Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Winter Solstice Festival (Dong Zhi ) and Tangyuan - Part 1

Winter Solstice Festival ( Dong Zhi ) is a major Chinese festival. It falls on Dec. 22 of Gregorian calendar, marking the start of the first of the 24 seasonal division points.

During my childhood, my grandparents used to tell us: Dong Zhi falls on three days before Christmas Day. That teaching has since been engraved in my memory.

Dong Zhi goes with eating tangyuan , according to the tradition. Tangyuan are ball-shaped dumplings made of glutinous flour served in a variety of ways to suit different tastes. There are now creative recipes available to make tangyuan a lot more interesting.

That day I had a sudden craving for tangyuan, probably knowing that Dong Zhi is just not too far away. Yian, with little hesitation, set her hands to the task and came out with the delicacy for the family.

This recipe has been handed down from the past and is rather simple. The dumplings , after being boiled to perfection , are covered with soya bean flour, crushed-up peanut and sugar. They are best taken steamy hot when the aroma is so very enticing.

The picture shows the mouth-watering tangyuan.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

with all the events of the past week esp the floods this completely slipped my mind


http://www.mylongkang.com

Mee Ling said...

這是最原始的湯圓,讓我想起了小時候吃過的。謝謝您勾起我美好的回憶。

Tony Hii said...

Bengbeng, it's time for you to adjust your mind back and focus on Dong Zhi and Christmas.

Mee Ling, childhood memories are usually the most wonderful to cherish. Let the festivals take them back.

Anonymous said...

台灣的湯圓裡面還有饀呢..
芝蔴饀,紅豆饀,鹹肉等等..
還有酒饟湯圓
>_< 真是太好吃了..

Tony Hii said...

But, Jing, Yian has another version of tangyuan - chocolate lotus stuffing - which I am going to share in Part 2.

Anonymous said...

Sibu needs a lot of big balls to solve this flood problem. But too bad. So many small balls around.