Donkey rolling (Lvdagun 驴打滚) is a traditional Beijing sticky sweet made of glutinous rice, red bean paste, and peanut or soya powder. It gets its name not because it involves any donkey-related ingredients but because the peanut or soya powder on the surface looks like a cloud of dust when donkeys roll on the ground.
Its recipe is pretty simple. First, mix the steamed glutinous rice with some caster sugar. After pounding it into a dough, flatten it into a long rectangular stripe and then add the red bean paste. In the final step, you roll the stripe into a column, cut it into about 3 cm long, and coat it with peanut or soya powder – a perfect snack to make in your home.
Because of its low-profit margin, it is not easy to find the donkey rolling on the street in Beijing. But almost every supermarket sells this kind of snack. So, if you are interested in it and happen to be in Beijing, why not give it a go?
