Slab sugar
Unrefined cane sugar pressed into flat oblong slabs, dark outside and paler in the middle. It is the sugar of every ginger tong sui in Hong Kong (sweet potato soup, 桑寄生 egg tea, the ginger syrup under tangyuan) because its caramel note belongs with ginger, and it colours the syrup for 豆腐花 and the café's Swiss sauce. Clear pots (snow fungus, steamed milk) take rock sugar instead. Not a supermarket line in Australia; Asian grocers sell it as brown sugar in pieces or brown slab sugar, the South Word 454 g pack, for example.
Preparation
One slab is about 50 g; break it up or drop it in whole, it dissolves quickly in boiling water.
Origin
Guangdong. Every Asian grocer, and online Asian grocers. Without it, dark brown sugar with a little white, or jaggery or panela from an Indian or Latin grocer, gives the molasses note.
Availability in Australia
Easy to find
Where · Asian grocers; online at Asian Pantry and Gourmet Grocer
What to ask for · Say slab sugar or brown sugar in pieces; South Word 454 g
If it is not there · Dark brown sugar with a little white; jaggery or panela from an Indian or Latin grocer
