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Wansan Cake

chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2012-11-28 16:35

Wansan Cake

Wansan Cake, a local specialty of Zhouzhuang, a small county near Shanghai, has a history going back hundreds of years.

It was first prepared by the Zou family, local residents who were famous for making various exquisite pastries and puddings. The ancestors of today's Zou family ran a tea and snack shop. For every festival, a local wealthy man, commonly known as Shen Wansan, ordered a great deal of pastries and puddings to feed his guests. That's why the food was named as "Wansan Cake".

With China's reform and opening-up, Zhouzhuang has become a world-known destination for tourists, which brings more customers for Wansan Cake.

Over the years, the suppliers of the cake have sought to continually improve the quality of the raw materials and its manufacturing process. Nowadays, tourists can not only buy the traditional Wansan and Quanfu royal cakes, but also several new products that cater to different preferences, including sesame cakes, peanut cakes and 20 others kinds of pastries and puddings. The cakes are all made of first-class glutinous rice. Each one has to undergo eight individual processes before finally being packed.

Wansan Cake is said to be particularly suitable for older people and children. It has also become a popular choice among tourists.