My mom called me the day before and reminded me that since I’m a married woman now, I need to cook some glutinous rice balls for my family (aka me and my husband) to celebrate Dong Zhi (冬至, Winter Solstice). She says this is the most important festival to a Chinese (especially a Cantonese) because it symbolizes reunion.

Okay… so teach me what to do now. I don’t know As far as I’m a Chinese at heart and have grown up in a chinese household where I vaguely remember eating glutinous rice balls every Dong Zhi, I won’t know how to make glutinous rice balls so don’t expect to go around my kitchen with a rolling pin and flour smudged on my face!

Wikipedia says:

Traditionally, the Dongzhi Festival is a time for the family to get together. One activity that occurs during these get togethers (especially in the southern parts of China and in Chinese communities overseas) is the making and eating of Tangyuan (湯圓, balls of glutinuous rice), which symbolize reunion. Tangyuan are made of glutinuous rice flour and sometimes brightly coloured. Each family member receives at least one large Tang Yuan in addition to several small ones. The flour balls may be plain or stuffed. They are cooked in a sweet soup or savoury broth with both the ball and the soup/broth served in one bowl.

For the first time in our lives, I half-heartedly bought instant Fairprice glutinous rice balls with a genuine intention to mark this important occasion. And I kept telling myself that I would start making them from scratch the following year, add some colours to the balls, or search around on how to make the sweet soup better. This time, with useless little from my mom and not much time to do any research, this is what I did.

Buy 2 packets of Fairprice Tangyuan. Black sesame (our favourite) and Peanut flavour.

Boil the water and add in pandan leaves. I bought the whole bunch for $0.49 and threw everything in because there are no other uses for it.

Because I have a small pot and the 2 big bunch of pandan leaves have taken up most of the space, I took one out bunch (after boiling) and put in the balls. The colour of the water has turned yellowish! Wait for the balls to float to the surface of the water, lower down the heat to simmer.

Then add in sugar (the easiest way) to the pot and you get a sweet broth (the artificial way). Mom asked me to put in some longans – but where got time to find and peel!?

So there you go, my first instant way of celebrating Dong Zhi in my new home. I promise I will make more effort next year.