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Celebrating Lantern Festival with Sweet Glutinous Rice
Balls |
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Today is the Lantern Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar
month in the Chinese calendar. Early in the morning, my mother and I went to the
supermarket to buy glutinous rice balls, a traditional food for this festival.
The freezer section was packed with people scrambling to pick their favorite
brand of glutinous rice balls. These small round balls were neatly arranged in
boxes of 10 or 12, with various flavors including meat, black sesame, red bean,
and even green tea. They looked like white pebbles, hard and smooth.
After much deliberation, my mother and I chose two boxes of mixed flavors so
that everyone could have their preferred taste. At the checkout, we found a long
queue of people with multiple boxes of glutinous rice balls in their hands.
Back home, my mother filled a pot with water and put it on the stove. When the
water boiled, she added the glutinous rice balls, and they danced in the pot
like mischievous kids. After boiling for a while, my mother added cold water
twice to make the glutinous rice balls chewy and tender. Soon, the rice balls
floated on the surface of the water, and my mother declared, "The rice balls are
ready!" She scooped them into bowls and served them to my sister and me.
As we enjoyed the delicious glutinous rice balls, my mother explained to us the
origin of this traditional food and the Lantern Festival. She also shared an
amusing anecdote about her Japanese friend who didn't know how to eat glutinous
rice balls and ate them raw. We felt grateful to be Chinese and to have so many
wonderful traditional festivals and delicious foods. |
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