Sunflower-Style Lotus Seeds

Guangchang County in Fuzhou prefecture, Jiangxi, has cultivated white lotus since the Tang Dynasty's Yifeng era (676–679 CE), according to the earliest surviving written record of lotus farming in the region. The seeds were presented as imperial tribute across successive dynasties, earning the designation 'lotus among gems.' Fuzhou cooks eventually turned the seed's two most prized traits — intact, round form and silky tenderness after long steaming — into a mould-based banquet sweet: the 葵花莲子 form pairs Guangchang lotus with Nanfeng mandarin (another Fuzhou geographical-indication product) and was recognised among the Ten Famous Dishes of Fuzhou.

Bite through the lotus flesh: powdery-soft, faintly floral, the bitterness of the core completely absent. The potato base beneath is smooth and yielding, gently sweet. Then a segment of mandarin — tart, juicy, citrus-bright — cuts through the sweetness and makes the whole dish feel lighter and more alive than its simple ingredients suggest.

Guangchang white lotus seeds contain approximately 43.8% starch and 22.7% protein by dry weight. During steaming, the interior temperature exceeds 80°C, at which point starch granules absorb water, swell, and rupture into a continuous gel matrix — the gelatinisation that produces the seeds' signature floury tenderness. The traditional 通芯 (core-piercing) technique removes the embryo, which concentrates the bitter alkaloids neferine and isoliensinine, leaving only clean sweetness. Pre-coating the bowl with lard establishes a hydrophobic barrier between the seeds and the ceramic surface, allowing clean inversion without fracturing the arrangement.