Dumpling Festival ....

DUMPLING DUMPLING DUMPLING ....
Rice Dumpling festival or DRAGONBOAT FESTIVAL or Duan Wu Jie

I ever wonder why dumpling .. i am not talking about those normal dumpling which you find in your soup but more towards the RICE DUMPLING.


1st legend
The Dragon Boat Festival or Rice Dumpling Festival, “Duan Wu Jie” in Chinese, falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. It is celebrated in remembrance of Chinese poet, Qu Yuan who sacrificed his life by jumping into the river.

Rice dumpling is a Chinese tradition. The legend goes that there was a great man who was thrown in the sea and because he is real well respected. the villager try to 'preserve' his body by throwing sticky rice which is formed into the present dumpling shape which we see now into the sea to feed the hungry fishes.

2nd legend
There are also many legends circulating, another one popular was that there was a war and both side was kept into a standstill. In order to win the battle, spy has to send secret messages and one of the mean is to insert messages into the rice dumpling( a staple food for the warring soldiers) and pass it to the emperor. And with this indigenous idea, they won the war!

This rich legend ha slowly evolved into our modern culture. As we see more and more young adults embracing the ancient sports - DRAGON BOAT.

But whichever legends we subscribe to. We cannot deny that RICE DUMPLING is a delicious meal by its own. I can easily gobble up to 3 Rice Dumplings in a go! whoa . thats not too much yet. some of the friends i know can easily eat up to 5 or 6 Dumplings in a go!!!



But hey! what goes into the dumpling ????



To the best of my knowledge, the most common kind of rice dumpling is known as the 'bak chang' which literally means rice meat dumpling. However, similar to the mooncake, rice dumpling was not spared from creative juices from the ever money making vendors, who come up with different variety of dumplings that include mushroom, gingko nuts, green tea, roast chicken .. you name it you have it!



Hokkien or typical chinese rice dumplings




In peranakan family, the one that i am born in. Instead of making savoury dumplings like the bak chang, we make our version of rice dumpling, smaller in size and sweet in taste. its called 'kee chang. or called as nonya dumplings
the color compared to normal chinese rice dumpling is lighter

Nonya Dumplings or called as kee chang




So naturally, Rice dumplings evovled in taste according to the different dialect group you come from. Hokkien will come with their savoury version, Cantonese will come with their super deluxe verison of rice dumpling and the peranakan has them .. etc etc ..


Ingredients in Rice dumplings
Glutinous rice , Bamboo leaves for wrapping the dumpling
Meat filling - depends on liking, most commonly used is pork
salted egg
dried shrimp
chinese dried mushroom or shitake mushroom
bean paste ..

this are but not limited the basic ingredients that goes into our rice dumpling




i have attached this clip for your viewing pleasure .. enjoy!!!

happy rice dumpling festival!!!