Also known as agar weed or Tanmao in dialect, Caoyan is all too familiar to people in Pingtan.

Agar weed grows on reef rocks and can only be harvested seasonally, mostly in summer. During this time of the year, the sea weed is exposed above the sea water for half an hour between the 15th and 18th days of each lunar month when tide ebbs. Thus, the time for collection is extremely limited, resulting in its rarity.

Boil the sea weed with vinegar until it turns into a gloopy consistency, and then sieve out the residues. Pour it into an iron pot, add sugar and put the pot in water to cool, until it finally turns into a jelly.

The cooked and cooled seaweed looks as transparent as cubilose, so it is called Caoyan or Seaweed Cubilose. It is so cooling and refreshing that it makes a great summertime quencher to combat the scorching summer’s heat.

There is also a legend for this delicacy. A lady named Shihua was drowned in the sea after saving her husband. From then on, her husband cried every day by the sea. His unfailing love for his wife moved the world, and the reef rocks where his tears dropped unexpectedly turned into flowers that he had never seen before. These flowers called Caoyan still grow up till this day.