Happy Winter Solstice! ~ joan's permanent diaries

I don't know what 冬至 means or what it's for so I wiki-ed it:

Traditionally, the Dongzhi Festival is also 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, Cantonese jyutping: tong1 jyun2; Mandarin Pinyin: Tāng Yuán) or 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. It is also often served with a mildly alcoholic unfiltered rice wine containing whole grains of glutinous rice (and often also Sweet Osmanthus flowers), called jiuniang.

Eh I always thought Dong Zhi means the beginning of Winter and that's about it. I'm quite blur with all these festivals to start with. I told my friends during Bak Zhang festival that the legend is that the son threw Bak Zhang into the sea to prevent fishes from eating his mother who died and was thrown into the sea. Then when Mooncake festival come, I tell them it's because the son has to throw Mooncake into the sea blah blah blah the same story goes for all festivals fml.

There's only 1 nice Tang Yuan stall in Penang that I know which is near Komtar at Magazine Road. We decided to go over after dinner and very surprised to see an extremely long queue.

#1 The queue. Normally no queue wan lor. You order and you get it straight. That night everyone came with their own bekas.

#2 We decided to join in the hooha and queued up also lol see my 3 friends at the back there. The line continues after them all the way to the back blocking the road traffic wtf.

#3 There's an extra stall setup next to the Tang Yuan stall which supplies the flour only. It's of course for the Tang Yuan stall, but you also can just buy the flour back home and make yourself.

#4 We queued for half an hour or more I think! The queue branches into 2 and our line moves extremely slow compared to the next line.

#5 Normally only the purple apron auntie takes care of the stall and occasionally there's an uncle or another auntie there doing nothing just chatting with her. That night she got so many helpers and her stall is like so crowded.

#6 On normal days, there's only white and pink Tang Yuan. That night she prepared white, baby pink, dark pink and yellow!

It's all worth the wait though. Her tang yuan is seriously the best. The glutinuous ball is so geng you can use to play pong pong okay! Seriously wan! But maybe the soup that goes with it is a bit too sweet for me. I like it with more ginger so it'll be more spicy.

Anyway my point is I know what business to do next year already. You'll see me setup a stall in Bayan Lepas selling Tang Yuan during Dong Zhi huhu. Must come and support me okay.