Happy Chinese New Year’s!

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year’s. Keeping with tradition, we had a big family dinner tonight. We even set a spot on the table for my brother who’s currently in San Diego.

Last night, I made tong yuen with black sesame paste filling (peanut butter and red bean are also common fillings but black sesame is my favorite).

The ingredients are very simple…

Tong yuen: glutinous rice flour, water.

Filling: black sesame (ground), sugar, vegetable oil

Soup: water, ginger, piloncillo brown sugar

You can also use regular brown sugar or white sugar for the soup but I prefer the piloncilo, which is a Mexican brown sugar that I use in my hong sui or red bean soup (another popular Cantonese dessert).

A warm delicious dessert on a cold winter’s night.

PS - I visited the Chinatown in Oakland yesterday. Very festive and insanely crowded. I can only wonder what it’s like right now in China or Hong Kong.