Rock Sugar

These jewel-like, transparent, jumbo sugar crystals are used for sweet dessert soups as well as simmered meat dishes. In sauces they are thought to impart a certain shine, and their flavor, less processed-tasting than granulated sugar, is more rounded. Rock sugar varies in shape and color, from uniform, perfectly clear gems to uneven, amorphous amber crystals. I prefer the latter, which have more flavor. Thai: nahm than gloo-ut; Malay: gula batu; Vietnamese: đường phèn