Aiyu jelly (; or ; or simply ), known in Amoy Hokkien as ''ogio'' (), and as ice jelly in Singapore (), is a jelly made from the gel from the seeds of the awkeotsang creeping fig found in Taiwan and

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

n countries of the same climates and

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

s. The jelly is not commonly made or found outside of Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore, though it can be bought fresh in specialty stores in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and canned in

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

s. It is also used in

Taiwanese cuisine Taiwanese cuisine ( or ) is a popular style of food with several variations, including Chinese cuisine, Chinese and that of Taiwanese indigenous peoples, with the earliest cuisines known of being the indigenous ones. With over a hundred years of ...

. In

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

, it is also known as man tau long (文頭郎). It is commonly served with a slice of lime.

Origin

According to oral history, the plant and the jelly were named after the daughter of a Taiwanese tea businessman in the 1800s. The gelling property of the seeds was discovered by the businessman as he drank from a creek in

Chiayi Chiayi (,), officially known as Chiayi City, is a Provincial city (Taiwan), city located in Chianan Plain in Regions of Taiwan, southwestern Taiwan, surrounded by Chiayi County with a population of 263,188 inhabitants as of January 2023. The H ...

. He found a clear yellowish jelly in the water he was drinking and was refreshed upon trying it. Looking above the creek he noticed fruits on hanging vines. The fruits contained seeds that exuded a sticky gel when rubbed. Upon this discovery, he gathered some of the fruits and served them at home with honeyed lemon juice or sweetened beverages. Finding the jelly-containing beverage delicious and thirst-quenching, the enterprising businessman delegated the task of selling it to his 15-year-old daughter, Aiyu. The snack was very well received and became highly popular. So, the businessman eventually named the jelly and the vines after his daughter. The

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Sout ...

name for the food is ''igos''.

Harvesting

Fruits of the creeping fig plant resemble large fig fruits the size of small

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

s. The figs grow from flowers pollinated by the fig wasp ''

Wiebesia pumilae ''Wiebesia pumilae'' is a fig wasp species in the genus ''Wiebesia'', Family (biology), Family Agaonidae. ''W. pumilae'' is the pollinator of Ficus pumila var. awkeotsang, ''Ficus pumila'' var. ''awkeotsang'' (Jelly Fig) and ''Ficus pumila'' var. ...

''. and are harvested from September through January just before the fruit ripens to a dark purple. The fruits are then halved and turned inside out to dry over the course of several days. The dry fruits can be sold as is, or dried aiyu seeds () can then be pulled off the skin and sold separately.

Jelly making

The aiyu seeds are placed in a cotton cloth bag, and the bag and its contents are submerged in cold water and rubbed. A slimy gel will be extracted from the bag of aiyu seeds as it is squeezed and massaged. This is known as "washing aiyu" in Chinese (洗愛玉). After several minutes of massaging and washing, no more of the yellowish tea-coloured gel will be extracted, and the contents of the bag are discarded. The washed gel is then allowed to set into a jelly either in a cool location or in the refrigerator. One must keep in mind certain things when making aiyu jelly or else the gel may not set: #There must not be any grease in the container or water used to wash or set the gel, #Sugar must not be added to the aiyu prior to the setting of the gel, #Distilled water must not be used since the gelling depends on the presence of minerals in the water, #During washing, the seeds must not be rubbed so hard as to rupture their shells. Water will slowly seep out of the jelly some time after it sets, and it will turn back to a liquid over the course of several days. The jelly is usually served with

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

and

lemon juice The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...

but can also be included in other sweetened beverages or shaved ice and is particularly popular as a cool drink in hot summers.

Chemistry

The

gelling agent In polymer chemistry, gelation (gel transition) is the formation of a gel from a system with polymers. Branched polymers can form Cross-link, links between the chains, which lead to progressively larger polymers. As the linking continues, larger ...

in aiyu seeds is

pectin Pectin ( ': "congealed" and "curdled") is a heteropolysaccharide, a structural polymer contained in the primary lamella, in the middle lamella, and in the cell walls of terrestrial plants. The principal chemical component of pectin is galact ...

. Pectines are located in the transparent layer on the surface of seeds and not the inside of seeds, which is why they are extracted by washing and rubbing instead of grinding to a powder. The main component of the water extract was found to be LMP (low methoxy pectin), as opposed to high methoxy pectins prevalent in commercially used sources such as apples or citrus peels. LMP gels in presence of

divalent In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an atom is a measure of its combining capacity with other atoms when it forms chemical compounds or molecules. Valence is generally understood to be the number of chemica ...

cations An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

, which are found in sufficient amount in water (when undistilled), thus causing a creation of jelly.

References

External links