Greetings, readers. I realize it’s been six weeks since my last post and you’re all dying to know where I’ve been. The answer is: China.
Well, I wasn’t there for six weeks, but I was there long enough to discover this fantastic sweet treat from Beijing called bing tang hulu. These tart, crispy crab apples are skewered and dipped into a vat of bubbling sugar syrup. The syrup coats the apples and hardens to a delicate crunchy shell, resulting in a sweet-tart combo that is absolutely to-die-for. My friend Lu found 
them at the Summer Palace, and we sat and ate them on the bank of Kunming Lake on a gorgeous clear October afternoon.
Eating bing tang hulu at Kunming Lake was only one of many memorable food experiences I had in Beijing. For the first three days of my visit, I stayed at a Chinese hotel on the outskirts of downtown where all meals were served in the traditional Chinese style. The “breakfast” buffet included dishes such as garlic shrimp (with the heads still attached, I might add), stir-fried beef, tofu-onion salad and steamed sweet potatoes. We attended a dinner one night where no fewer than 30 small plates of different meat, fish and vegetable dishes were brought to a table for six people. We had no idea what we were eating, but we tried just about everything.
After three days we moved to the Peninsula Hotel in the heart of the tourist district where the food, while more familiar, was far less interesting. The menu at Jing, the Peninsula’s ultra-sleek and contemporary restaurant, included Western favorites such as cheeseburgers and and turkey club sandwiches. It was nice to savor a taste from home, but I was a little sad that our true China culinary experience had come to an end.
Dear Miss Leigh,
I stumbled on your blog by accident while googling some fruit tart recipes…. Just wanted to tell you that I’m no a blog expert, but I really like yours a lot. Very interesting and to the point, great pics and explanations. I guess I’m trying to say, thanks for sharing
Sincerely,
Irit Sofer
Israel
Thanks for your compliments, Irit!
We too enjoyed the Bing Tang Hulu while we were in Kunming in February of 2008. We have been searching to find a recipe to try to recreate this delicious treat here at home. Do you happen to have a recipe for this? If so could you please pass it along.
Thanks
Becky Smith
Alabama
Hi Becky! I don’t have a recipe for bing tang hulu but I will ask a friend who just moved here from China. The crunchy sugar shell shouldn’t be too difficult to recreate… the challenge will be to find crab apples. Can you get them locally where you live?
I don’t know if we have them available locally….I think that my challenge will be the humidity with the candy coating. I tried to make them when we got home and used pineapple and strawberries and it failed pretty badly. I would appreciate any guidance in trying to recreate this tasty treat.
Hi, i was doing a research homework on snacks and i was searching what bing tang hu lu was made of (the funny thing is im a chinese myself). Your site is a great help thanks so much!!