Rice Balls with Black Sesame Filling

The first Chinese New Year that I spent in Taiwan, the head of our English department gifted each of the new professors in his department with a bowl of rice balls with black sesame filling inside. I loved them! I still had not identified the substance in the middle, nor did I realize it was related to my favorite breakfast food, but I knew it felt familiar and was a comfort food. It tasted and smelled like childhood and being safe and loved.

I have never made these, but this is a great video about how to make them. Someday, I will give it a try.

Black Sesame Milk

It's better than chocolate milk. Just add two spoons of black sesame powder to a glass of milk, together with a spoonful of sugar.

Bow certainly relished the drink, as did I. I only prepared about half a glass for each of us, so that we would not overindulge.

Bow started out drinking from the straw, like the civilized person that he is.

But when the strange slurpy sound let him know that the utility of the straw had come to its end, Bow took the the pink straw out of the glass and sucked up any excess liquid still left trapped inside it.

Then he set about drinking from the glass.

He lifted the glass high in the air to get every last drop. Then he looked carefully inside to see there was still sesame powder to be had within the glass.

Bow then used his very flexible tongue to mop up all the rest of the sesame powder.

I'd say that means the sesame milk was pretty good!

Black Sesame Porridge

My mother is here for her annual Thanksgiving visit, and she came bearing gifts. One of them was a packet of black sesame powder.

I first became acquainted -- and virtually addicted -- to this treat when I lived in Taiwan. Half my attraction was because of the unique flavor of sesame seed powder. The other half was due to the fact that there was a lot of sugar in those powder packets with the Quaker label that I was buying in the local Taiwanese supermarket.

This time around, though, the blacx sesame powder that my mother bought at her local Chinese food store in Indiana came unsweetened, which means that we can choose to use less sugar, or even enjoy the sesame flavor unsweetened.

When I made it for Bow, I added a single lump of sugar to the boiled water and the sesame powder. He knew what it was at once when he saw it among his choices for lunch.

When he asked for it, he simply called it "porridge". (דיסה). He knows what it is, because he has had it many times before. At first, our friend June brought us a supply from Taiwan. Then later, I ordered it online. And this week, it was grandma who brought us some.

Bow enjoyed his porridge, eating slowly, savoring the feast before him. It did not bother him at all that there was quiet conversation while he ate. Sometimes it's nice to have company.