Meatball Fruit

Meatball Fruit

　　Meatball Fruit is a snack made from high-quality sweet potato starch mixed with ingredients such as lean meat, taro, water chestnuts, mushrooms, lotus root cubes, and cuttlefish. It is a specialty snack from Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province, popular in areas within Shangrao such as Xinzhou, Guangfeng, and Yanshan. Meatball Fruit can be eaten right after steaming. Fresh out of the steamer, it is soft, tender, and has a very pleasant texture. Once cooled and spread out, it can be stored for a relatively long time. In the past, Meatball Fruit was considered a relatively luxurious food among the common folk in Shangrao, made and eaten only around the New Year to serve guests during the first lunar month (used in soups, stir-fries, or simply steamed and served hot). Nowadays, it is no longer restricted by season—people can make it at home anytime, and it is also often sold in markets, making it convenient to eat. Meatball Fruit symbolizes “reunion and togetherness.”

　　The origin of Meatball Fruit comes from a folk legend. One year on New Year’s Eve, Zhu Yuanzhang was still wandering. He and two beggar brothers managed to beg for a bowl of taro soup, which they shared under a large camphor tree. Everyone was extremely hungry and wanted to eat more. In the scramble, the bowl got broken, the taro soup was lost, and each person ended up with just a few taro pieces covered in dirt. At that moment, the sound of New Year’s firecrackers from the city reached them. They felt both bitter and sad, and comforted each other, saying: “No matter who becomes wealthy in the future, never forget your brothers in hardship—share the good fortune together.” Later, Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, and the two beggar brothers went to see him one after the other. But the elder beggar brother spoke too bluntly: “Brother, do you still remember when we were begging, and we ate taro under the camphor tree?” This remark embarrassed the emperor and resulted in him being sent away empty-handed. The younger beggar brother, however, spoke tactfully: “Brother, do you recall back then: ‘Three cook soldiers, battling under the camphor tree; defeating Soup Marshal, capturing Taro General.’ Do you remember?” Zhu Yuanzhang broke into a big smile, helped his younger brother up, and invited him to the inner palace for a drink. Thinking of the old taro soup, the emperor ordered the imperial chef to make some taro dish. The chef thought, the emperor is used to delicacies from land and sea—how could plain taro do? Moreover, eating too much taro might upset the emperor’s stomach—what a disaster that would be. So, he improvised: he chopped up taro, pork belly, and water chestnuts, mixed them with sweet potato starch, shaped them like taro, steamed them, and then cooked them in a pot with chili and garlic. This way, it had the original flavor of taro, the richness of pork, and the tasty water chestnuts to aid digestion. Zhu Yuanzhang and his younger brother praised it as delicious after tasting. A few days later, the younger beggar brother declined the emperor’s offer to stay and the rewards, taking only a large basin of “taro” home. Later on, this “taro” became the beloved Meatball Fruit enjoyed by many.