the Stone Grinder/mill was an indispensable utility in a Foochow home in the olden days. Every family would have one. It was a necessity albeit heavy and laborious to use.
A few days before the Winter Solstice,my grandmother's house would be busy. First aunt and third aunt would individually in their kitchen start their preparing for the traditional glutinous balls making for the festival. Soy bean would be stir fried (without oil) in the big kuali. when they were cooked, they will be turned into soy bean flour. It became a very fragrant and aromatic powder, ready for coating of the glutinous balls. The flour would be kept in a small tin, ready to be used.
One day before the Winter solstice, my grandmother and third aunt would decide how much glutinous rice to use and how much si yang or tang yuen to make that year. would it be one gantang or rice (suoh tern)? They would use a bucket to soak the glutinous rice in water ready for an early morning's milling. After milling, with lots of us kids taking turns, the glutinous rice milk would be placed in a flour sack and the stone mill would be used to press and squeeze the water out of the rice flour. This would take quite an amount of time. Hence we had to get up very early to do this work.
Soon the wet rice flour would be of a good consistency to make the rice balls. The processing of making these round balls is called chor (using both hands). the round balls were boiled in the prepared pot of boiling water. We Foochows did not make tang yuen soup or colour the glutinous rice balls.
We coated the si iang in the soy bean powder. And each child would be given a chopstick, pushing the balls like a skewer. That was our happy Winter Solstice breakfast. Some of us we so good in skewering the glutinous rice balls that we could put 10 through our chopstick.
(Foochow way of eating si iang)
What a happy Winter Solstice morning!! The aroma and the fragrance would be remembered for years to come.
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