Sweet · dessert
Tang Yuan (Sweet Rice Balls)
汤圆 · Tāngyuán
Sweet glutinous-rice balls with sesame, peanut or red-bean filling, in sweet ginger or osmanthus syrup. Lantern Festival staple.
Tang yuan are sweet glutinous-rice balls — outside is chewy mochi-like rice flour dough, inside is a sweet filling (black sesame paste, peanut paste, red bean, taro). Boiled in water and served in a sweet ginger-or-osmanthus syrup, or in sweet rice wine. The roundness symbolises family togetherness; tang yuan is the canonical food of the Lantern Festival (15 days after Lunar New Year). Eaten throughout the year in southern China, particularly at Winter Solstice.
Where to try
Sweet-soup shops nationwide; festival days especially. Ningbo claims the original glutinous-sesame style.
Dietary notes
Glutinous rice (gluten-free); sesame, peanut, dairy depending on filling.
Cities to try Tang Yuan (Sweet Rice Balls)
Other central dishes
- Chairman Mao's Red-Braised Pork毛氏红烧肉
Hunan-style slow-braised pork belly in soy, Shaoxing wine and chilli — the dish Mao Zedong reportedly ate weekly in Zhongnanhai.
- Doupi (Wuhan Tofu Skin)豆皮
Wuhan breakfast: layered pan-fried tofu skin and rice cake with mushroom, ham and bamboo shoots inside.
- Fish Head with Chopped Chilli剁椒鱼头
A whole silver carp head blanketed with fermented chopped red chilli and steamed until the flesh is silky and fiery.
- Hunan Chilli Fried Pork小炒肉
Thin-sliced pork belly wok-fried with fresh long green chillies and fermented black beans — Hunan's most-ordered everyday dish.