Sweets are a universal language...it's true. While some have an extreme sweet tooth, others love the enjoyment of digging into a sweet treat. While there are many ethnic desserts all over the world, which one do we pick to enjoy to tonight's dinner?
How about some desserts from Asia? From mooncakes to Asian sweet bread, there is a myriad of desserts to choose from.
Here's a guide to some typical Asian sweets:
Traditional Mooncakes
Mooncakes are traditional Chinese food during the mid-autumn festival. Typically, mooncakes are round or rectangular shaped with an elaborate design on the top. The filling of the mooncake can be a rich and thick red bean or lotus seed paste. There are cakes that have just the filling but others have one or even two salted duck eggs in the middle. The crust is relatively thin and covers the entire cake.
Mooncakes are rich and sweet, perfect with a cup of tea.
Pineapple Buns
The name "Pineapple Buns" is actually deceiving because there is actually no pineapple in the buns. The name is derived from the crust, which is scored in a fashion that is similar to the outside of a pineapple. This dessert is definitely customary in Hong Kong bakeries. The structure of the bun is that there is a fluffy, soft bread-like layer that makes up the "bun" part. On top of that layer is a thin layer of crust which is crunchy and crumbly.
Pineapple buns are not too sweet and has a perfect fit for fluffiness and crunchiness.
Red Bean Soup
This dessert is a very popular dish in Asian restaurants. I had recently visited a couple of Asian restaurants and almost all of them served this dessert for the final course. Read bean paste and lotus seeds are cooked with rock sugar to make a thinner kind of porridge. Small tapioca pearls are also added to the "soup" as well.
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