Last Wednesday was Yuanxiao Jie, or the Lantern Festival, the final day of the two-week Chinese new-year holiday period optimistically called “Spring Festival”. On this day, you celebrate family unity and happiness by eating small, round, sweet dumplings called yuanxiao.

At the office a Chinese colleague of mine ran an event where they gave boxes of yuanxiao from a high-class Beijing confectioner to attending journalists. She had a couple of spare boxes, so she gave one to me after the event. I had never tried yuanxiao before, so I opened the box and ate one.

Chalky. Messy. Hard to eat. Not very tasty.

I brought the box home to my wife, who, being intelligent, read the Chinese instructions on the side of the box.

I know know --and this is important-- that you must boil the dumplings.

Bless any of my Chinese colleagues who noticed me eating a raw one and simply decided to spare me the embarassment of telling me.

Boiled yuanxiao are glutinous, sweet and lovely.