Tong Yuen Festival

Today is Dong Zhi, which marks the Winter Solstice, according to the chinese calender. Dong Zhi is the time for family to get together to make tong yuen. Traditionally, Tong Yuen is served on special occasions such as during weddings and the winter solstice festival about 6 weeks before the Chinese New Year. This special occasion is widely celebrated by the Chinese community all around the globe where family and relatives would gather for reunion to mark this significant festivity.

Basically, Tong yuen is a Chinese dessert made from glutinous rice flour. Just like the past, my kids and I would gather with my mom and we would make the rice balls one by one from the glutinous dough prepared. If you're too lazy to roll the rice balls, the coloured balls can be easily obtained in wet markets or hypermarkets. Despite all these conveniences, nothing beats making it from scratch, with kids gathered together and helping out to learn the art of rolling tong yuen .

The whole affair can be a joyous and fun experience that they will remember always, and hopefully pass on to another generation. They enjoy doing it but will turn the whole house upside down with small piles of flour scattered on the floor, dough on the wall, colours on each other’s faces and practically everything else in the house. LOL!

There you go, a bowl of colourful Tong Yuen or Glutinous Rice Balls in Pandan flavoured ginger syrup. Some of the common used colours are white and pink but this year my mom create multiple colours which include green (extracted from pandan leaves), blue (extracted from blue pea flowers a.k.a bunga telang) and maroon (extracted from dragon fruit).

Hurray for Dong Zhi!