Happy 冬至 (Winter Solstice/ Dongzhi) 2018

Happy 冬至  (Winter Solstice/ Dongzhi) 2018

Happy Winter Solstice 2017

Wishing all who celebrates a Happy Winter Solstice 2017! 

I woke up early to cook tangyuan for my kids. I am not my mother so I bought the tangyuan packets from supermarket rather than make them from scratch as my mother would. :P 

Happy Winter Solstice 2016 (冬至快乐!)

Winter officially starts today, with the fewest hours of daylight in 2016. 
Winter Solstice or 冬至 is one of the more important festivals celebrated by Chinese and East Asians. It is a time of reunion for families. My mother, originating from Taiwan, made the glutinous rice balls from scratch. This year, she made both sweet and savoury glutinous rice balls. For savory glutinous rice balls, she made minced meat and mushroom fillings and cooked the rice balls in chicken broth. For the sweet glutinous rice balls, she made them plain and cooked the rice balls in brown sugar and pandan syrup. 
Happy Winter Solstice 2016!

Savoury Glutinous Rice Balls with minced meat and mushroom filling

A glorious orange sunset to celebrate winter solstice (冬至)

PS. With my food poisoning, my mother only allowed me to have one savoury glutinous rice ball in case my stomach couldn't take it. Oh well, still better than not eating any!

冬至 Dongzhi Festival or Winter Solstice 2014

Yesterday happened to be Dongzhi Festival (冬至) or Winter Solstice too. One of the more important activities of Dongzhi Festival is the making and eating of tang yuan or glutinous rice balls. My mother prepared a big pot of tang yuan in brown sugar soup which we could eat throughout the day. Actually my mother already cooked tang yuan in savoury chicken broth on Sunday. Eating tang yuan in a savoury broth is Taiwanese style as most, if not all Singaporeans usually only have their tang yuan in sweetened soup.