white and pink glutinous rice balls

tang yuan is a dish of glutinous rice balls served in a sweet broth. in chinese culture, it is traditionally served on dong zhi (the shortest day or longest night of the year), the winter solstice. by eating tang yuan, you become one year older.

when we lived in the kampong, my mother would prepare the tang yuan one day before dong zhi, which usually falls between 21 and 23 december, just before christmas. this year, dong zhi is on sunday, 21 dec 2008.

dong zhi is the chinese equivalent of thanksgiving. it is an occasion for the family to get together to celebrate the good year they have had. in most chinese homes in singapore, it has lost much of its significance.

as children, we enjoyed helping to roll the paste between our palms to make the round rice balls. however, some were rejected because they were either too big or too small. then, we had to re-roll them. my mother, the 'quality control manager', insisted that they had to be uniform in size and shape.

when we were younger, we also enjoyed eating the tang yuan in a bowl of sweet broth. the sweet broth was made from adding brown sugar to the boiling water. as we grew older, the tang yang seemed to lose its flavour. it could be that we did not want to add one year to our life so quickly. however, my mother would insist that we ate at least one tang yuan.

these days, it so easy to prepare the tang yuan. you can buy the ready to roll paste from the supermarket. they also sell pandan leaves to give that sweet and aromatic flavour. no much else is needed except a few slices of old ginger and the brown sugar. when the glutinous balls float to the surface, they are ready for eating. i realise that the balls expand slightly when they are cooked.

tang yuan can be plain or filled with sesame, peanuts, red beans or almonds. ( at food centres, those sold, all year round, with fillings are called ah boling.) the round shape symbolizes wholeness and unity.