Song gao · People's Republic of China cuisine · Dessert
Song gao
Born in People's Republic of China
“A Shanghai steamed cake studded with giant pink azuki beans and filled with red bean paste—loose, tender, deliberately humble.”
0 people have eaten this dish and left their thoughts across 6 platforms
9 in 10 mention tender crumb structure first
8 in 10 say it's worth it for the visually distinctive (pink beans)
4 in 10 would come back the same week
Synthesised from Google · Yelp · Reddit · 3 food blogs · Updated August 2026
The story the reviews tell
Song gao arrives as a round, steamed cake with the pale crumb of rice flour and a distinctly loose, tender crumb structure—the name itself means 'loose cake.' Pink-hued azuki beans, each about an inch across, dot the top like garnish, while smaller beans hide throughout the interior alongside a vein of red bean paste. It's Shanghai comfort: gentle sweetness, the earthy presence of beans, steam-cooked until the rice flour becomes feather-light.
What makes this version distinct
Song gao (Chinese: 鬆糕; pinyin: sōng gāo; lit. 'loose cake'; Shanghainese: Son1-kau1, Wu Chinese pronunciation: [soŋ kɔ]) is a Shanghai snack composed of rice flour, sugar, and water, with azuki beans embedded throughout the cake. Giant pink-colored azuki beans with a diameter of about 1 inch (25 mm) are embedded on top of the cake; conventional sized azuki beans are embedded inside the cake. The cake also has a red bean (azuki) paste filling. This dessert is steamed, as a large round cake and is then partitioned into sections for eating. Soong Mei-ling, who loved to eat song gao, had the Grand Hotel of Taipei to include her version of the cake on the hotel's menu, which the hotel continues to offer to this day.
Signature elements
What people love
- tender crumb structure
- visually distinctive (pink beans)
- traditional Shanghai origin
Know before you go
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