Xianqian Tangyuan (Glutinous Rice Balls)

Xianqian tangyuan use water-milled glutinous rice flour for the skin wrapped around a black-sesame filling; the finished balls are white, translucent and plump, and once boiled the thin skin gives way to a flowing sweet-sesame centre, smooth and chewy.

Xianqian tangyuan trace back to the "Zhengdeda" shop founded in 1901, one of Wenzhou's earliest tangyuan houses, merged into the Xianqian Tangyuan Shop in 1958; for over a century its black-sesame balls have carried the Wenzhou custom of receiving guests and celebrating reunion with tangyuan.

Boiled fresh and served in a bowl, eaten hot so that biting the thin skin lets the sesame centre flow slowly out, sweet but not cloying, often paired with a sweet soup, served at festivals and for guests but enjoyed as an everyday teatime treat.

The white translucent form, the thin skin with its generous flowing sesame centre, and the century-old name behind them are the marks of Xianqian tangyuan.