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Monday, December 22, 2008

Colorful Glutinous Rice Balls



Yesterday was the day the Chinese celebrated the winter solstice . In ancient times, the Chinese people celebrated the Winter Solstice Festival (Dong Zhi) by visiting relatives and friends, in much the same way as the Chinese Lunar New Year. There is customary feasting, and businesses will close up for the day. Glutinous floor balls known as "tang yuan" are consumed as a symbol of family unity and harmony on this day .


I took the opportunity to teach my two Piggies how to make these colorful glutinous rice balls aka ‘ tong yuen ’ in Cantonese. We love to eat these colorful balls ( the authentic one is the one without any fillings ). Now they have come out with peanut and red bean paste fillings. People are more adventurous and creative nowadays :) Next time I will try durians fillings :))))

I taught them the plain one or rather the authentic one which my mom taught me when I was young. And here are the colorful balls they managed to produce after they pinch my selection of food colors from my pantry meant for making sugar icing :)

Now, my Piggies are good at making them…and had lots of fun making them , reading from their expressions , I suppose it reminded them of their younger days during playtime…similar to PLAYDOH :p Guess what ? And all the colors are Barney colors !!! ^ *



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6 comments:

  1. mine only white n red. still maintain the tradition of plain, chewy, and comforting balls of delight. :)

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  2. Haha.. Barney colours, cute! :D

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  3. Hi Elinluv, up till now, I can still remember those days when I was a kid, I helped my mum make those tang yuan from scratch. I love the feeling of rolling the doughs between my hands, and there were only the pink (or rather fuschia) and white ones.

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  5. I love the black sesame seed fillings, hehe. The Tong Yuen looks very tongyuenicious! Like them colourful, it makes the Winter Solstice festival a lot happier and warmer! Lovely^^.

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  6. @ J2Kfm : Glad to know you too enjoy the authentic ones :)

    @ laihooisan : Trust them to choose the colors. Barney color are attractive no doubt :)

    @ HHB : Haha..me too, till now I still remember those days I helped my mom to roll the tang yuen. Lotz of fun too

    @ Garden of Eden : Hi Kenny, yup those colors do light up the festival..not the least the chewy texture plus the ginger syruppy soup..hmmm wonderful.

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