Dried Night-Blooming Cereus (Ba Wang Hua)
お花を食べる！？豚骨スープをトロトロにする広東の「覇王の花」
Description
Sun-dried giant flowers of a cactus family plant (relative of Night-Blooming Cereus or Dragon Fruit). Also called 'Jian Hua' (Sword Flower). A highly loved soup ingredient in Guangdong (esp. Guangzhou/Zhaoqing). Braising with pork bones gives the soup faint sweetness and natural thickness, while the flower itself gains a premium gelatinous texture.
Classification: Everyone, Ingredient, Dry Goods, Medicinal, Ba Wang Hua, Night-Blooming Cereus, For Soup, Pork Dishes, Guangdong Specialty
Shops selling Dried Night-Blooming Cereus (Ba Wang Hua)
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The How to use section below is a general reference, not instructions from the listed shops.
How to use
Ingredients
- Dried flowers of Hylocereus undatus(Night-Blooming Cereus/Dragon Fruit flower)
Instructions
- [Typical Uses]
- [Ba Wang Hua Zhu Gu Tang (Cereus & Pork Bone Soup)]: Simmer rehydrated, well-washed Ba Wang Hua for 2-
- hours in a claypot with pork backbones/ribs, candied dates (Mi Zao), and carrots. An absolute specialty soup made in every Cantonese home to 'clear heat' during summer.
Learn more Substitutes, pairings, tips
Key spices
Flower itself is plain、but absorbs soup to become a premium 'slippery、syrupy' smooth texture
Substitutes at Japanese supermarkets
(Irreplaceable. Texture is somewhat similar to dried white wood ear)
Pairing
Pork Bone Soup / Sparerib Soup / Candied Dates (Mi Zao)
Trivia
The threatening name 'Ba Wang' (Overlord/King of Kings) comes from the flower blooming powerfully. Symbolizing the Cantonese 'heat-clearing, body-moisturizing soup culture' (Lao Huo Tang), it is a supremely delicious, body-friendly ingredient.
Eating tips & etiquette
Looks like 'giant brown dead grass (or squid tentacles)'; first-timers are shocked: 'You eat this?'. Pollen and sand pool around the stamens, so the unskippable prep is: after rehydrating, 'cut off the hard base, tear petals one by one, and wash meticulously'.
Allergen
None