Oriental Dessert

[StirBlue]

I have never been to an oriental restaurant that had an oriental dessert on the menu. Generally they have a dessert bar with thawed restaurant vendor desserts like cheese cake, carrot cake, vanilla/chocolate pudding and ice cream. Those pillsbury biscuits fried and dipped in sugar are not dessert nor original.

Mayby I have just overlooked a recipe here or in a cookbook so can anybody point one out to me?

[boufa06]

Originally Posted by StirBlue

I have never been to an oriental restaurant that had an oriental dessert on the menu. Generally they have a dessert bar with thawed restaurant vendor desserts like cheese cake, carrot cake, vanilla/chocolate pudding and ice cream. Those pillsbury biscuits fried and dipped in sugar are not dessert nor original.

Mayby I have just overlooked a recipe here or in a cookbook so can anybody point one out to me?

StirBlue, there may be some other recipes for oriental desserts posted in this forum. Here is one of mine.

I can think of two reasons why oriental desserts are not common in restaurant menus. One is that ingredients are not readily available outside Asia. The second one is that perhaps they do not appeal widely to non-Asians. They are very different in taste and texture than what the rest of the world perceives as desserts. I have the experience of my DH to back me on this as he loves practical all oriental dishes I cook for him but, with rare exceptions, he will never touch oriental desserts although he is a dessert person when it comes to the standard fare.

[lulu]

At the dim sum joint I love in London the sweet trolley contains (among other things) beautiful layered jellies, lime and cream, red (a red berry, who knows what!) and cream and coconut and cream. They are served in blocks of three and look like little sky scrapers, so beautiful. Then there are the sesame paste balls crunchy and sweet on the outside, then glutinous then sesame paste on the inside. Snow balls - glutonous balls rolled in cocnut and filled with chopped peanuts and sugar, then there is a sort of coconuty tapioca type pudding which I have never tried, custard tarts (DH's favourite), a trpe of sponge cake, an odd fried thing the nearest thing I can think is a doughnut and a few other things I cannot remember now. Just down the road there is an Oriental patisserie too. :)

[boufa06]

Originally Posted by lulu

At the dim sum joint I love in London the sweet trolley contains (among other things) beautiful layered jellies, lime and cream, red (a red berry, who knows what!) and cream and coconut and cream. They are served in blocks of three and look like little sky scrapers, so beautiful.

Lulu, this is a simple test of authencity. If any of the cream you mentioned is whipped dairy cream, it is most unlikely that the corresponding sweet is a typical Asian dessert. This is so because whipped cream is not very much in traditional Asian cooking/desserts.

As for the layered jellies, I hope it is not normal gelatine or jello. Asian jellies are made out of agar or similar seaweed products (such as the Japanese Konnyaku). These gelling agents make Asian jellies a bit harder in texture and different in taste as well than jellies made out of gelatine/jello.

[lulu]

Its not a dairy cream, its a set cream coloured and not quite opaque jelly...goodness knows what its made of, it is elatively flavourless, unlike the strong coloured flavoured jellys it is layered with, and is used mainly, I think, to create the amazing layered effect, which is simply beautiful. And yes, they are very firm, they would have to be to stand in the little towers there do, especially while being pushed around in a trolley, lol!

[boufa06]

Lulu, it all sounds delightfully mysterious but there is nothing more I can say about authencity without tasting them. Could you possibly post some of them for me to eat here or better still PM them to me?

[lulu]

If I were in London Boufa I would! Ooooo, now i want to go....oh well, I am in Italy until late summer/autumn I think!

Edited to add: I just went to google to see if I could find a picture, and anyone wondering about Oriental desserts should try. I specifically googled for the layered jelly, and haven't yet found it, but my goodness, there are a lot of beautiful things coming up.


My guess is that Chinese food in particular, consumers tend to go for the familiar dishes, and to turn a profit most Oriental restaurants are producing what they know they'll sell, and puddings are uless familiar to us as a market and so they don't bother.....yet!

[boufa06]

You are spot on, Lulu! Even in Asia, if you go to a buffet spread in one of the major hotels, you are most likely to find mixed fare rather than strictly traditional oriental food.

[Candocook]

I find that Asian restaurants aren't big on desserts. It is usually a pudding sort of thing or small cookies--and as Lulu says, very bland in flavor. And I found that true IN China also.

[buckytom]

stir blue, i've had lots of desserts in asian restaurants. everything from lychees and ice cream to steamed sweet buns (chinese), to mochi or red bean/green tea iced cream (japanese), to puffed rice cookies or syrup and fruit over rice cakes (korean), to mango and sticky rice with sweet coconut milk (thai).

sorry i have no recipes, except for the mango and sticky rice with coconut milk. but they are out there.

try a search using the specific ethnicity, like "korean desserts", or "chinese desserts".