Tahini means "to grind", the same root as , "flour" in some dialects. There is also a sweet spread made from it called Halawa Taḥīniyya , which roughly translates as sweet Tahini. It is also known to be a type of Halva and sometimes has mashed or sliced pistachio pieces sprinkled inside or on top of it. Usually it is spread on bread and eaten as a quick snack. The word "tahini" appeared in English by the late 1930s. Plain, unprocessed sesame paste with no added ingredients is sometimes known as raw tahini. The oldest mention of sesame is in a
Lotus seed paste to produce a smooth, sweet paste. The lotus paste used by most Chinese cooks requires further preparation by dry cooking the sweetened paste over heat with caramelized sugar and vegetable oil. This produces a lotus paste that is tan coloured with a satiny sheen, which is rich, sweet, and silky with a slight fragrance of caramel. Some cooks choose to treat the dried lotus seeds with a lye solution before initially stewing them in order to shorten their cooking time. Lotus paste is used in Chinese cuisine as a filling for mooncake, "baozi", and other sweet pastries. Another common use