Gorgon-Seed Cake

Gorgon-seed cake is a traditional Han Chinese pastry steamed from glutinous rice flour, sugar and fresh gordon euryale seed or its powder, pale white with a hint of green, soft and fine in texture, with a gentle lotus-seed-like fragrance.

Gorgon-seed cake evolved from Xitang's Eight-Treasure Cake and takes its name from the gorgon fruit, called "chicken-head rice," abundant in the Jiangnan water towns; it has long flourished in old Xitang and ranks among its most popular take-home snacks.

Cut fresh and sold by weight, it is sliced and shared, soft and sweet though firmer after a day; taken mostly as a teatime treat or travel nibble, it lines the old streets as the quintessential taste to carry home from Xitang.

The delicate fragrance of gorgon seed, the pale soft-chewy texture and its role as the water-town's signature gift are the hallmarks of this cake.