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Thursday, July 14, 2011

CNY : 瓜子 Kuaci


 
Kuaci, 瓜子 literally means ‘gourd’s seed’, is a term collectively refers to dried or roasted seeds, sometime flovoured or salted, of sunflower, pumpkin, watermelon, luffa, cucumber or wintermelon etc, usually consumed as a snack. 

Dehulling is commonly performed by cracking the hull with one’s teeth and spitting it out while keeping the kernel in the mouth and eating it.

Kuaci is reported to have many nutritional properties, but I do not intend to discuss it here.   Its significance in culture is sometime more amusing.  In Chinese community, kuaci is always related to ‘多子多孙’,  ‘fruitfulness’, ‘abundant offspring’ … thus its served during CNYs, and weddings.



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