Happy Winter Solstice!

This is the time of the year again where we, Chinese celebrate the Winter Solstice Festival or better known as Dong Zhi whereby we rolled glutinous rice balls, the tang yuens the night before. I always remember my mum said that this festival falls on every 22nd of December, 3 days before Christmas. And it marks the passing of the harshest part of winter when the dark hours of night exceed daylight by the longest margin, which means that spring is around the corner.

The tang yuen symbolized family unity and that the rounder the glutinous rice ball, the stronger the ties were. So this is the time where all the family members will come back and unite.

Some of the glutinous rice balls will have fillings in them such as powdered peanuts and black sesame but my family will always prefer the traditional ones--plain and they only come in white and pink. I don't really fancy eating filled glutinous rice balls with the sweet soup.

They taste so yummy with the sweet soup--combination of pandan leaves, ginger and palm sugar. Eating glutinous rice balls also means that you've grown a year older. Haha. So am i 19 years old now? =)

Happy eating those tang yuens yah!