It looks like a kind of fairy floss but it's a real skill to make this Chinese specialty. In fact, it’s an ancient Chinese sweet made with corn syrup, melted, simmered and then formed into a kind of hard toffee donut.

This is then worked into a dried, toasted cornflour mixture, pulled and stretched – a bit like making handmade noodles – until the strands have turned into fine, soft threads. The threads are then wrapped around a filling of crushed mixed nuts and served as a melt-in-the-mouth sweet.

Dragon beard master Gary Au is one of only a handful of people in the world who still know the technique of this traditional Chinese candy. He learned it over 30 years ago in Hong Kong and can be seen in Sydney’s Dixon Street and at other festivals and special events around town.

Other dragon-beard artists can be found in Singapore, Hong Kong, Toronto, Boston and Beijing.