Sugar Savvy

I found a new candy a few weeks ago at one of my favorite Vietnamese grocery stores. It’s brown candy. That’s what it’s called: “Brown Candy”. So simply stated, so classy. It’s candy. And it’s brown. It’s Brown Candy.

Needless to say, I bought it. But because I was so in love with the packaging, I was unable to open it for at least a week, admiring its simple gracefulness as it sat upon my kitchen shelf.

As the ingredients listed nothing more than sugar cane and water, I gathered that this was, in fact, brown SUGAR. And, if you know me, you will realize is not a strike against it. In fact, I include brown sugar on my list of top ten favorite foods of all time. After having enjoyed the Brown Candy for its visual merits, I decided yesterday that it was time to give it a taste. Yes, this is good old brown sugar, in solid, rectangular slabs.

Upon further research, it is apparent that Brown Candy is used mainly as an ingredient in Chinese cooking and baking. I found several recipes for a Chinese New Year steamed fruitcake, as well as one for braised wheat gluten.

Brown sugar is good. And even better is the fact that I have now discovered it in a form that actually seems to condone its unadorned consumption. Simply by changing the word “sugar” to “candy” sanctions it as an actual, food rather than a mere ingredient. Not that I necessarily needed permission to eat plain brown sugar; I’m an adult and I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember - and I’m still alive. But Brown Candy… what can I say? Chinese people sure are smart.