Guilin Water Chestnut Starch

Guilin Water Chestnut Starch is a "starch elf" made from local water chestnuts (bíqí), a dessert ingredient Guilin people grow up with. Water chestnuts grow in paddy fields; peeled, they are white and crispy, ground into pulp, filtered, and precipitated to get snow-white, fine starch. The most classic way to enjoy it is as water chestnut cake: mix starch with cold water into a paste, add sugar and water chestnut pieces, steam in a tray for 20 minutes, cool, and cut into cubes—transparent as amber, with a chewy, smooth texture, carrying water chestnut's sweetness and faint fruity aroma. It can also thicken syrup or porridge, or be fried into thin pancakes, crispy outside and tender inside. Guilin's water chestnuts, nourished by Lijiang River water, are especially sweet and residue-free, and the starch retains this purity. At old dessert shops, a bowl of iced water chestnut cake is a summer heat-reliever. Foreigners will be amazed by its transparent texture and refreshing taste, finding it like a "Chinese jelly" but with more natural fruity flavor—an exquisite taste created by Guilin people from local ingredients.