Sunday, December 21, 2008

Happy Winter Solstice



Today is Winter Solstice festival or Dong Zhi “冬至节”. Chinese celebrating this day by having a reunion dinner and eating tang yuan (glutinous rice balls in sweet syrup). I always make tang yuan on this day, have been doing it for years so it's like a custom already. This year I made Pandan flavored tang yuan with Gula Melaka syrup.

I actually made a mistake because I was out of glutinous flour and I added too much water, so the dough was too wet. So I had to use some rice flour to make the dough pliable. In my mind, I was hoping that it works because throwing away the dough was too wasteful , also Evy was too eager to help and eat the tang yuan. In fact, she has been bugging me to make tang yuan and I always postponing her by saying wait until Winter Solstice day. So, I can't possibly disappoint her again. Luckily it still works! The shape is not as round as I prefer but taste wise it is still very similar to tang yuan texture.

Now, wishing everyone in U.S.A a Happy Winter Solstice Festival (as Malaysian celebrated it yesterday).

16 comments:

Beachlover said...

happy One year older! lol!.I just finish eating tang yuen with Mishu,try to teach her chinese festival even we live in US and A.

@ GiGi House of Beauty said...

same goes to u!
the gula melaka syrup looks so tempting! how did u get gula melaka in US??

Jo said...

These look really delicious especially pandan and gula melaka. Great combination.

Bits said...

I love the balls too... yummy!

Home Cooking said...

looks so nice n the color is so pretty

Sweet Jasmine said...

It still looks great with the rice flour and the pandan flavor must have make it taste wonderful.

Little Corner of Mine said...

Same to you, beachlover. :)

Gigi, we can buy it online here.

Thanks Jo, bits of life and Isha.

Yes, sweet jasmine, luckily I can saved it.

Noob Cook said...

haiz, I missed 冬至. Only realised a day later when my mum told me ;p Those balls look tasty =D

Retno Prihadana said...

I love the flavour of pandan and combination with gula melaka, sometimes I put ginger to give it more warm in the cold weather :)

Anonymous said...

Looks good to me!

Big Boys Oven said...

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas to you , your hubby and the two liitle angels.

Hope everything gets even better this coming year! have a great time over this festive!

Merry Christmas, Sidney & Sunny xxx

Baking Fiend said...

Hey Ching,

Wishing you and yr family a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

daphne said...

oh yess!!! Happy belated tong zi as well! I love the green in those!! =)

andddd..Merry Christmas! Happy coming 2009-where we cook and feast our way through! =)

Anonymous said...

When I looked at the picture, I thought you were a big fan of green tea as I did, LOL. Nevertheless, they looked yummy and the color was nice also

Anonymous said...

mmm...I haven't had that for years ! I didn't know when it is ... got to ask my mom next time in advance :) Then I have to get my butt to start some Chinese traditions with my little girl or else she won't know her Chinese roots. :p

Those pandan Tang Yuen of yours is delicious looking. I can just smell and taste it from the screen.

Babe_KL said...

happy new year to you and your family