The Dragon Boat Festival (more commonly known as Duan Wu Jie) is one of the traditional festive occasions for the Chinese. It falls on the 8th of June this year and our company’s social club took the liberty of distributing rice dumplings (called zhong zhi) to everyone in the office on Friday (since Saturday is a gazetted public holiday).
There is one with meat filling (which may also contain chestnuts, peanuts or egg yolks in addition to the chicken)…
…and the other with red bean paste. These are the two popular fillings for rice dumplings. I’ve also seen pure peanut fillings but the meat (which can be pork or chicken, but never beef or lamb) and red bean paste fillings lead the pack in popularity.
Faye’s grandmother also made some for her family and she insisted I consumed one right in front of her in the car just now. I like the meat dumplings (preferably with chestnuts, mushrooms and egg yolks – ate a huge one the other day given by another friend) but I don’t really enjoy eating red bean paste. I don’t even like the stuff in my cendol or ice kacang.
Happy Duanwu Jie to all the readers of sixthseal.com!
1st. i celebrated the festival at RH hotel yesterday and the hotel was full packed. happy duanwu festival to you too.
Usually I’m the 1st to notice your updated but sometime I let others to post their comment 1st otherwise plp will tulan with me ha..ha.. So HB tell me since you are english educated do you know the story behind this festival? Oh ya thats a delicious looking Bak Chang you got there lucky you got FOC one.
Hbin: i think the appointment u rush off today is to eat the dumpling from faye’s ah ma? Nice meeting you guys!! Anyway, i like the redbean one, i couldn’t find any la, can you tapao one for me? HAhaha..
Happy Duan Wu Jie HB! I am not a fan of redbean stuff too. Imagine how I suffered from ankophibia when I was in Kyoto. LOL I would like to try black sesame paste Zhong Ji though if there is any.
evil feline: What promotion did they have at RH Hotel? Duanwu Festival promotion? Got special dumplings buffet? I didn’t see the ad or I would have gone too. How was it?
Roland: I don’t know the story behind duan wu jie. I know the Chinese New Year story and the Mooncake Festival story but even the Chinese educated ones might not know the duan wu jie story. I asked Faye yesterday and she wasn’t sure too.
The best bak chang I ever had was from Petaling Steet in KL. It cost RM 32 or something and it was HUGE and contains a lot of meat and egg yolks and even a few slices of abalone. I wonder if the lady operating the stall is still there.
goolooloo: Nope, that was in the evening. Sorry we had to rush off, we had to meet up with some people to eat and then catch the 1:30 pm Korean horror movie with them.
It was great meeting you too. I think you can get the red bean ones from Rejang Park lah. 😉
fish fish: Thanks fish fish! Yeah, I don’t like the stuff too…I prefer savory fillings. Black sesame paste mochi is good though, I’ve tried that but not the zhong zhi.
HB heres the story or the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Boat_Festival
Roland: Yeah, thanks, I found that too. It’s already linked at the first paragraph. 🙂
Dammit! I was talking to my mom on Saturday and she was telling me stories about “Chang” and driving me absolutely crazy with craving for them. I am not one for the red bean thingy, but rather the meat ones with the little sweet pockets hidden in the middle. Reminds me of eating fries dipped in milkshakes 🙂
Skwermy: The sweet bits would be the chestnuts. I love them inside bak chang too. Salted duck eggs as well. Mmm…
The chicken looks so tasty!
jessy: I’m having a craving for these things right now. It’s a good thing it’s available throughout the year nowadays. There’s even specialty shops selling the dumplings.
gigantic post you lock up
Thanks for the information! I have been into this for a while. Your post was really helpful! 🙂