Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Sticky Rice Dumplings & Dragon Boat Festival - WW


Yummilicious Nonya rice dumplings (meat filling)

These sticky rice dumplings (zong zi) consist of glutinous rice with a sweet meat filling wrapped in bamboo. They are made to honor Qu Yuan (340-278 BC.), a patriotic poet of ancient China. They are eaten at Duan Wu or Dragon Boat Festival.


ingredients used for rice dumplings

Depending on the fillings, there are the sweet or savoury versions of rice dumplings. The sweet ones used bean paste for filling. The savoury ones tend to contain more choices of ingredients. In recent years, many hotels and restaurants try to create new favours by adding roast duck meat, scallops, birds' nest, shark's fin, chocolate, truffle....etc to their rice dumplings. I prefer the traditional pork rice dumpling and the kee dumpling (rice cooked in alkaline water).


wrapping rice dumplings in bamboo leaves

The bamboo leave which form the wrapping, makes the rice dumpling fragrant.

Take your pick!

I still remember helping my mother and aunts to make rice dumplings as a child. My brothers and cousins would hover around the kitchen, we couldn't wait until they were cooked. The rice dumplings were made only once a year several days before May 5th of the Lunar calendar.

But now it is quite different. The rice dumplings are available at any time of the year. If you come to Singapore, you have to try one.








60 comments:

  1. Gone were the days when we were still staying with my parents. We would make so much dumplings that we need about 3 person to just wash the leaves a night before... LOL :D

    My favourite is the nonya flavour :)

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  2. Janice,
    yes, there was the dreaded fear of the scrubbing of the bamboo leaves every year!

    I'm spared this year because of my son's illness. Nothing to be happy about, I'd rather scrub bamboo leaves than keep my son company in the cold ward of the hospital.

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  3. I prefer savoury ones! wonder if the zong zi from singapore would taste different than the one in m'sia or not leh :)

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  4. Not quite lormaikai, but still very droollable.. yeah? Yeah!

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  5. last year, i helped my future MIL wrapped the dumplings. It was fun! am looking forward for this weekend so that we could do that again! :)

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  6. I also like the traditional pork dumpling and especially in love with the chestnut. My mum normally uses pandan leaves instead of bamboo leaves. Very nice too!

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  7. sort of similar to some of our "kakanins" here; when i do get the chance to visit Singapore i will taste more than one! ;)

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  8. Olá, eastcoastlife!
    Good menu!
    I love it!
    Happy week

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  9. Haha, I dunno how to make zhang. Only know how to eat. :P

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  10. I only remember my mum making them once but she usually buy them.

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  11. yummy. drools.

    hope your son is feeling better today.

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  12. Those dumplings looks so delicious. Now I am hungry!

    It is interesting to read about the customs of your culture; you all eat so nutritiously!

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  13. Homemade rice dumpling is the best..one of my sister makes very delicious dumplings with a lot of ingerdients...but I had yet to master the art of wrapping this wonderful food.
    Hope yr son will be out of the hospital asap...for you to enjoy yr dumplings.

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  14. the bestest are made by moms!!
    duan wu jie guai le!

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  15. Nice post
    I like your blog
    Success for you

    The Success

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  16. I don't even know how to make rice dumplings let alone scrub bamboo leaves.

    Meantime, wishing everyone good health. Hope your son is fit to be discharged already?

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  17. _butt,
    Some rice dumplings do taste different in Malaysia and Singapore. I find the Malaysian version is saltier and has lots of fatty meat. My personal opinion.

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  18. LB,
    Glutinous rice wor and with the meat filling.... tastes better than lormaikai! I'll get you some yummy Singaporean bak zhang when you come home. :)

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  19. Jean,
    What a good future daughter-in-law! Learning to wrap bak zhang already. :) I'll be pleased too. hehe.... Have fun this weekend!

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  20. Doreen,
    I use pandan leaves for wrapping small bak zhangs, the leaves give a better fragrance.

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  21. maiylah,
    I've not heard of kakanins. I'll try them when I go to the Philippines. :)

    There are several types of rice dumplings in Singapore, you have to try them all! :)

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  22. horny bitch,
    Yes, the price of glutinous rice went up 4X compared to last year! The prices of rice dumplings sold at various outlets also increase. :(

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  23. day-dreamer,
    Learn lor! Next time can pass your bak zhang wrapping skill to your children... grandchildren. hehe.....

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  24. Hi Kay,
    It is convenient to just buy them off the shelves. Save a lot of time (shopping for ingredients, preparation, washing up) too.

