EIGHT TREASURES SHORTBREAD COOKIES or 八(Bā)宝(Bǎo)酥(Sū)

CHEF JING LIU, a member of the Chinese Street Market DC talent pool, was born and raised in Guangdong province, China (where dim sum is daily dining), and a graduate of the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu Paris.

The Eight Treasures Shortbread Cookie is inspired by a traditional breakfast porridge from northern China that is served on the Laba holiday (also referred to as the “Laba Festival”).

Some say that the Laba Festival marks the founding of Buddhism by Sakyamuni. To commemorate this day, monks would give out free porridge to the disciples living at their temples.

Others believe that the Laba holiday’s origins have to do with Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty. Zhu endured great hardship before he ever ascended and nearly starved to death in prison. It was there he found the different kinds of grains that were collected by mice inhabiting the prison. These grains would become the basis for a recipe for porridge which Zhu is said to have subsisted on to fend off starvation. Because it was the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month when he found the grains, Zhu would later name this porridge “Laba” to memorialize his struggle. ‘La’ (腊) means the year’s end and ‘Ba’ (八) represents the numeral 8.

Eight treasure porridge is a variation of Laba porridge, which is customarily served during the Laba Festival. The eight treasure porridges can be sweet or savory, though most recipes are for a sweet variety. Eight treasure porridge typically contains Chinese dates, wolfberries, walnuts, lotus seed, dried lily flowers, loganberries, and barley rice, as well as other various nuts. There are also regional specialty dishes derive from the original porridge, such as eight treasure noodles, eight treasure buns, and eight treasure tofu.

For this year’s Laba Festival, we are offering our own Eight Treasure Cookie, made with the customary ingredients Chinese dates, wolfberries, walnuts, cashews, pistachios, almonds, loganberries, and sesame seeds.