歪果仁竟然都会做元宵！！

LW: Now, this is a special time of the year. We just came out from the Spring Festival, a lot of people are returning back home, starting work again, a lot of people are heading back to where they came from, so this is also now the Lantern Festival. Now, I’m pretty sure that a lot of foreigners, or a lot of people outside China might not actually be aware of this, so maybe, Wu You, you can enlighten us a little bit. WY: Happy Lantern Festival, in the first place! The Lantern Festival traditionally ends the Chinese New Year period, and all the New Year taboos are no longer in effect. The Lantern Festival is also the first full moon night in the Chinese calendar, so that marks the return of spring and symbolizes the reunion of the family. Usually, people will eat sticky rice balls on this day. NL: There are lanterns being hung up on people’s buildings, in their homes, also just along the streets, I’m sure you’ve seen them outside on the lamp posts, so Lantern Festival is in full swing. LW: But Wu You, you mentioned something that was quite intriguing to me, that was the rice ball. Why is it happening now? WY: Oh, there are various kinds of stories about it, and here is one of them. So, a long, long time ago, like 770 BC, there was an emperor, the emperor of the state of Chu. One day, when he was walking along the Yangtze River, he saw something floating on the river, and it was a kind of rice ball, white outside and red inside. The king went to see Confucius and asked him what it is. Confucius said, “This is a sign. If you got this, that symbolizes that you will have a prosperous kingdom and the country will be successful and wealthy from now on.” That day was on the 15th day of the first lunar month, so right after that, every year on this day, both the king and also the ordinary people in the kingdom would eat this kind of sticky rice ball, and it has been passed along from generation to generation and has become a tradition in China. LW: That’s lovely, a sticky rice ball tradition. NL: One of those things that you would eat on the occasion, and I actually learned how to make them yesterday, so I can be something of an expert on making sticky rice balls. WY: Tell us how! NL: It was a lot simpler than I was expecting. You get the sticky rice flour and water, and just literally mix it together into a ball. Or at least, that’s what I did, maybe there’s a better way to do it if you’re making industrial quantities. And there are different fillings you can choose, so one of them was sesame, I think..? WY: Black sesame? NL: That’s right, yeah. One was red bean paste, which is quite a controversial food among some foreigners, who don’t tend to like red bean paste. LW: I don’t, I’m afraid. Not one of my favorites. But go on, Nick. NL: And the third one was some kind of nuts. WY: Oh, that’s nice. NL: So you choose your filling, pop it into the inside of the rice ball and then just boil them for a few minutes until the outside is the sticky consistency that they normally are when you eat them. WY: That’s nice! LW: Wu You, are you impressed by this? WY: Yes, I am! LW: I’m not impressed at all. He didn’t bring any of it in this morning, so he’s made it and he’s left it at home, I’m not impressed at all. NL: It’s obviously a sign that they were tasty, if I ate them all myself. LW: Well, Nick’s done a good job there, but we can’t judge if he’s done a good job or not. Maybe in the future. When does the Lantern Festival end? WY: Only on this day. LW: It’s only this day! So he can’t even bring them tomorrow. NL: I’ve got out of that. Next year? LW: Next year. We’ll have to wait and see if Nick’s glutinous rice balls actually do the job.