Belittle not the humble glutinous rice ball

North and South China are distinguished not only by geography and weather, but also by the way people there prepare their food. Northerners cannot understand how jellied bean curd can be sweet, just as southerners cannot fathom why rice dumplings have to be anything but salty.

Among the many traditional Chinese foods, the glutinous rice ball is one that doesn't differ much in North and South China. In the north, it is made with sweet filling and cooked in boiling water and called yuanxiao. In the south, it is made like dumpling and called tangyuan. This means northerners and southerners agree glutinous rice balls should be sweet, though in some parts of South China people prefer salty ones.

The size of glutinous rice balls can be anything between a quail's egg and a ping-pong ball, and they are not difficult to make. Yet the small balls have a history of more than 2,000 years.