The Year of the Rabbit

[liuzhou]

7 hours ago, Smithy said:

Are those the dumplings in the bottom photos? What are they filled with? What sauce would be used with them?

 

Yes. They  were simply filled with minced pork and cabbage and the dipping sauce was 50:50 soy sauce and black vinegar with chopped Chinese chives.

[liuzhou]

Looking for something else, I came across a photo of the dips.

 

[liuzhou]

 

Today is 元宵节 (yuán xiāo jié) or the Lantern Festival marking the 15th day of the lunar-solar year and the last day of 春节 (chūn jié), the Spring Festival, which starts on Chinese New Year's Day. It is also the first full moon of the year which is what 元宵 (yuán xiāo) means.

 

Traditional activities are centred around the lanterns hung all over cities, towns, villages and hamlets throughout China. People hang them, but also spend time viewing them. In recent years, I’ve given up viewing them, 90% are just advertisements from local and national companies. The marketeers screw everything up.

 

Yuan xiao

 

Also traditional is eating a delicacy with the same name 元宵 (yuán xiāo). These are small dumpling balls of glutinous rice (representing the new moon) filled with various, mainly sweet ingredients such as sugar, rose petals, sesame, sweetened bean paste, and jujube paste. Black sesame paste is the favourite. These are very similar to 汤圆 (tāng yuán), also eaten at the Lantern Festival. It is a kind of a north v south China thing, with yuanxiao being favoured more in the north and tangyuan more in the south.

The main difference is in the technique of assembling the dish. More information on the difference here. Both are too sweet and sticky for me, I’m afraid. There is a recipe here.

 

Although, eating yuanxiao is pretty much universal, different parts of China have their own traditions. Xi’an people, for example, eat 糖葫芦 (táng hú lu), candied haw berries on sticks.

 

 

Me, I celebrate everyone going back to work after two weeks. Shops re-open. Delivery services resume. Prices go back down (the few delivery services that continue working hoist their prices to the meet the new moon.

 

 

 

元宵快乐！

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[KennethT]

I saw a lot of hawberry-on-a-stick vendors in Beijing. All the guide books said it was a Beijing "must have". I wish locals wrote guidebooks. Ever think about a side business???

 

[liuzhou]

4 hours ago, KennethT said:

I saw a lot of hawberry-on-a-stick vendors in Beijing. All the guide books said it was a Beijing "must have". I wish locals wrote guidebooks. Ever think about a side business???

 

 

I don't think it is possible to write a decent guide book to China. Even a series covering individual provinces would be near impossible. It is such a culturally, sociologically  and linguistically fragmented culture. I could write a guide to Liuzhou and it would be useless In Guilin just up the road, obviously in the particulars, but also in the generalities.

When I first arrived, I clutched my Lonely Planet guide like my life depended on it. I now know 90% of what it told me was either wrong or irrelevant. The food section was utterly useless. They obviously didn't realise that names of ingredients and dishes can change within the same market or restaurant depending on who serves you! I still have that guide book and pull it out when I want a laugh. I am convinced the person who wrote the Liuzhou section never got off the train.

There are a lot of things I could write about China, but a guide book is way down the list.

Edited February 5, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[liuzhou]

On 2/5/2023 at 10:48 PM, liuzhou said:

I saw a lot of hawberry-on-a-stick vendors in Beijing. All the guide books said it was a Beijing "must have".

 

I should say that although they are very popular in Beijing, it is Xi'an that is noted for them at the Lantern  Festival. Of course, this is partly because the haws resemble lanterns. I get them here, too.