The appetizers for Half Chinese New Year: Mini Rice Balls

There is no predicting at what time Half Chinese New Year dinner is ready to be served. A new dish or a last minute idea generally creeps into the menu and that sort of throws the whole timing of the meal into a tizzy. The unkindest thing you can do to a guest is to invite them into a house filled with food and not feed them

Enter the appetizers.

Mini Rice Balls, while not even half-Chinese, are beautiful, intriguing and powerful. They tart up the palate nicely. We stuffed our rice balls with takuan (pickled lo bak, the long white winter radish of the Orient). Making miniature rice balls takes longer than making standard rice balls because small amounts of rice don’t stick together as well as large amounts of rice.

Make sushi rice.
Cut takuan into half-inch cubes or use small ume (pickled Japanese plums).
Cute Nori into 3x3” squares.
Lay out a plate of rice vinegar. Place two pieces of nori into vinegar.
Take a tablespoon of rice and form a ball around the pickled thing of your choice.
Fidget for a while.
Add more rice.
Wrap nori around ball.
Let sit for an hour so the vinegar dries.
Warn guests about ume pits.