Zongzi
Zongzi or simply zong is a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves, or sometimes with reed or other large flat leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling. In the Western world, they are also known as rice dumplings or sticky rice dumplings.
Names
As it diffused to other regions of Asia over many centuries, zongzi became known by various names in different languages and cultures, including Pya Htote in Burmese-speaking areas, Nom Chang in Cambodia, Bachang in Indonesia, Khanom Chang in Laos and Ba-chang in Thailand.Vietnamese cuisine also has a variation on this dish known as Bánh ú tro or Bánh tro.
In Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia, zongzi is known as bakcang, bacang, or zang. Similarly, zongzi is more popularly known as machang among Chinese Filipinos in the Philippines.
In some areas of the United States, particularly California and Texas, zongzi are often known as Chinese tamales.
Double Fifth Festival
Zongzi are traditionally eaten during the Duanwu Festival which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, and commonly known as the "Dragon Boat Festival" in English. The festival falls each year on a day in late-May to mid-June in the Western calendar.Popular origin myth
A popular belief amongst the Chinese of eating zongzi involved commemorating the death of Qu Yuan, a famous poet from the kingdom of Chu who lived during the Warring States period. Known for his patriotism, Qu Yuan tried unsuccessfully to warn his king and countrymen against the expansionism of their Qin neighbor. When the Qin general Bai Qi captured Yingtu, then the capital of Chu, in 278 BC, Qu Yuan's grief was so intense that he drowned himself in the Miluo River after penning the Lament for Ying. According to legend, the locals rushed out in dragonboats to try retrieve his body and threw packets of rice into the river to distract the fish from eating the poet's body. In addition, it is also said that Qu Yuan appeared in a fisherman's dream, saying a flood dragon was in the river, and most of the zongzi were eaten by the dragon instead of the fishes. He told the fisherman that the dragon feared wormwood leaves and five-color strings, and as long as those special materials would be added to zongzi, his body would be protected.Although Qu Yuan died in 278 BC, the existence of a popular cult around him did not develop until the 6th century AD, as far as can be substantiated by evidence.
As for the origin myth, a fable recounts that during in the early Han dynasty, the ghost of Quan Yu appeared in a dream to a man named Ou Hui and instructed him to wrap the chinaberry leaves and colored string, to prevent the dragons from consuming them; however, this story is only attested in a 6th century work, namely 's Xu Qixieji.
History
The practice of eating zongzi on the Double Fifth or Summer Soltice is concretely documented in literature from around the Late Han.At the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, people made zong, also called jiao shu by soaking millet rice with grass and wood ash water, and wrapping the cooked grain with the leaves of the Zizania latifolia plant, and shaping the leaf packet into or triangles, calling it "alkali water dumplings". And the zong or ziao shu prepared this way was eaten on the Double Fifth, as documented in the work Fengsu Tongyi. These rice dumplings of the Double Fifth festival are also mentioned in General Zhou Chu 's Fengtu Ji, where it is stated that the wild rice leaf-wrapped sticky rice were prepared by boiling.
In the Jin dynasty, zongzi was officially a Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, the package of rice dumplings in addition to the raw materials of glutinous rice, also added Chinese medicine yizhiren, cooked zongzi called "yizhi zongzi". Rice filled with a variety of meat, chestnut and other varieties of zongzi began to increase gradually. Zongzi was also used as a gift communication.
In the 6th century, and they were being made by being packed inside "young bamboo" tubes.Jingchu Suishiji 《荊楚歲時記》, under the "Summer Solstice" heading.Refn|Dong suggests the name cn-span|In the Tang dynasty, the shape of zongzi appeared conical and diamond-shaped.|date=July 2020clarify|date=July 2020|reason=kanji neededzh|t=新附|p=xinfuzh|t=蘆|s=芦|p=xinfuefn|The original Shuowen Jiezi dates to c. 100 AD, but this character was added to the dictionary in the 10th century.Better source|date=July 2020dn|date=July 2020Better source|date=July 2020
Description
The shapes of zongzi vary, and range from being approximately tetrahedral in southern China to an elongated cone in northern China. In the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, plastic mock-ups of rectangular zongzi are displayed as an example of the zongzi eaten by Chiang Kai-shek. Wrapping zongzi neatly is a skill that is passed down through families, as are the recipes. Making zongzi is traditionally a family event of which everyone helps out.While traditional zongzi are wrapped in bamboo leaves, the leaves of lotus, reed, maize, banana, canna, shell ginger and pandan sometimes are used as substitutes in other countries. Each kind of leaf imparts its own unique aroma and flavor to the rice.
