Messy Milky Mochi for Winter Solstice

Описание: Yesterday I realized it was the winter solstice. It’s a pretty meaningful holiday for a lot of Chinese families. Ours didn’t make a huge deal of it, especially once the kids got older (I’m the youngest), but we usually tried to have dinner together. I’d almost always run to the Chinese market for frozen tang yuan — at least two flavors. Black sesame was a must, and probably crunchy peanut butter too.

This year, I’m not with my family — or really with any Chinese people who would recognize the holiday at all. To be fair, I barely do myself beyond the food traditions, but those habits stick. So yesterday I made a quick batch of non-soup mochi to share with friends and family here in Mexico.

I made a rice dough with sweetened condensed milk, which gives each bite this dense, milky undertone. Normally I’d slow down and portion everything into neat little balls… but the key word was quick. This was a messy impromptu plan squeezed in between Christmas errands, so this video is very much the basics — and maybe a gentle example of what not to do if you’re aiming for perfection 😅

I also had to do a little convincing to get people to try them here. I told everyone they were made of rice of course, and eventually landed on calling them “not-too-sweet Chinese marshmallows,” which somehow worked!

Half are filled with premade red bean paste, the other half cut into simple chunks to eat on their own (like rough cut Hawaiian chi chi dango). Super soft and pillowy, subtly sweet, and exactly what I needed. It felt right to mark the solstice this way, even a day late and far from home.