Red Bean and Glutinous Rice Balls

Red-bean glutinous balls start from a simmered red-bean base into which hand-rolled mini rice balls are added, often with fermented rice and osmanthus, yielding a thick, sweet and gently warming pottage.

Said to trace back to the Song, it became a literati teahouse sweet on the painted boats of the Qinhuai in the Ming and Qing; in the Republican era Confucius Temple teahouses refined it with fermented rice and osmanthus, and the Lianhu shop's version became especially well known.

Usually eaten as a warm dessert, sometimes chilled, it is often paired in lists of Nanjing street sweets with osmanthus taro.

Soft beans, tender rice balls and the fragrance of fermented rice and osmanthus meet in a thick pottage against springy little balls — a defining taste of Qinhuai sweets.