Sesame into a bar resembling peanut brittle and sold in stores and street corners. Sesame is a popular and essential ingredient in many Middle Eastern cuisines. Sesame seeds are made into a paste called "tahini" (used in various ways, including "hummus bi tahini") and the Middle Eastern confection "halvah". Ground and processed, the seed is also used in sweet confections. Sesame is also a common component of the Levantine spice mixture "za'atar", popular all throughout the Middle East. In South Asian, Middle Eastern, and East Asian cuisines, popular confectionery are made from sesame mixed with honey or syrup and roasted into
Red bean paste possible to remove the husk by sieving after cooking, but before sweetening, resulting in a red paste that is smoother and more homogeneous. In Japanese, a number of names are used to refer to red bean paste; these include , , and . Strictly speaking, the term "an" can refer to almost any sweet, edible, mashed paste, with referring specifically to the paste made with red beans, although without qualifiers red beans are assumed. Other common forms of "an" include , made from navy or other white beans, green beans, and , made from chestnuts. Similarly, the Chinese term "dòushā"