🍽️ Pingpang Kueh

Glutinous skin with peanut syrup, Chaoshan sweet.

Pingpang Kueh is a traditional sweet rice cake of Jieyang in Chaoshan, named for its ping-pong-ball round shape. The wrapper is made from glutinous rice flour mixed with taro paste (or sweet potato starch), enclosing a sweet filling of roasted peanut bits, sesame, sugar and scallion oil, then rounded and steamed. The skin is chewy, slightly sticky and translucent milky-white; inside, roasted peanut and sesame sweetness meets a whisper of scallion-oil savor—sweet with a salty edge, fragrant but not cloying. It is a festival kueh for Chaoshan's Lunar New Year and ancestor offerings, and a common gift between neighbors. Chaoshan has a kueh for every season; pingpang kueh is one of the most common sweets around Spring Festival and Winter Solstice, eaten cold or reheated, soft and aromatic.