Caizhizhai Candies

Caizhizhai Candies

Suzhou-style candy is regarded as one of the most popular and tasty traditional Chinese sweets. There are 150 different kinds of Suzhou "Caishizhai" candy including; colorful jelly drops, candy fruits, pepper-mint drops, pine nut candy, pyramid-shaped sweets, peanut brittle, assorted pine nut jelly, crisp candy, and pine nut jujube. So, if you've got a sweet tooth, Suzhou is a great place to indulge yourself!

　　In order to compete with the occidental juice sugars, Cai Zhi-zhai Candy Store took foreign sugar-making experience for reference, using a wide variety of plants, flowers and fruits and developed more than a hundred types of their pyramid-shaped sugars. Suzhou candies have been featured by moderate honey, freshness and nourishment of yin and yang. Throughout the period of more than a century, Suzhou candies have been retained in the tradition of strict material-selection and elaborate making. The Pinenut Sugar made with malt extract, osmanthus and has, although all combined into a whole, exhibits three distinctive colors that are clearly discernable through the glassine. It also has three different tastes. The pyramid-shaped rose sugar is made with roses, plums and white sugar, exhibiting a pink color. A single bite would provide one distinctive flavor with its crispness and softness.

Dried Bean Curd With Soy Sauce

Dried Bean Curd With Soy Sauce

　 Suzhou dried bean curd with soy sauce can be served both as dessert and as dish for simple meals or banquets. It is a famed speciality of Suzhou.

　　The most popular brand is Jinjin featuring dark reddish brown color, special flavor and abundant gravy. It tastes fresh, sweet, soft and glutinous, embodying flavors of both gravy dish and candied fruit. In 1983, it won the title of “ Jiangsu Product of Quality” and golden-dragon prize for new products awarded by National Economy Committee. It enjoys great popularity throughout China including such cities as Beijing, Tianjin, Shenyang, Xi’an, Harbin, etc.

Green-bean Cake

Green-bean Cake

Green-bean cake, made around the Dragon Boat Festival, is a traditional summer food that can prune heat. Its materials are mainly boiled green-bean powder, steamed sweet-potato powder, vegetable oil, lard, white sugar, rose, date plum persimmon, etc. The small glossy stuffed cake is fragrant and delicious and can serve to smooth the urine, allay inflammation and remove toxic materials. There is a custom of eating green-bean cakes on Dragon Boat Festival in urban and rural Suzhou.

Huangtianyuan

Huangtianyuan

Assorted glutinous rice dumplings Located on the Guanqian Street and founded in the 1st year under Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty (the year 1821),it is a "Time-honored Store in China" and a "Renowned Chinese Catering Store". Mainly engaged in Suzhou style cakes and rice dumplings, it also operating noodles with associated garnishes on top, wonton and minor snacks as well as related foodstuffs, numbering to over 320 varieties. The greatest characteristic of Huang Tianyuan is to push forward a seasonal variety of pastry each month on the basis of Suzhou's traditional customs, e.g. rice dumplings in January, waist supporting rice cakes in February, green rice dumplings in March and so on.

Lugaojian

Lugaojian

Having the reputation of "No.1 Pot-stewed Dish Cooking Range South of Yangtze" ever since it’s founding in the 2nd year under Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (the year 1663), Lu Gaojian is a "Time-honored Store in China" with a longer history than any of other such stores. Among its products, the most famous are five-spice braised pork seasoned with soy sauce, secret-recipe braised wild duck seasoned with soy sauce and pork cooked in soy juice, and they won the Titles of Excellent Products at the provincial and ministerial levels in succession.

Pinenut-jujubepaste Cake

Pinenut-jujubepaste Cake

Pinenut-jujubepaste cake is one of the famed traditional Suzhou pastries. The surface part is mainly compounded with white sugar, maltose, eggs, edible vegetable oil, flour, etc, while the fillings are mainly kernel, pulp, fragrant flowers, etc.

　　Various types include cakes made with pinenut and jujube paste, pinenut-peach and jujube paste, pinenut-jujube paste and sweetened-bean-paste, jujubepaste-lard, rose-lard, gingko-lard, etc. They are featured by the round or square shape and crispness and fragrance. Thus it is fair to say that in the making of these cakes, both color and smell, both shape and taste are paid equal attention to. The jujubepaste-lard cake made by Qian Sheng-yuan Bakery and Confectionary in Mudu Town, Wuxian city are especially famed for its moderate honey and fat as well as the crispness and fragrance. It is always the first choice of those customers who intend to give presents.

Precious Cake

Precious Cake

The main materials for Precious Cakes are crops, sugars and oil seasoned with some edibles of certain pharmaceutical functions.
　　The Precious Cake made by Suzhou Rice Fragrance Shop employs a folk recipe and compounds with food and such medicines as Chinese yam, hyacinth bean, etc., which could whet the appetite, prevent diseases and protect health. The Precious Cake could serve as dietetic-therapy food, and thus was granted the title of Jiangsu Famed Food.