Dumpling Festival : Bak Chang!

Today is the dumpling(also known as Bak Chang@ZongZi) festival day. In Chinese, known as Duan Wu Jie. Smallbell has been chipping in to help in making the bak chang since last year's festival. Before I go into the process of making dumpling, here's a brief history on it.

I'll refer the dumpling as Chang. Chang is traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. This day also commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese poet from kingdom of Chu who lives during the "three country wars period". Qu Yuan tried unsuccessfully to warn his king and countrymen against the expansion of their Qin neighbors. When Qin Dynasty took over Chu Capital, Qu Yuan was so disappointed that he drowned himself in the Miluo river. According to legend, packets of rice were thrown into the river to prevent fish from eaeting Qu Yuan's body. However, there was another version which states that Chang were given to a dragon that lived in the river.

So much bout the story, let's talk bout the process of making Chang. Chang are wrapped in bamboo leaves because it imparts its own unique smell and flavour to the rice. The rice will be lightly precooked by stir-frying. Ingredients include red bean paste, chinese black mushrooms, salted duck eggs, chesnuts, cooked peanuts. The ingredients are prepared separately or mixed together depending on the practice of the family. Once all the ingredients are prepared, here comes the process of wrapping the Chang. Wrapping the Chang will takes a lot of patience and practice for a new beginner.

As for Smallbell, wrapping the Chang is as easy as eating the Chang(btw, she can really eat A LOT of it, trust me). She's so well trained in it and that makes me really proud and glad that I found the perfect gal(At least i won't have to buy Chang in the future..hehe).

Not to be missed is also the Jianshui Zong(Kee Chang in Hokkien)(碱水粽) where the glutinous rice is treated with lye water which gives them a distinctive yellow colour. It usually contain no filling and are often eaten with sugar or light syrup or kaya.

That's so much on Duan Wu Jie, we'll be back with more updates.