AP PHOTOS: Move over peanuts, pistachio is the latest trend for Hong Kong New Year treats

AP PHOTOS: Move over peanuts, pistachio is the latest trend for Hong Kong New Year treats
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Bakeries in Hong Kong are jumping on the pistachio trend by making sweet treats with the nut for Lunar New Year. Pistachios are not a traditional ingredient in Hong Kong food, but they are known as “hoi sum gwo” in Cantonese, which translates literally as “happy nut”, because the split shell looks like a smile. (AP video shot by: Alice Fung)
By  CHAN LONG HEI and ALICE FUNG
Updated 3:13 AM UTC, January 30, 2025
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HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong culinary institution is acknowledging that changing times bring changing tastes and has found a hit in adding American pistachios to the range of flavors in its famed dumplings.

The Kwan Hong Bakery last year began offering the new flavor alongside the traditional peanut and red bean fillings that are the heart of the sweet, deep-fried pastry, which is hand-filled and folded like the wide range of sweet and savory dumplings known in the local dialect as “kok zai.”

Demand is especially strong around the Lunar New Year, which fell on Wednesday, with long lines outside the 46-year-old family-owned business in the city’s Sham Shui Po district.

“We hope that bringing more new flavors to customers would bring in more business,” says Ho Yuet-yin, wife of the bakery’s founder.

The older generation still go for the traditional flavors, but “now the younger people are more picky and we think the pistachio is an excellent new flavor,” Ho says.

Walnuts and macadamia nuts were also considered but ultimately “pistachio is the one which works out well,” said Charles Ng, Kwan Hong’s manager.