In Belize, I was taught by a local teacher how to make Mayan chocolate. This chocolate got its name because Mayans were the first to make it centuries ago. It is special in the fact that it has honey and no sugar. The ancient Mayans added this chocolate with chili, cinnamon, five spice, or spicy pepper. Now let me share how to make the chocolate! First, I was given a cacao fruit. The cacao fruit is bumpy and yellow. The fruit is soft on the bumpy parts and hard on the other parts. It is the same size as my hand. Second, I used a knife to cut the cacao fruit in half. After I cut the cacao, I could see some white sticky triangles. I could eat the white part off or cut it off. When I finished, I could see dozens of cacao beans. They look brown and tasted bitter. The cacao beans are the size of jellybeans. Third, I grinded the cacao beans into one big chunk. The beans were grinded three times by a manual grinder. The grinder, as my teacher told me, was from the Mayans and made of stone. What was more special about the grinder was that it was made from a lava stone and was passed down from generation to generation. This lava stone cannot be bought or sold in Belize because it is illegal. Fourth, I poured the chunk of chocolate in a bowl of warm water. Then, I mixed the water three times with a wooden spoon. I made sure that there were no more chunks of chocolate left. Fifth, I put in honey and cinnamon as my favorite. I picked them to make the drink sweet. I did not have sugar to add, because I guess sugar was not used when the Mayans were alive. Then, I added chili, five spice, spicy pepper, and more cinnamon. As a result, the chocolate drink had more flavor. Finally, I was ready to drink the chocolate! Even this was my first time making Mayan chocolate, my chocolate came out successfully, with rich flavor and flowy taste! It was exciting to have such a new experience.
A Lantern of Chinese Tradition
A Chinese lantern is typically red. It has a red string at the top to hold; it also has some Chinese words on its body and gold strips at the bottom. It is normally in red and gold because both colors mean richness and luck, as a traditional wish. Inside of the Chinese lantern is made of red cloth and has a candle to light it up. Thousands and millions of Chinese lanterns are hanged in the sky over the streets on the day of the Chinese Lantern Festival. The festival is in the first month of Chinese lunar year and it is often in January or February. On the day, people like to eat sweet rice dumplings and go to guess riddles which they can find at the bottom of lanterns. If they get the right answer, the sellers of the Chinese lanterns will give them a gift. To celebrate the Chinese Lantern Festival, I have made my own orange lantern. It has no strips. Instead, it has a wood stick and four red strings to hold at the top. You can write Chinese words on it or you can paint it. Inside of it definitely has orange inner skin; you can also put a candle in it, if you want. For this orange lantern, I used a big orange, some strings, a needle, and a chopstick. The first step was to cut the top of the orange open, and then to take out the orange inside carefully. The second step was to get the needle and string and put it through the peel near the cut and do the other one in the opposite direction. The third step was to get the chopstick and tie the two ends of the two strings together on the stick. The fourth step was to take the excess and string it around the stick to make a knot for extra security, or else the strings might get loose and the lantern might fall. It is fun to eat all of an orange and play with an orange lantern at the same time.
