Happy Lunar New Year! In honor of the upcoming Year of the Dragon we are excited to share with you one of our new favorite Chinese snacks (though it is really quite an old-school favorite). It all started when M was in San Francisco, he visited an amazing art popup run by artist Derrick Higa in Japantown. At the pop-up he bought a sticker depicting Haw Flakes (山楂餅), an iconic Chinese, Chinese American, and Asian Diaspora childhood sweet snack. We had never tried Haw Flakes, so on our next trip to Park to Shop, we decided to seek them out.
Haw Flakes are compressed discs of Hawthorn fruit (from the Chinese Hawthorn Tree), sweetened with sugar. They are wrapped in little tubes of flat circular candies, maybe the diameter of a nickel. Mackenzie Chung Fegan, writing in Bon Appetit, likens them to Necco wafers, and I think that is pretty spot on. They had a sweet, slightly-tangy cranberry-like flavor with a tiny bit of chew. Red Hawthorn fruits are associated with Lunar New Year celebrations, particularly candied Hawthorn on sticks (Tanghulu). You can find Haw Flakes at most Chinese grocery stores, and our local shop even had multiple varieties, or you can buy them at many locations online. The iconic Haw Flake is also branching out and can now be seen in ice cream, cookie, and pin formats!
Eating The World 