Giant Peanut Brittle in Xiamen

Back to food photos again!!

This time I walked down the main tourist street of Xiamen : Chung San Road. And found the biggest block of Hua Seng Tong or Peanut Brittle.....being made at a street stall. It was an exceptionally interesting sight and very very intriguing for me.

Many of my missionary teachers liked this sweet when they were teaching in Sibu. On the other hand a lot of students only knew this sweet because the foreign expensive chocolate was never in their diet until they had boy friends/fathers who could buy chocolates for them. And for many indeed perhaps they could only eat chocolates when they earned their own salary. whenever I stayed with my paternal grandparents in Sungei Merah I would have a chance to eat these sweets as there were several bakeries there. My aunts were often asked to cycle to Sungei Merah to buy bread in the evenings. Grandfather liked his Pompian or Long Koh for his tea. His habit of having afternoon tea must have been cultivated from his association with Rev. James Hoover. But unlike Rev. Hoover my grandfather did not like condensed milk.

Today I crush this sweet peanut brittle in a mortar with a pestle whenever I want to make my Thai salad. I do not have good teeth (poor dental hygiene in Sarawak after the second world war)so it is hard for me to munch this sweet:)

Lovely peanut brittle.

Did the Chinese invent peanut brittle? Or was it a clever American housewife who learned how to harden corn syrup with baking soda and then add some peanuts?