Sweet Red-Bean Porridge

Sweet red-bean porridge is a traditional Suzhou street dessert: a spoon of white rice porridge cooked until the grains bloom is set beside a spoon of smooth red-bean paste in one bowl, the red and white together nicknamed 'crimson clouds over snow', sometimes with little rice balls or gorgon seeds added.

It was once a peddler's snack carried through Suzhou's lanes, immortalized in an old children's rhyme, and remains a taste of childhood for generations of locals.

Best eaten warm, the fragrance of the rice porridge melds with the sweet, soft red-bean paste, lifted further by osmanthus or small glutinous rice balls.

Layered red and white, smooth and gently sweet, it is humble yet refined, the emblem of Suzhou's everyday street sweets.