Tong But Lut (Sugar-Coated Glutinous Balls)

Tong but lut is a traditional sweet of Dongguan and the Pearl River Delta: small balls of glutinous rice flour are boiled, drained, then coated in a cooked brown-sugar syrup and scattered with toasted peanut and sesame, soft and chewy, sweet and fragrant without cloying.

Tong but lut is said to have begun as a lucky sweet made in the Lingnan countryside to pray for marriage and sons, its name "won't fall away" carrying the wish "never to part," passed down to become a classic of dessert houses and street stalls.

Made to order and eaten warm, the glutinous balls are soft and chewy with a thread of syrup, served as an after-meal sweet or afternoon teatime treat.

The chewy balls cloaked in syrup and crushed peanut, the warm thread of sugar, and the auspicious wish of "never parting" are the marks of tong but lut.