Lotus seed paste (lian rong / 蓮蓉) is a smooth, sweet paste of ground lotus seeds cooked down with sugar and oil until glossy and dense — the classic filling of the Cantonese mooncake and one of the defining confection bases of southern Chinese and wider East Asian baking. Prized for a delicate, gently nutty, faintly floral flavour and a silky, fudge-like body, it comes in a pale, "white" grade made from peeled seeds and a deeper golden-brown grade tinted and enriched with more sugar and oil, and is most famous wrapped around a salted duck-egg yolk at Mid-Autumn Festival.