The project aims to elevate awareness of TANG YUAN, my favorite traditional Chinese dessert that's often
overlooked by both Chinese and Foreigner because of its casualness.
TANG YUAN is usually eaten during the Lantern festival, and other snack occasions, during which people cook
them casually and even unconsciously.
For foreigners, traditional Chinese snacks such as Bao and Mooncake are well embraced and prevalent, but
never TANG YUAN.
I insist TANG YUAN deserves better.
My first intuition is to create little tasteful dishes that you expect in a Michelin Star restaurant, tiny portions in big
fancy dish with strokes of sauces as decoration, etc.
However, my surveys and interviews about this food totally changed my direction.
Surveys and interview insights points out that, unlike, western cuisine that focuses on individual order, fancy
plating, Chinese cuisine is all about gathering and sharing.
The Lantern festival is a celebration of family union,
TANG YUAN, the food for the festival, is about gathering and union.
More importantly, the casualness of the dessert is no longer an issue because it is not what's being emphasized
at the first point.
In fact, the casualness and gathering aspect of TANG YUAN is what should be celebrated.
The final ceremony ends up taking the form of HOT POT, because
What celebrates gathering more than HOT POT?
My surveys and interviews were accompanied by my ongoing test eating of infinite kinds of combination of SOUP
BASE and STUFFING, aiming to discover the ultimate combination.
The test eating results in 3 best combinations of flavors, which composed the recipe.
1st. PEANUT was the sweetest kind of stuffing, so neutralized it with MATCHA and a touch of JASMINE FLOWER.
The balance of sweetness and bitterness prepares you for the next taste.
2nd. RED BEAN PASTE was not as sweet, so accommodated with a SWEET FERMENTED RICE WINE, combined
with the refreshing scent of OSMANTHUS flower.
3rd. SESAME SEEDS stuffing with BROWN SUGAR soup, spiced with ginger and smoothed with rosebuds.
Then your tasting session is completed.
After realizing the tasting experience, it's time to think about it's application in market scenario.
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