Growing
up in Taiwan, I naturally ate a lot of tang yuan (glutenous rice
balls or sticky rice balls). Traditionally, we eat them on both the
Winter Solstice Festival (Dong Zhi) and the Lantern Festival (Yuan
Xiao). There are two kinds of tang yuan: smaller balls without
filling and lager ones with filling. At home, my mom would either
make it herself or buy them freshly made from the farmers market.
After moving to New York alone, I would buy the frozen packages in
Asian markets. Of course it wasn't ideal, but it was good enough to
fulfill my craving and my homesickness during the holidays, until one
day, I saw my roommate making some homemade tang yuan, and it made me
very curious. She was always a good homemaker and she loved making
everything herself. I, on the other hand, wasn't such a good cook at
the time, and thought that it would be good to learn how to make them
from her.
