Susan Yen L.Ac
A traditional Chinese dish in celebrating the first day of winter is “Tang Yuen”, a dessert with sweet rice (powder) and brown sugar as its main ingredients. Typically, this family oriented dessert is where the kids help with kneading sweet rice dough (mix sweet rice powder and water) and shaping them into bit size snow balls. Throw in the sweet rice snowballs into a pot of boiling water, and when they are done, the little snow balls will bobble about in the pot. The brown sugar is added to the boiled water to taste. For texture and taste variety, grounded black sesame paste or red bean paste are common fillings.
Other than having a legitimate excuse to have a sweet treat, the main ingredients, sweet rice and brown sugar are also a good source of nutrition. The properties of both are warm and neutral and are governed by the spleen/stomach meridians, and thus, after a bowl, one feels warmth from the inside out.
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