🍽️ Tong Bu Si

Glutinous balls in peanut syrup, wedding sweet.

Tong Bu Si is a traditional glutinous-rice sweet of Dongguan, Guangdong; its vivid name means 'the sugar won't shake off,' sticky and inseparable. Glutinous rice flour is rolled into small balls, boiled, tossed in thick brown-sugar syrup and covered with crushed roasted peanut and sesame. The balls are soft, chewy and springy, the syrup richly sweet, the peanut and sesame adding aroma and crunch. In old Dongguan this dessert was essential at weddings, its sticky sweetness signaling an inseparable couple and lifelong togetherness. It is served as a sweet treat and at festive gatherings. Still found at old-town dessert shops in Dongguan, it is best eaten hot—soft, sticky and sweet—and stands as a representative taste of Dongguan's wedding customs and glutinous-rice sweets.