🍽️ Pingpong Kueh

Glutinous skin with peanut candy, sweet Chaoshan kueh.

Pingpong Kueh is a traditional sweet rice cake from Jieyang in the Chaoshan region, named for its ping-pong-ball shape and one of the representative Teochew kueh. Glutinous rice flour forms a soft skin wrapped around a sweet filling of crushed peanut, white sesame, winter-melon candy, sugar and lard, then rounded into balls, set on an oiled paper or banana leaf and steamed. The skin comes out milky, slightly translucent and chewy, while the filling is sweet and crunchy with contrasting peanut and candied melon. Pingpong kueh is a staple at festivals, rituals and ancestor worship in Chaoshan and also served as a tea snack. At kueh shops in old Jieyang, freshly steamed ones still carry the fragrance of banana leaf. Together with many Teochew sweet kueh, it embodies the local custom of making rice cakes for festivals and imbuing them with meaning.