From ice cream to egg tarts to even crabs, brown sugar has seemingly invaded everything we consider ‘food’.
The latest ‘victim’? Glutinous rice balls — perhaps better known as tang yuan (汤圆).
Truedan (珍煮丹), a Taiwanese bubble tea brand recently launched brown sugar ah ballings.
Best of all? You can have them with milk, bubble tea, and even tah – which means dry in Hokkien.
Unlike traditional tang yuans, these brown sugar ones have a slightly brownish skin and also boast a QQ texture.
As its name suggests, these glutinous rice dumplings have brown sugar syrup filling that oozes the moment you poke through its skin.
Based on reviews online, the syrup is pretty gao, but isn’t overly sweet, so you won’t get jelak as quickly.
While traditional tang yuans are often served with peanut or ginger soup, the brown sugar rice dumplings go well with milk.
Or bubble tea, if you prefer something more decadent.
But if you’re lactose intolerant, you can also have it dry with grated peanuts and tapioca pearls on the side.
Sadly, these brown sugar tang yuans are only available in FamilyMart outlets in Taiwan.
A packet of 10 will cost you S$2.65 (NTD 59), but that’s even cheaper than the bowl of ah balling you may have had last week at the hawker centre.
So if you know someone who’s in Taiwan now, have them bring it back for you.
Otherwise, put up a request on Airfrov, and pray hard that someone accepts it.
Tang yuans with milk and bubble tea may be unheard of but do sounds heavenly when paired with these rice dumplings.
What other ‘soups’ do you think will go well with these brown sugar ah ballings? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Featured image adapted from Instagram and Instagram.
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