I was
raised in a traditional Chinese family. Every festival or social occasion would
be celebrated and observed with religious detail. Like all the generations of
my family before me, each ritual, each incantation, each altar setting, even
the specific ‘food’ or other votive offering to a particular deity, would have
to be executed to the tee.
The
coming Winter Solstice (冬至) -- 21 December -- was one such occasion. In the past, the Winter Solstice celebration
was regarded as far more important than the Chinese Lunar New Year.
As
China was largely an agrarian society in those times, the festival held great
importance for another reason. The weather on the day of festival was believed
to presage the weather for the coming year -- a prime concern for farmers. For
instance, the saying: “冬至冷，春节暖；冬至暖，春节冷”,
foretold that “if the day was cold, we would have a warm Chinese Lunar New Year,
and vice versa.” The Winter Solstice festival also marked the lengthening of
the daylight hours, and thus the astronomical beginning of a new year. For all
these reasons, it called for a grand celebration.
In Imperial China, the emperor would lead the
country in prayers for good weather and fortune. Family members would be obliged
to return home for a reunion dinner, and visit the graves of their ancestors for
blessings and good fortune. Food-wise, the northern Chinese would prepare meat
dumplings or wonton (馄饨)as
part of the celebratory menu; and for the southern Chinese, the tangyuan (汤圆).
In my family, this became another excuse for a
celebratory feast. In the weeks leading up to the actual day, the word “九大簋”
would often be heard on the family elders’ mouths; the last character “gui”
being the ancient Chinese description of a large “food urn”, and “jiu da”
meaning “nine major ingredients”. Simply put, the phrase means that everyone
would have to decide what to prepare for the feast, and someone would have to
be put in charge.
This
year, the Winter Solstice would fall on 21 December 2012, and Old Hong Kong
Legend has specially created a “九大簋”
for this special occasion. In it, nine different types of ingredients such as
fresh water carp balls, winter shoot, dongpo
rou (东坡肉, mushroom, and abalone are
placed in a large bowl and braised in abalone sauce.
There
was a nice twist to the traditional tangyuan:
the red bean was cooked to a paste, and acted as a bed on which to rest the tangyuan. The flavor of the red bean
paste was more robust with a hint of dried tangerine peel.
Old Hong Kong Legend
#02-18
Raffles City
Singapore
Telephone:
6336 3038
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