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  25. misti,
    He's still having pain and now it's at several parts of his tummy. :(

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  26. sweet jasmine,
    Homemade dumplings are the best! We use better quality ingredients and the love that goes into making each dumpling is priceless.

    Hope you can learn your sister's kung-fu. hehe...

    Jaymes will not be eating rice dumplings this year. It's bad for digestion.

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  27. My rainbow angel,
    Thanks! *muack muack*
    I was thinking of bringing you my rice dumplings to KL..... Let's wait until Jaymes get better.

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  28. Hi the aries,
    Thanks for stopping by and your kind comment. :)

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  29. oceanskies,
    It's easy once you know how to do it. You can go back to Kim Choo to try wrapping one. :)

    Jaymes is still warded, the doctors can't find anything... probably the doctors are incompetent. We are thinking of moving him to another hospital.

    Thanks for your concern and messages. :)

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  30. I would love to try them! Sounds good. How nice to have food to honor a poet!

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  31. Yummy! I wonder how many dumplings can I finish in one sitting? They look heavy for the tummy.

    Happy WW!

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  32. wow! we also have sticky rice in the philippines and i like it. looks like the traditional pork dumpling is something we can crave.

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  33. I really do like Chinese dumplings, we can hardly find authentic ones here at the fourth largest city in the U.S.

    We had a 'dumpling dinner' at a dumpling factory in China. Neither Mrs. Jim nor I can remember what city. We did not go to Singapore.

    Happy WW/WT. Thanks for the nice visit. In Iowa, a lot of people eat pork. They grow pigs there.
    :-)
    ..

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  34. Those look so yummy!!! Great shots by the way. They are making my mouth water :)

    Happy WW :)

    Mine is online here:

    My Life In The Urban Zoo

    Stop by if you have a moment :)

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  35. The meat filling looks delish. What an interesting post!
    Happy WW~

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  36. we have also rice dumplings back home.

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  37. typo earlier.
    can quickly get another specialist recommendation from your GP? since the present hospital cannot diagnose his pains.
    SGH outram should be good.

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  38. That's really nice. I just had "bak chang" yesterday and I can tell ya..I just love to eat it every other day. Just that glutinous rice's not very digestable..so every other day is out. Whenever, the dumplings festival beckons, I really look fwd to it.

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  39. i've never tried the rice dumplings in my 6 yrs in singapore.. :( it looks good though! :)

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  40. I like rice dumplings! I'm gonna miss them this year as I'm away from home...

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  41. I hope they taste better than they look:) Happy WW.

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  42. I tried once making them with my MIL, alamak my wrapping is T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E!!

    I can't till this Sunday... to go over my MIL's house and sapu the bak zhangs she makes :)
    With fatty meat!! *lol*

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  43. Hey ECL

    Good mornin'!I have tried the nonya dumpling at the peranakan muse, it was yummy.I will let my MIL and other guests try it when they arrive next week;)

    Hope all is well ECL.Take care!

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  44. Reading so much my mouth is watering now. Great pics. Happy WW!

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  45. Wow! Looks delicious. Eastcoastlife, I prefer to taste the traditional pork rice dumpling. Emmm, nice!

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  46. Oh! Those look sooooo yummy!

    Btw, I have a Breast Cancer tag for you. Hope you can get it up soon and spread the word :) Thanks!

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  47. dumplings are nice..but cannot eat too much!!

    happy WW!

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  48. Wuahhh....I have never tasted the ones with sharksfin or chocolate truffle before...you make?

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  49. Oh, this is really delicious. I do love 'kuih' with glutaneous rice and we do have quite a variety of them here.

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  50. Rice dumplings!!! I'm salivating.. Need to wait till I get home. My mum always make some for me each year.
    Miss my mum and her Zong Zi!!!

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  51. I'm hoping my grandmother will teach me how to wrap those dumplings soon. Haha. Love eating them. :) I'm also glad your son is doing well now. Take care! :)

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  52. Did I read correctly? CHOCOLATE in the chang?? Aiyo... I still prefer the traditional ones with pui-bak, mushroom, chestnut one. And the 'kee-chang' with kaya. Mmm...yum yum

    Sorry to hear about your son. Hope he is much better now.

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  53. Mmmmm...another delicious post from EastCoastLife! :)

    I'll be praying for your son.

    If you have time, my WW post is here.

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  54. the first one you cannot tell if it is going to be good or yucky

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