Zanhuang Chinese dates are a specialty from Zanhuang county, Hebei province. It used to be the specially-supplied fruit for Chinese imperial families in ancient China.
Chinese dates have long been heralded as a superfood, making appearances on TCM prescription pads and in locals’ kitchens –– where they are still used to decorate buns, porridge, soup or desert as a kind of spice.
You can get them fresh during the autumn, when they’re crisp and green as apples, or dried, when the fruit takes on a deep red color, and sweet and chewy texture.
Compared with other kinds of Chinese dates, Zanhuang Chinese dates are large, plump and have small stones. You can also pull out golden sugar thread when you taste the dried Zanhuang Chinese dates. Therefore, Zanhuang Chinese dates are also called Jinsi Chinese dates (“Jinsi” means golden thread).
