San Da Pao (Three Big Cannons)

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

This sweet snack usually turns up during local events or near attractions like Wen Shu Yuan (a temple just to the north east of downtown Chengdu). They are three balls of sweetened sticky rice thrown against a metal tray filled with ground sesame and toasted soy. Each ball makes a loud boom against the tray, hence the name. The vendor then douses them in a sweet syrup and hands you your treat.

You can find them on Jinli Street, which has an area where you can buy traditional snacks. There are English signs with at times alarmingly literal translations, and I think these are called Three Big Guns.

Vendor throwing the rice balls against the tray:


1 comments:

Maggie said...

I really enjoy your posts and you take really great pictures!