Have you eaten your 팥죽 Patjuk ^^

Today is 冬至 Dong Zhi.  I didn't know Korean celebrate this festival as well until I came across an article from Korea.net  ^^   It is known as 동지 Dong Ji in Korea.  Dong Zhi and Dong Ji sounds almost the same right?  The origins of this festival came about from the yin and yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos.  Today is the day with the shortest day and the longest night of the year.    I think this festival is observed by Asians including Japanese, Koreans, Chinese and Vietnamese. 

According to Korea.net, Korean will eat Patjuk(Red Bean porridge) on this day.   Well, it is not a big celebration or a public holiday in Singapore but most families will tend to eat Tang Yuan 湯圓 (Glutinuous rice balls) today.  Although it was said that eating Tang Yuan means a year older but I do like Dong Zhi because it is a day which symbolize reunion  ^^  When I was young, my siblings and I will help our mother to make little glutinuous balls but we are too lazy to do that now...hahahaa....mainly because these glutinuous rice balls are easily available from the supermarkets.

This is just a very simple method of eating Tang Yuan 湯圓 (Glutinuous rice balls).  There are other ingredients you can add to the soup.  The red color glutinuous rice balls are the ones with peanut fillings.  The white ones contain either black sesame or red bean paste.  I like red bean but not here.  I preferred black sesame and peanuts flavour but sigh...it is not easy to differentiate between the ones with red beans and the ones with black sesame...I ended up eating four glutinuous rice balls with red beans and only one glutinuous rice ball with black sesame ...Can't eat anymore as they can be quite filling..Going to save my stomach for my 통닭 later on.  Yap.  My chicken is marinating in progress ㅎㅎㅎ