The fillings used for zongzi vary from region to region, but the rice used is almost always glutinous rice. Depending on the region, the rice may be lightly precooked by stir-frying or soaked in water before using. In the north, fillings are mostly red bean paste and tapioca or taro. Northern style zongzi tend to be sweet and dessert-like. Southern-style zongzi, however, tend to be more savory or salty. Fillings of Southern-style zongzi include salted duck egg, pork belly, taro, shredded pork or chicken, Chinese sausage, pork fat, and shiitake mushrooms.
Zongzi need to be steamed or boiled for several hours depending on how the rice is prepared prior to being added, along with the fillings. However, as the modes of zongzi styles have traveled and become mixed, today one can find all kinds of zongzi at traditional markets, and their types are not confined to which side of the Yellow River they originated from.
Fillings
- Mung beans, split and dehulled
- Red bean paste
- Chinese sausage
- Jujube
- Salted chicken fat
- Mushrooms
- Chinese black mushrooms
- Salted eggs
- Ham
- Hard boiled eggs
- Nuts
- Chestnuts
- Cooked peanuts
- Pork
- Conpoy
- Red-cooked meats
- Chicken
- Yam
- Vegetables
- Lotus seed
Variations
- "Jiaxing zongzi" : It is a kind of zongzi famous in mainland China and named after the city Jiaxing. The filling is typically pork but also can be mung beans, red beans or salted duck eggs.
- Jia zong : Instead of glutinous rice, balls of glutinous rice flour are used to enclose the fillings of the zongzi. This zongzi are typically smaller than most and are much stickier.
- Jianshui zong : Meaning "alkaline water zong," these are typically eaten as a dessert item rather than as part of the main meal. The glutinous rice is treated with jianzongshui, or potassium carbonate, giving them their distinctive yellow color. Jianshui zong typically contain either no filling or are filled with a sweet mixture, such as sweet bean paste. Sometimes, a certain redwood sliver is inserted for color and flavor. They are often eaten with sugar or light syrup.
- Nyonya chang : A specialty of Peranakan cuisine, this zongzi are made similarly to southern zongzi. However, the filling is typically minced pork with candied winter melon, ground roasted peanuts, and a spice mix.
- Cantonese jung : It is the representative of the southern variety of zongzi, which is more common with fresh meat zongzi with chicken, duck, char siu pork, such as the deployment of stuffing dumplings. Cantonese jungs are small, the front is square, back has a raised sharp Angle, shape like an awl.
- Banlam zang : Xiamen, quanzhou area is very famous for its pork dumplings. Pork zongzi braised pork with pork belly plus mushrooms, shrimp and so on.
- Sichuan zong : Sichuan people like to eat spicy food, so they make spicy rice dumplings. They will add sichuan peppercorns, chili powder, sichuan salt and a little preserved pork into the dumplings, wrapped into four-cornered dumplings. Cooked and then roasted, it tastes tender and flavorful.
- Beijing zong : They use red dates, bean paste as stuffing, a few also use preserved fruit as stuffing. Cold eating is the local characteristics of zongzi, so also known as cold zongzi, summer if you can put in the refrigerator after the ice to eat, better flavor.
- The northern Taiwanese zongzi are wrapped with husks of Phyllostachys makinoi bamboo, then steamed; southern Taiwanese zongzi are wrapped with leaves of Bambusa oldhamii, then boiled.
Making methods
2. Filling of seasonings: bacon dumplings to the first will be fresh pork with a little MSG, sugar, wine, salt, light soy sauce mix and rub repeatedly until the seasoning into the pork package.
3. The bundle of zongzi: bean paste zongzi should not be tied too tightly, to prevent the rice grains into the bean paste, if not thoroughly cooked will appear sandwich-sheng phenomenon. If the bacon dumplings with fat pork should not tie tight, tight can be appropriate.
4. Zongzi cooking: boiled dumplings must boil water before falling zongzi, water to soak the zongzi noodles, to re-boil after another fire for 3 hours