Liquorice-Marinated Fresh Fruit 甘草水果

Liquorice-Marinated Fresh Fruit (甘草水果) is cut fresh fruit steeped in a sweet and salty liquorice syrup, a street snack of Shantou (汕头) and the wider Chaoshan (潮汕) region of Guangdong. Stalls selling it are found on almost every Chaoshan street.

How it is made

Liquorice slices are boiled in water for several hours until the liquid tastes of liquorice, and sugar and salt are stirred in to make the syrup. A home recipe in a feature compiled by the Shantou city account Shantou Fabu (汕头发布) uses 30–50 g of liquorice to a litre of water, simmered for four hours. A red-skinned piece of galangal (南姜) is peeled and pounded, the cut fruit is tossed with the ginger and plenty of cooled syrup, and it rests in the fridge for an hour. Before eating, most of the syrup is drained off and the fruit is sprinkled with plum powder (梅粉) or dipped in it. Stalls marinate each fruit separately and keep them in chilled cabinets. The feature lists salt, sugar, plum paste (梅膏酱) and galangal powder (南姜麸) among the marinade seasonings.

Ingredients

Nearly any fruit is used. Stalls lay out pineapple, mango, plums, star fruit and strawberries by season. Guava, called mu zai (木仔) locally, comes topped with plenty of white sesame and chopped galangal, and a local red-fleshed guava is also common. Chaoshan tuo peaches (潮汕拖桃) are sour and crunchy, green mango is sharp and crisp, ripe mango is soft and sweet, and star fruit is sliced into five-pointed stars before the syrup goes on.

Where it comes from

Shantou's low hills yield many kinds of fruit, and some of it is sour, astringent or bitter. The Shantou Fabu feature ties the snack to a local habit of correcting such fruit with seasoning, like wiping watermelon with salt water or dipping pineapple in soy sauce, and to street vendors who bought up the surplus of in-season fruit and pickled it for sale. It presents the mix of salt, sugar, plum paste and galangal as a Nanyang (南洋, Southeast Asian) way of layering seasonings. A Chaoshan saying, "liquorice goes with a hundred medicines" (甘草合百药), is glossed there as meaning that liquorice goes with anything.

How it is eaten

People buy it by the bag and share it with friends on bamboo skewers while strolling the streets; the peaches are a favourite after a meal to cut richness. Beyond the street, the same fruit can appear as a cold platter at banquets.