10 Chinese Desserts You Have Probably Never Heard of

What's up guys welcome to Off the Great Wall this is Dan. This is Mikey. Hey Mike Have you been to that new Chinese bakery that recently opened up around the corner? There's like a Chinese bakery in every single corner in New York Which one are you talking about? You know that corner around the place where we had that thing and did the other thing while planning to do that thing with that person? No What? Dude, okay, I have no idea what you're talking about. Alright, never mind Like I said Chinese bakeries are everywhere in New York City and around the world except for in like, you know, Iowa or Kansas or Missouri where I went to school, but Anyway guys, here are 10 Chinese desserts that you never may have heard of. Let's start with something more familiar This is a variation of the classical mooncake called the jelly mooncake for those of you who don't know what a mooncake is You've been living under a rock, but seriously if you don't know check out our guide to mooncakes But seriously even living under a rock the jelly mooncake, of course has more of a jelly like composition Texture it comes in many different flavors and many different colors I guess the right way to describe it would be that it's a contemporary version of a traditional mooncake It was mainly created to appeal to the younger generation and also those abroad Also, another version of mooncake will be the snow skin mooncake or bingpi yuebing. These were developed in Hong Kong It must be kept frozen. Its skin is made out of something similar to that of mochi ice cream Yum, which is a glutinous rice crust. These also come in many different colors and flavors Honestly, these are super good and it looks super awesome That's why the younger generation finds them appealing. Also like us 30 year olds. We find them appealing, too Why is there an age limit? I'll be eating mochis when I'm 80. I'll be in my rocker Yeah, you can't chew mochi without teeth You might just swallow it. Oh You're old. Oh dude And also some people think Traditional mooncakes tend to be too sweet and too oily. So they will go for jelly. We're snow skin mooncakes as a healthier option Question. What's your favorite mooncake? My favorite is anything without egg yolk. That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard cuz my favorite is anything with egg yolk. You're wrong. You know what? Let us know. Yeah, no egg yolk versus yes egg yolk. Anyways, I don't know how much healthier that new kind of Mooncake actually is it's probably not it's probably looks better because the old one does glitter. Yeah It's a I think it's all in the mind Yep speaking of health the Chinese have a bunch of weird things that you can't do and weird ways to cure your Illnesses now some of those work and some probably do not I don't know One of them is the steamed pear, which is also a delightful dessert That's right when I was young My mom used to make a steamed pear Every time I got a cold because it's believed that it will get rid of your cough Right, and every time I have a cough my Asian friends where my parents would be like sugar Lee. I eat a pear I'm like, okay. I don't think this fruit can just cure my cough. Yeah I mean even though it's delicious whether or not actually works that is questionable. Yeah, actually I really like this dessert It tastes really good. Hey, have you ever faked a cough to just to get that dessert? No, the steam pear is made by taking an Asian parent now This is different than your normal pair that you'll find in the grocery store as this pair is Asian You can tell because of distinct features in the pair like it's eyes. It's colorless skin. It's black hair No, that's describing natural Asian But an Asian pear is delicious And if you add rock sugar or honey Maybe as some other fruits were herbs and then you steam it and you will get this wonderful dessert besides steamed pears There are other desserts that are also made using fruits Let me tell you about this story when I was little my mom made me a steamed pear when she was little and like we Just told you supposed to put rock sugar inside. But guess what? She put rock salt. No even worse She confused rock sugar with rock vinegar Okay, I guess rock vinegar it's vinegar in the form of a rock no it looks yes it is Yes, it is. You can go to the Chinese grocer. It looks it looks just like rock sugar She puts it in she makes it I take a taste. I go mom. This doesn't taste right She was basically getting mad because she was like just eat it. And then finally when she took a taste she went Oh, yeah, I put rock vinegar in it. Why wouldn't she taste it as she didn't she didn't and Seriously she was like and then she was very apologetic. Also, that's also very Asian currency, right? Yeah, it's like to watch. Yeah, it's your freak. Oh, she's like eat it It's and she wouldn't believe me. And of course needless to say I never had steamed pears again, of course Well besides steamed pears and there are other desserts that are made using fruits This one is called honeydew sago or me guacimi loo. This is a great dessert for a hot summer day It's kind of like a tropical drink, but you drink it like a soup It has of course honeydew some coconut milk and sago sago is a type