Zenggao (Steamed Date Rice Cake)

Zenggao is a traditional Xi'an breakfast sweet: glutinous rice and red dates (sometimes with kidney beans) are layered into an iron zeng steamer and cooked for a long time, yielding a fragrant, soft, sweet cake.

It is said to trace to a pre-Zhou steamed rice cake and takes its name from the ancient zeng steamer; by the Tang dynasty it had become a date-and-rice steamed form, a way of cooking the Guanzhong region has kept for a thousand years.

Usually eaten hot at breakfast and cut to order, it is best fresh, when date paste and rice fragrance meld, sticky but not gummy, sweet but not cloying.

A good cake prizes plentiful dates, soft rice, and clear layers, making it one of the most antique-feeling traditional sweets on Xi'an's streets.