🍽️ Sugar Spring Roll

Thin pancake with sugar threads.

The Sugar Spring Roll is a traditional sweet of Chaozhou, Guangdong, built around the crisp 'sugar spring.' The sugar spring is made by boiling sugar and pulling it again and again into thin, white, hollow threads like scallion stalks—so brittle they shatter on the tongue. To eat it, a soft wheat pancake is wrapped around the sugar threads with crushed roasted peanut, white sesame and cilantro, then rolled and cut into sections. The pliable pancake, cracking sugar, fragrant peanut and refreshing cilantro create many textures in one bite. Teochew people enjoy it with tea or as a festive snack; vendors once hawked it through the streets. Today it is found in old Teochew lanes and tourist spots, best rolled and eaten at once, since the sugar threads quickly soften if damp. It is a charming introduction to Teochew handmade sugar confectionery.