of starch extracted from the center of a plant Another one is the traditional Chinese New Year dessert This one's one of my favorites called the eight treasures rice pudding or Bob off I'm this dessert usually has a glutinous rice that serves as a base topped with things such as dates apricots raisins lotus seeds walnuts pistachios Pine nuts and I don't know whatever the eighth topping you can just like whatever whatever you want Hence the name eight treasure rice pudding. All right, what do you like on your a treasure? Dessert. Well Mike I actually like mine very traditionally with dates goji berries the rice of course you juju juju and Goji berries and red bean. Yeah, I have red bean in there. I like mine with diamonds emeralds I actually don't like it with pistachios and pine nuts. That's kind of weird And I like it when they put like that sweet syrup on top. They have to It's a must-have rule. Next. We have the red turtle cake. Oh my gosh. Oh my god. Come on, dude It's not horrible. This is actually a real awesome dessert. It's not made of actual turtles, you know, right? Seriously, man, cuz how can you eat a ninja turtle? All right, these are in general red They have a sticky glutinous rice skin and is filled with Crushed ground peanuts mixed with brown sugar other fillings such as mung beans are used as well I guess they're called red turtle cakes because they are shaped like well Turtle shells because Chinese people believe that turtles will bring longevity good fortune and prosperity Yeah, because they live for so long sometimes in China. They find these turtles have been alive for thousands of years Now these cakes are also traditionally eaten only on special occasions such as New Year's newborn babies first month birthdays of the elderly war offerings to deities Does that mean we can't just eat it whenever we like? Well for us every day is like an adventure. So today is Red turtle cake day then we'll go eat it. All right, sounds good Well another cake we have is the water chestnut cake or matiko and it's not really like a cake Well, let's talk about the water chestnut first. The water chestnut is not actually a nut. It's a fake nut It's actually an aquatic vegetable that looks like this Cake usually has chunks of water chestnut and is served and in some restaurants It is also fried instead of baked and usually has a translucent look to it Here's another one the pumpkin Chinese bun. It's bun with a center stuffed with a pumpkin puree I love pumpkin fairly simple explanation, right? This is because those that were too poor to afford rice ate buns as a staple food and they basically stuffed them with anything Yes, usually sweet stuff. This next one is an interesting one. It's called dragon's beard candy or Longxutang nice now This is basically a Chinese version of cotton candy in the past This was deemed as a delicacy for the ruling class only and is made by stretching Traditionally malto syrup and now corn syrup heated to high temperatures into paper thin strands, you know Actually, I bought this once in Chinatown I didn't know it was like just made badly, but it was actually supposed to taste like that, but it's kind of gross Yeah, you definitely didn't have the right one because when I had it when I was little Yeah, one time in Chicago liked it. They were the guy was freshly making them He was freshly making it too, but like just didn't taste that good I mean to be honest, I don't think New York Chinatown is representative of really authentic Chinese food Alright, true that. So the very last dessert we want to introduce is the stuffed lotus roots with sticky rice from Jiangsu This one's awesome. Lotus roots look like this. The sweet rice goes into those empty pockets You see there and are then sliced up then boiled in hot water I gotta say this is one of my favorite desserts, even though it doesn't look like a dessert, right? Here's another fun fact about it the best season for lotus roots. It's actually in October So we're approaching that. Let's go pick some. We should go pick some lotus roots and make it ourselves Okay, it's in the swamp. You mean the actual flower is attached to a root? Yeah. No, it's all muddy You can't pick that out. You're gonna rip the flower out. You gotta rip the flower. Oh, it's Gonna be some casualties. I got it. I got an idea instead of snorkeling in the deep sea ocean We snorkeling in a lake or river and pull it out. It's mud mud, whatever mud. You can't snorkel in mud You know what your favorite dessert is? What's that fortune cookie? No. Yeah, my favorite dessert is actually tiramisu Yo, what's your favorite Chinese dessert? I will say the eight treasures or the last one the lotus root. You know what I love? What's that? I love this is one that we did not include because it's fairly common, but I love this thing called basu What's that? It's I don't know what it is in English, but I take these These fruits and then they cover it with this sticky stringy thing So whenever you pull it, it's like a long string cheese. Oh, can we get that in New York? Yeah, so try it boss is really good. Anyways guys, let us know if we left out your favorite unique Chinese dessert Yeah, and don't forget to subscribe to our channel as always. Thanks so much for watching. See ya, please