Tong Yuen / Tang Yuan

Tomorrow is the tong yuen day @ winter solstice day / 冬至.. so it is a must to eat the glutinous rice ball. Dong Zhi marks the end and, which is also the beginning of a new year, this is the day when everyone become one year older. The roundness of the tong yuen symbolizes unity.

There is a belief in chinese society which says that the amount of tong yuen you must eat during Dong Zhi is your current age + 1, and so after you eat you will grow one year older. So, does that means if i did not eat Tong Yuen then I will be young forever? Yipee... =.=

I guess, in modern society nowadays, people no longer make their own tong yuen, they will usually buy those instant ones from supermarket. A conversation that I heard today:

Lady talking on the phone : OMG.. all the tong yuen are sold out. Then how? No tong yuen for tomorrow?

And i was thinking, God, make your own...if you do not know how to make one..look for recipes online and make some for your own and ur family. Or the lady can also try going to places like Pandamaran, where they sell the ready dough at roadside and you will only need to roll them into balls.

The tauke packing the ready-made dough in a plastic for a customer.

To prepare for Dong Zhi, my sis bought peanut today. We usually love to dip our tong yuen with the grinded peanut.

The 1st step to making the peanut is, fry them, till it smells good and is a little burnt on it.

Then, peel of the skin of the peanuts and put it in a blender and BLEND..

Tadah..peanuts is done.. you can use it as a filling in the tong yuen or use it as a dipping like us. If you want to use it as a dipping, add in some sugar to the peanut.

The tong yuen making for us will be tomorrow morning, as my sis is lazy to make the dough today...haha..and I'm lazy to learn.. ;p

冬至 快乐！！Happy Winter Solstice Day !!