Sugar Apples, also known as Tangdun, are a key technique in home-made sugar production.
Sugar, also known as Tangdun in Tianjin, is a traditional snack from northern China. It consists of inserting hawthorn berries, which are called ‘shan’ in Beijing, into bamboo skewers after removing the seeds. It is sold at the Fudian Temple Fair during the Spring Festival, where they brush the sugar syrup on it – this is the unique method of making large sugar apples that are only available at the temple fair. The long sugar apples are white with a red hue, tasting sour and sweet, and combined with the unusually long appearance only found at the temple fair, they are a must-buy treat for children shopping at Fudian.
There is also another type of sugar apple, which consists of dipping hawthorn berries in ice sugar. This is the general method of making small sugar apples sold in everyday markets. The ice sugar is made by boiling white sugar and water in a copper pot. The process of making sugar is the most critical technical skill. The ratio of sugar to water is two parts sugar to one part water. When the sugar syrup has produced small bubbles and turns a pale yellow color, a little bit of a wooden stick can be dipped in, and if it can pull out fine threads, it means the heat is just right. Stop cooking, put the hawthorn berries dipped in hot sugar syrup into the syrup, coat them with a thin layer, and place the skewers with the sugar syrup on a damp wooden board or marble board to cool and solidify. Soon after cooling, the sugar syrup hardens, forming a smooth and even hard shell on the exposed side, and each fruit is equipped with a crystal-clear ice sugar coating, revealing the deep red color of the fruit and the white spots on top, which is truly a combination of color, aroma and taste, and looks like a work of art. It’s worth describing in a poem: ‘Crystal Romanoff stacks red clothing, delicious flowing street and alleyway. Buying one ice sugar apple brings joy to housewives and children. ’
Sugar apples were most prosperous during the Republic of China period. One of the reasons was that in winter, there were few fresh fruits in northern China, and hawthorn berries were a local specialty, so the production was diverse and intricate. For example, besides hawthorn berries, the main ingredients included loquat, pear, yam, orange, and fillings such as bean paste, sesame paste, and melon seed fillings. All kinds of different styles and flavors could be used to make sugar apples. Moreover, many brands emerged that became famous because of selling sugar apples, such as Jiu Long Zhai and Xin Yuan Zhai.
The most impressive thing to me was the Rong Gui Food Store at the south gate of Wangfujing Dong’an Market, where a long table was set up facing the market exit, with various sugar apples arranged on several large ceramic plates. The side bracket also had many of them attached, with the outer glass shield covered to protect them from the light, and a large incandescent lamp shone on them, making them very attractive. Nowadays, I realize that this is a very successful commercial advertisement that is very popular with shoppers who are shopping around, and they can't help but buy it if they don't.
When I was a child, I often saw hawthorn berries sold by traveling vendors. There were those carrying load poles, those carrying wooden boxes or baskets and walking along the streets, and those carrying long wooden poles with a round wooden base, with countless small holes on the base, inserting hawthorn skewers into the holes while walking and shouting: ‘Hey – sugar apples, freshly brushed!’ The hawthorn berries sold by these vendors were few in variety and mostly hawthorn berries, and the production level was generally lower, but the price was much cheaper than at Dong’an Market, so they were also very popular among the common people.
Hawthorn berries are rich in nutrition and contain ten kinds of nutrients, including vitamin C, and also have medicinal value, with hawthorn pills made as the main ingredient. However, they are too sour, so when dipped in ice sugar, they are sweet and sour, fragrant and crispy, and simply a seasonal snack sold in Beijing’s streets and alleys in winter. A poem praises it: ‘Hawthorn old and young know, sweet and sour, also helps digestion. A bamboo rod spans a thousand years, and rebuilds ice bodies to chase dreams.’
Sugar apples are seasonal foods because hawthorn berries mature in late autumn and throughout the spring before the new year, which can be bought. Moreover, in the production process, ice sugar is easily melted at high temperatures, so now at the end of winter, it is the best time to eat ice sugar apples. Source: Beijing Evening News
