Sugar-Scallion Thin Pancake (Tang Cong Bao Bing)

Tang cong bao bing has two parts: the 'sugar scallion' is maltose boiled to the setting point then pulled again and again until it forms a hollow, honeycombed bar like a scallion stalk, and the pancake is dough rolled until almost translucent — the two are wrapped and eaten together.

It is a traditional folk sweet of the Chaoshan area, said to originate in the region (one account points to the Chendian area of Chaonan, Shantou). It was once made and sold to order by street hawkers, the childhood taste of generations of Chaoshan people.

A pancake is laid flat, a length of sugar scallion placed on it, then peanut crumbs and white sesame (and, for the fastidious, coriander) are scattered before it is rolled up and eaten — best while the sugar is fresh and crisp.

The magic is contrast: the sugar shatters at a bite into airy crispness, the supple pancake catches the falling sweet shards, and peanut and sesame add fragrance — sweet without cloying, crisp and soft at once, a hallmark of Chaoshan street sweets.