Sweet Soups · FFET10279
Yin er geng (white fungus sweet soup)
Soaked white fungus simmered slowly with red dates and rock sugar until thick, a common home dessert soup.
A deep round white porcelain bowl holds a thick translucent sweet soup with soft and pale white fungus, red dates and red goji berries suspended in the liquid, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the bowl.
Sweet soups served as dessert, such as mung bean soup.
Yin er geng is a common household dessert of white fungus simmered with red dates and rock sugar until the liquid thickens, sometimes with goji, lotus seed or pear. Soaked dried fungus simmers for 1.5 to 2 hours, while fresh fungus simmers for about 15 minutes. No dated record of the soup was found.
What
Yin er geng is a common household dessert, a lightly sweet, slightly gelatinous soup: white fungus is soaked, torn small and simmered with rock sugar, often with red dates and goji, and sometimes with lotus seed or pear.4,5,6,7
When
No dated record of the soup was found; a Qing court memoir mentions costly white fungus, but the available quotation is undated, second-hand and concerns the ingredient, not the soup. A 2026 report records Gutian's substitute-material cultivation method (1977) and bag cultivation method (1979).1,4
Where
The origin of the soup was not found. White fungus comes mainly from Gutian in Fujian and Tongjiang in Sichuan: a December 2025 report puts Gutian's share at nearly 9 in 10 of China's white fungus; a 2024 report identifies Tongjiang as the hometown of white fungus.2,3
How
Dried fungus is soaked for 30 to 45 minutes, the hard base trimmed, then torn small and simmered with red dates for 1.5 to 2 hours until it thickens, with rock sugar and goji added in the last 10 minutes or so. Fresh fungus needs about 15 minutes of simmering, about 30 minutes in all.5,6
Why
Yin er geng is a common household dessert, with a simple version using fresh white fungus and red dates. No health benefit is claimed here.5,6
Impact and influence
A 2026 report records national geographical indication protection for Gutian white fungus in 2004 and re-registration in 2021. Tongjiang white fungus is also a geographical indication product. Freeze-dried instant white fungus soup appeared in 2016. These records concern the fungus and its products, not specifically this soup.1,2,3
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is my simplified home version. I read two recipes that name their authors: one by a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine that uses dried fungus, and one by a recipe author that uses fresh fungus and cooks faster. The amounts follow the former (a cup is a US cup, about 240 ml, and the conversion to milliliters is mine), and so does the soak-then-simmer method; it gives a range for the sugar and I take the middle by taste. The quicker fresh-fungus way is in the tips.
Ingredients
- Dried white fungus 20 g
- Red dates 8 to 10
- Water 6 cups (about 1.4 liters)
- Rock sugar 3 to 4 tablespoons; I take the middle, to taste
- Goji berries 1 tablespoon, optional
Steps
- Soak the dried fungus in water for 30 to 45 minutes until soft.
- Cut off the hard base, tear the fungus into small pieces and rinse them.
- Wash the red dates. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil, add the fungus and dates, and turn the heat to low.
- Cover and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours, stirring now and then, until the fungus is soft and the soup has thickened.
- About 10 minutes before serving add the rock sugar and goji and cook until the sugar dissolves.
Tips
- The former recipe warns that some dried fungus is treated with sulfur, so I am careful about what I buy.
- The other recipe uses half a fresh fungus flower and 10 red dates, simmers about 15 minutes and then adds goji, about 30 minutes in all; with fresh fungus I follow its timing.