Mom's Homemade Meat Rice Ball

BY IDA ZHANG

Creekside Elementary Parent

As a girl born and raised in Chengdu, Sichuan, I love all sticky and gooey things.

The agriculture in Sichuan is different from the northern areas; most farmers there produce white, raw flour. Many delicious foods include crispy, soft, sweet, spicy, and various combinations of textures and flavors. Whenever I miss home, I remember the special foods that have really become a part of me.

Most people in China have rice balls during the Lantern Festival. But in Sichuan, rice balls are a common breakfast choice. I remember when I was five years old, I used to stand on the bridge over the Shahe River and watched the chef scoop some delicious rice balls from the steaming pots and place them in a small porcelain bowl with a white background and blue flowers. This was the highlight of my week!

My family's signature recipe for rice balls gradually evolved into a taste of fresh meat and sprouts. And although my father loves to eat the meat rice balls so much, my mother is responsible for the preparation. She usually mixes the thawed meat filling with chopped ginger, sprouts, wine, salt, soy sauce, and sugar the first night. She then stirs it into a mixture of meat before putting it in the refrigerator so that the harder meat filling is easier to wrap into rice balls the next morning. After mixing the glutinous rice flour with water to form a dough, it gets refrigerated and then quickly wrapped and put into a pot the next morning. Growing up, it was always great to wake up in the morning to a steaming bowl of meat rice balls.

After I left home to go to school, work, and then to study abroad, the way I love food turned me from a person who knows nothing about cooking into a cook who could make good and tasty dishes. I grew from a daughter to a mother. I have learned many, many dishes that I have eaten and many new ones. With the convenience of this connected world, I can cook far more dishes than my parents and basically learn how to cook whatever I want to eat. At the same time, I am also using food to develop my children's imagination of China: I make dumplings at New Year's; I make mugwort at Qingming; I make zongzi at Dragon Boat Festival; I make mooncakes at Mid-Autumn; I make sausages at Midwinter ...... I also make rice balls at Lantern Festival, but I only make sweet fillings, not meat fillings.

It is not that I cannot; it is only because it has become such an important childhood memory for me! I only want to eat the meat rice balls my mom makes me. If my mom does not make it, I will not eat it!

Due to these three years of Covid Pandemic, people who live abroad have not been able to go and see their family members in China. Some people have even lost their families during the pandemic. I am fortunate that my mother came to visit us recently, and I was finally able to eat her homemade meat rice balls again! I hope all Chinese who live aboard can reunite with their families soon.

Chinese Lantern Festival and Tangyuan (Rice Ball Dumpling)

Chinese Lantern Festival is a traditional festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunisolar Chinese calendar, during the full moon. Usually falling in February or early March on the Gregorian calendar, it marks the final day of the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. As early as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 25), it had become a festival with great significance.

Eaten during the Lantern Festival, tangyuan '汤圆' or yuanxiao '元宵' is a glutinous rice ball typically filled with sweet red bean paste, sesame paste, peanut butter, etc. It can be boiled, fried, or steamed; each has a unique taste. Chinese people believe that the round shape of the balls and the bowls in which they are served symbolize family togetherness. Eating tangyuan or yuanxiao may bring the family harmony, happiness, and luck in the new year.