Longtan Park Temple Fair 龙潭湖公园庙会

Sugarcoated haws on a stick 糖葫芦 (tánghúlu) are a special treat in China. They are eaten year round. The haws are very acidic and sour while the sugar is very sweet - so sweet that I can manage one or two pieces and then someone else has to finish the stick. The haws are the round dark red fruits, while the lighter red fruit is strawberries. You can see yams below. Haws are the fruit or berry of the Chinese hawthorn. The hawthorn is found mainly in China and Korea.

To make the candied haws, you boil sugar to a certain temperature, dip the stick into the sugar, and that's it. The trick is to choose fruit of just the correct ripeness. If it is too young it will be bitter, if too ripe, the heat will make it soft and pulpy. Your customer base will quickly evaporate if you make many mistakes.

Just in case you are in a Chinese market you can either point or say it for yourself - this says "a line of sugarcoated haws on a stick":

一串糖葫芦 yí chuàn tánghúlu

SOUND ONE

SOUND TWO

Sugar can coat any fruit, but smaller fruits are better. These are, of course, strawberries 草莓 (cǎoméi), pictured above and below. One fruit that may be new to you are the sticks in the background above. They are wild yams or, as they are called in Chinese, mountain yams 山药 (shānyao). Dioscorea opposita is the Latin designation. And if you don't know what a yam is, it is a sweet potato. Yams are roots, and sweet potatoes are one type of yam, wild yams are another.