Food is the heart of double occasion

A cook prepares Tangyuan, a Chinese sweet dumpling, during a dim sum festival at the Yuyuan Garden in east China's Shanghai. [Photo/Xinhua]

While chocolate is the traditional food of love on Valentine's Day, this year you might want to whisper sweet nothings to your other half over yuanxiao, the sweetened rice dumplings traditionally eaten on the Lantern Festival.

With both festivals falling on Feb 14 this year, the date is an unusually auspicious one - not just for young love but also for the emergence of one aspect of China's ancient culture into the modern world.

Just as Western influences can be tasted in the modern mooncake, the traditional Chinese delicacy eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, chocolate and yuanxiao are one of many new pairings for the Lantern Festival.

Chocolate is widely regarded as a relatively recent introduction to China. It was first recorded as entering the country in 1705, when Pope Clement XI dispatched envoys to present 150 chocolates to Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

However, until the late 1980s when multinational manufacturers like Mars, Hershey and Cadbury entered the market, most of the "chocolate" eaten in China was made with cocoa butter substitutes, creating nothing more than a sweet, brown substance.

Helped by slick and widespread marketing campaigns, real chocolate has now become part of the culture and the diet.

Yuanxiao, commonly called tang - yuan in southern China, has evolved over centuries and continues to adapt to modern tastes with new ingredients.

The dumplings are made with varied techniques and have different characteristics in northern and southern China. Yuanxiao is chewier, while tangyuan is tender and melts in the mouth.