so much variation), but you'll find versions every where.

I can't answer the dehydrated vs. not questions, but dehydrated travels and keeps a lot better for one. Also, they're different animals, like a grape or a raisin I guess.

If you're very curious, check out Grace Young's book. She done some marvelous writing about tonic soups.

regards,

trillium

[chengb02]

It's "eight treasure" tea. Eight somethings that look like a bunch of nuts and berries and twigs sitting there in a gaiwan on your table, just daring you to infuse the lot.

gary got most of the ingredients right, the typical ingredients would be some dried nuts and berries, some green tea, and a dried chrysanthemum or two with a block or two of rock sugar. If the mix is right, as it often is in good restaurants in China, the tea is excellent with a bit more sweetness than found in most Chinese teas.

[HKDave]

I like bao bao cha, but only with the appropriate food. It's standard issue in many Sichuan restaurants in China, and works very well with spicy/oily flavours. Your cup is re-filled with hot water many times during the meal, and that's why rock sugar is used instead of regular - you need it to dissolve slowly enough so there's still some sweetness after several re-fillings.

[Pan]

That makes a lot of sense, Dave.

[Gary Soup]

I like bao bao cha, but only with the appropriate food.  It's standard issue in many Sichuan restaurants in China, and works very well with spicy/oily flavours.  Your cup is re-filled with hot water many times during the meal, and that's why rock sugar is used instead of regular - you need it to dissolve slowly enough so there's still some sweetness after several re-fillings.

A ba bao cha setup is part of each place setting at higher-end old line Shanghainese restaurants like Lao Banzhai and the (miserably deteriorated) Lao Fandian. Fortunately, they'll take it away if you don't want it, and won't charge you for it (unlike Hong Kong restaurants, where you pay for whatever's on the table when you sit down). It's also a red flag to my frugal wife. If we walk into an outlying restaurant with no pedigree proclaiming "Shanghai Cuisine" and she spots a white gaiwan with the botanical detritus in it, we'll usually walk out because she pegs the place as an overpriced pretender.

I, for one, don't care for any sweetness in my tea. Some good longjing tea in a plain glass tumbler is all I ask.

[jo-mel]

Doesn't rock sugar leave a glossiness - a sheen - on foods, that cannot be produced by just sugar itself?

About the dried sweet potatoes - the first thing that came to mind was "How Chinese!" They manage to always think ahead, when it comes to food. Having dried 'anything' -- which lasts forever --ensures food down the road. Sweet potatoes are 'famine food', and even in a famine, there is food if you have managed to dry some of the sweets - for the next famine.

As an aside - The sweet potato has taken on quite a high value in the South Beach diet. It has a comparatively low glycemic count, compared to regular white potatoes, and so is used very often in meals. Even on regular menus, sweets are showing up all over the place, and not just as yuppy food. (not being disparaging, as there is nothing wrong with yuppies or their food - even from a geezer perspective!)

Sweet potatoes are not just for Thanksgiving, anymore!!

[Gary Soup]

I came late to the surprising knowledge that sweet potatoes are a common comfort food in China, at least in Shanghai. There's nothing that tickles my wife and her daughter more in cold weather than munching on a sweet potato that they have roasted themselves. In Shanghai they were commonly bought from lane vendors, as ovens are not common in households.

The sweet potato (shanyu) is even a linguistic frame of reference for Shanghainese. They always refer to potatoes as "foreign sweet potatoes" (yang shanyu), rather than the textbook "tudou".

[morda]

Rock sugar is used in chrysamtheum tea as well, I believe.

I'm sure I spelled that wrong, but I'm too tired to figure it out...

[PCL]

Rock sugar is an indispensible ingredient in most braised belly pork recipes.

A decent lump or two in each batch helps to balance out the combination of soy sauces used (light/dark/thick/viscous/non-viscous).

It's like when you stir-fry or when you do anything else with soy sauce (ie. for saucing steamed fish with "cilantro" and spring onions "scallions" i think you yanks call 'em)... a bit of sugar always balances out the potential harshness of the soy.

And yeah, it lends a delectable sheen , some call it glazing over said foods when used properly...

i'll leave the tonic soup thing to my nightmares of my mum in the kitchen and the claypot brewing away...... YEEEEECCCHHH!!!!