November 7, 2017. LiDong. The beginning of winter.
We prepare with some friends, a warming ritual in observation. "Winter is here."
The room is filled with the scent of chicken soup. Boiling excess fat off the chicken for a heartier soup.
Some of that chicken will go to Opal. (Opal's ears perk up).
The rest will be greeted with ginger, mushroom, carrots, celery, and spice and pressure cooked.
Hearty soup, that you will have to imagine. The best way to greet the cold of winter that is to come.
Some plain noodles to go with it. Dry sauce noodle. The noodle here is slightly soggied due to me waiting too long to eat it. Beneath lies some sesame oil, chili oil, soy sauce and vinegar to be mixed. Yum!
Next were the tangerines. According to some Chinese dietary heuristic, these are considered a "chilly" type of food, which shouldn't be eaten if you have a cold. (There's vitamin C there though, so mhm... a bit torn).
We oven roasted these tangerines with sea salt. First we pierced holes in the top, and then ground sea salt into the gaps, and then into the oven they went!
Reflectively, I peeled the orange, and it became a flower. The salt brings out a different flavor, and the warmth of the orange hits the spot. Warm feelings all around.
Now, for dessert. Purple rice balls with sesame filling. It's a chewy texture on the outside, a bit gummy.
Here I can show you the sesame filling. Sesame paste is one of my favorites. Grainy, nutty, and sweet. As you might guess, this is a hot dessert, for the winter. The soup is brown sugar and this type of rice-based mixture with a very very slight hint of alcohol. Very slight, it's pretty hard to describe it. Tastes healthy, a bit medicinal too. Whatever it is, it's supposed to be good for you!
This happened to someone else's dessert. They let the sesame paste ooze all the way out! Looks like a squid attacked.
Finally, one more activity to close out the observance. There is a tradition where the orange peels are torn into 81 pieces. Not sure why that number is significant. This was quite meditative.
We then split them into various piles, to be placed around the house. Spreads nice fragrance, as well as natural energies. Something like that, I wasn't paying too much attention.
Here's what one pile looked like after a week. Yup. Dried up. Yup it's very dry in winter. We do have a humidifier prepared for that. Also, reminder to self to keep some chapstick around. Wife hates dry, chapped lips.
So that was our interesting ritual this year. Fellow Steemians, do you do anything to greet the winter?