dong zhi festival

Its the time of the year again:) Dong Zhi literally means 'arrival of winter' and is an important occasion worth celebrating to signify the good year we've had. This day usually falls on the 22nd of December every year and occurs approximately 6 weeks before Chinese New Year. This is a time for family reunion as well as an occasion for friends and relatives to get together.

Tang Yuan or also known as sweet soup of glutinuous rice balls is essential during this festival. Eaten as it is or stuffed with peanut, black sesame or red bean paste, this delicacy signifies unity and harmony in a family.

This year i got a lil adventurous:) As usual my mom,sis, bro rolled the normal rice balls but ive decided to make an extra of 18 rice balls stuffed with brown sugar. Well, they turned out OK only..i still prefer black sesame stuffings:P

Being the good daughter i am, i woke up at 6 plus and followed my mum to the morning market, helped in preparing the offerings to ancestors as well as the elaborate prayers at home and drove her to a nearby temple to pray. It felt like only yesterday when i last celebrated this festival. how time flies. my grandma told me that we're considered 'a year older' after eating the tangyuan.Gosh!

while my sis and i struggled to roll evenly shaped rice balls,

my bro wins hands down with his perfectly shaped 'balls'
guys are better with balls uh?:p

some of the offerings

on a slightly different note, what do u get when u blend a mixture of

a few batangs of red chillies,
a few batangs of chilli padi,
shallots,
a few cloves of garlic,
2-3 tsp of lime juice,
2-3 tsp of rice vinegar,
and some concentrated chicken broth/stock?

u get a superduperspicylicious chilli sauce


to go with this

'pak cham kai' aka steamed chicken ( if you realise, its part of the offerings on the table)

i finally got it right:))) wheeee~~~~