Traditional Candy and Coconut Wrap facts for kids

Traditional candy and coconut wrap (Chinese: 糖蔥餅; Jyutping: tong4 cung1 beng2, Mandarin táng cōng bǐng) is a yummy traditional snack from Cantonese areas. It's often called "sugar onion cake" because of how it looks! You can usually find it sold by street vendors who keep these treats in clear boxes.

Imagine a soft, white wafer slice wrapped around a sweet, crunchy filling. This filling is made from hard sugar, often mixed with coconut. This snack was super popular in Hong Kong during the 1940s and 1950s. People loved it with fillings like shredded coconut, sweet maltose, and nutty sesame.

History of the Sweet Wrap

There are some cool old stories about how the traditional candy and coconut wrap first came to be in China.

Ancient Beginnings: The Clever Scallion

Long ago, during China's monarchy period, families had a special tradition. When their children were old enough for school, older family members would offer sweet pancakes to Confucius, a famous Chinese teacher. These pancakes had syrup shaped like scallions. Because the Chinese word for "scallion" sounds like the word for "clever" ('cong'), eating these pancakes was believed to make children smarter! After the offerings, the children would get to eat these special "sugar onion" pancakes. Even today, this sweet treat is a popular and affordable snack in China.

Cold Food Festival Connection

Another story links this candy wrap to an ancient event called the Cold Food Festival. This festival started to honor a noble named Jie Zhitui. During this time, people avoided using fire for cooking. So, they ate cold foods. Thin wraps filled with syrups shaped like scallions became popular in a place called Chaoshan. Over time, these wraps developed into the candy and coconut wrap we know today. This festival later became part of the modern Tomb Sweeping Festival.

Qing Dynasty Sweet Secret

Some people believe the coconut candy part of the wrap first appeared during the Qing Dynasty. There's a story that during the time Japan occupied Taiwan, the Japanese government wanted all the sugar from Taiwan to be sent to Japan. But the local sugar factory workers didn't want to send it all away. So, they cleverly turned a lot of the sugar into coconut candy to hide it from the Japanese army. After that, this coconut candy became very popular. Later, some people started wrapping it in wafer slices, and that's how the traditional candy and coconut wrap became a famous snack!

How to Make a Candy Wrap

Making traditional candy and coconut wraps takes some skill! Here's a simplified look at the steps:

Making the Candy and Coconut

First, you need to make the sweet candy filling.

• Mix white sugar with water and heat it until it boils and becomes a thick syrup.
• Pour the hot syrup into a bowl of cold water to cool it down a bit.
• Then, using a round stick, you pull and stretch the cooled syrup up and down for about 10 minutes. This process adds air, making it light and airy, forming small tubes.
• After it cools again, the candy is cut into strips, usually about 3 inches long.
• Finally, peanut powder is added to the candy. Now, the candy and coconut filling is ready!

Crafting the Wraps

Next, it's time for the wraps themselves.

• Mix water with cake flour to make a batter.
• Pour a thin layer of this batter onto a hot pan.
• In about 10 seconds, it's cooked and ready to be taken off the pan.
• To finish, black sesame powder is sprinkled onto the pancake, and the prepared coconut candy is placed on top.
• The pancake is then carefully rolled up, and your delicious traditional candy and coconut wrap is complete!

The Wrap Today

The way these wraps are packaged hasn't changed much over the years. They are still kept in clear plastic boxes for sale, just like they used to be.

However, it's become harder to find these traditional candy and coconut wraps on the streets these days. You might only see a few older street vendors selling them. This is partly because the Hawker Control Team, which manages street vendors, has strict rules against selling without a license.

Even though the wraps are usually very affordable (often less than HKD$10), making them requires a lot of skill and time. The low profit makes it tough for sellers to keep their businesses going. Because of this, only a few people who truly master the craft continue to make them.

You can still sometimes find the traditional candy and coconut wrap near places like Sheung Shui Railway Station. They also appear at flower markets during the Lunar New Year as a special reminder of Hong Kong's past. For many people today, this sweet wrap isn't just a snack; it's a sweet taste of old memories and simpler times.