In Chinese and many Southeast Asian sweet snacks and desserts, we prefer to use rock sugar or palm sugar instead of regular granulated white or brown sugar.
Ping Tong, or Rock Sugar
The Chinese ping tong, or rock sugar, shown above, is used to sweeten sweet soups. It comes in the forms of large crystals, but also tiny blocks, as shown.
Palm Sugar
In Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, we also use palm sugar, which is from coconut palm. Called gula melaka. in Singapore, this brown sugar has a rich and flavorful sweetness and is used as a sweetener for sweet soups and sweet snacks. We also melt and boil it in water with pandan leaves to make a delicious syrup with pandan essense. It’s tastes much better than sugared water.
Traditionally, it comes in large, rock-hard rolls or blocks, which can be hard to cut into to get the desired amount. Palm sugar from Thailand now comes in small semicircular blocks that is convenient to use, shown in photo above in top row, and also bottom row right. It also comes in tubs (bottom row, left) but I find that after it is refrigerated, it is hard to scrape the hardened sugar to get to it.
