Taiwanese Winter dessert

Many foods in Taiwan are seasonal. That is, you can only get them during a certain time of year.  One of my favorites is only available during the winter months: [hanzi]燒仙草[/hanzi] (shāoxiāncÇŽo). Literally, Hot Immortal Grass. In English, it’s commonly known as Hot Grass Jelly.

This is one of those foods that just looks so wrong; it looks like it shouldn’t be good; it looks like there’s no way it can taste good at all. Somehow, though, it works, and remarkably well at that.

At first, it looks just like a cup of hot, black jello.

After digging into it, however, you discover all sorts of “treasures” inside: taro, red beans, mung beans, and other little “treats.”

Actually, my favorite version is called [hanzi]布丁燒[/hanzi] (bùdÄ«ngshāo) and is basically the same thing, just with an egg pudding dropped into the bottom which is then mixed up (Hence the “bùdÄ«ng” which is Chinese for “pudding.” I’ll get pictures of one of those later. Regardless, both are delicious winter treats that are very popular in Taiwan.