Are you happy?®: Yummiest Chinese Treats

We are happy to the sky and back to be sharing with you our first guest post and we send all our love to the amazing Agness from www.eTramping.com who has agreed to share with us some insight views on the Chinese sweets. So here we go:

"Got a sweet tooth and China is next on your bucket list? I have some good and bad news for your then. The bad news is that Chinese sweets are not very sweet. In fact, they might be a bit tasteless for those who love sugary desserts. The reason being, Chinese try to be healthy and stay slim so they avoid sugar. They prefer spicy food over sweet treats so most of Chinese desserts are savoury and contain red bean filling. The good news is that you can treat yourself with many different goodies here without gaining any weight. Guilty free pleasure! Moreover, you can discover many different flavours of fruits, veggies and a great combination of fresh ingredients.

Chinese locals snack a lot on fresh fruits, jelly, red beans, bread and cakes from time to time. They eat everything in moderation so they stay healthy and slim all year long. The list of all my favourite Chinese desserts is way too long to share it with you here, so I decided to pick up the most delicious ones you should definitely taste when you visit the Land of Dragons:

#1 Street donuts.

Street donuts are obviously sold at the street food vendors, but you can also get them in big supermarkets and most of local restaurants. They are deep fried and look exactly like the Western donuts, but they are filled with red bean jam and honey, thus they are much healthier and not that super sweet. Chinese do not sprinkle them with caster sugar, they use coconut powder instead. Having one is a must when visiting Beijing. In order to make it even more tasty, you can order a local flavoured yogurt served in glass jars.

Donuts

#2 Dumplings filled with fruits.

Fruity baozi are extremely delicious and they can easily satisfy your sugar cravings for all day. They are filled with strawberry, peach, raspberry or blueberry jam and honey and steamed so it’s a light snack to have on the go.

Baozi

Fruity baozi

Chinese dumplings

#3 Candy fruits.

They are called tanghulu and you can spot them everywhere in Beijing, Shanghai or Guilin. Shiny and long candied fruit served on bamboo skewers can certainly be a yummy dessert. You can choose your fruits from blueberry, pineapple orange to grape and cherry tomato. Healthy, affordable and sweet – what else could you ask for?

tanghulu

#4 Sweet bread.

Chinese are obsessed with sweet bread and buns. They like it steamed and filled with custard, mung bean paste or jam. My favourite one is sesame bread with pieces of raisins and nuts inside. So delicious!

Sweet bread

#5 Ice cream.

Chinese ice cream dessert cannot be compared to Western styled goodies – way too watery, but if you feel like having something fruity as a snack and you don’t fancy eating sweet things, you should definitely have one scoop of them - strawberry and banana flavours are the yummiest.

Ice cream

#6 Pumpkin cake.

Pumpkin is eaten all year long in China, not only for Halloween. Therefore, some locals come up with various pumpkin cake recipes each year which are healthy, nutritious and yet slightly sweet. Sweet Chinese fried pumpkin glutinous rice cake is definitely my favourite one. It’s soft and it has a jelly texture that melts in your mouth. Surprisingly, it’s sold in the street hot and sprinkled with nuts.

Pumpkin cake

#7 You tiao.

You tiao are traditional fried breadsticks – one of the best breakfast options on the cheap in China. They have golden brown skin, they are deep fried and taste awesome with some sesame oil or melted chocolate.

You tiao

#8 Sticky rice in a leaf.

In China, it’s very common to have glutinous rice filled with chicken, Chinese mushrooms, Chinese sausage, red bean paste and nuts for your dessert. Steamed sticky rice is wrapped in a lotus leaf wrap, it’s soft and extremely delicious!"

Sticky rice in a leaf

Sticky rice

Agness and Cez are best friends and travel companions from Poland. These two are sharing their budget travel tips on how to travel the world with $25 in your pocket. Since 2011, they have been travelling the world while teaching English in different Asian countries such as China, Thailand or Cambodia. They are both photography passionate obsessed with Chinese cuisine and culture. More about them on www.eTramping.com