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A piping hot sticky rice dumpling packed with treasures. Photo by Wendy Chan
Wrapping Up Zongzi Sticky rice dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival By Wendy Chan
Z
onthetable@northcoastjournal.com ongzi (sticky rice dumplings) are a classic treat to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival for Chinese all over the world. This festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and when I was growing up in China, I always looked forward to it. There was so much preparation for making the dumplings back then. First, the kids helped to separate the regular rice from glutinous rice. When we grew our rice, a small percentage of regular rice was mixed in with the glutinous rice, so we had to separate it out grain by grain. I had better eyesight back then. It sounds like a difficult job but we didn’t have games to play and it was fun competing with my siblings. Then my grandma and mom would prepare the bamboo leaves and the weed straws, marinate the pork belly, shell the peanuts and crack the salted duck eggs for yolks. Finally, they sat down in the kitchen with the door wide open — it was hot and humid in the south during June — and started making the dumplings. I was only allowed to watch them wrap but I wished I had persuaded them to let me try. The long hours of boiling them over the firebox stove filled the house with their aroma. l could hardly wait to take the first bite, sweet, savory, aromatic
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NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, June 10, 2021 • northcoastjournal.com
and comforting. I learned how to make them after I came to the states. My mom showed me how to wrap them a few times. Mine never came out as neat as hers but I’m much faster. I have to say, sticky rice dumplings are the treat I’m most proud to make for family and friends. My mom even agreed my dumplings, with their own style and a little craziness, taste better than her old countryside version. I make them often since I can get the ingredients easily. For years, my boys liked to take them for school lunch and introduced them to their friends. That made me so happy. I have always wanted to celebrate this tradition with others here, and this year the Dragon Boat Festival falls on June 14. I’m going to teach a class on making zongzi and sell some for a fundraiser for the Jefferson Community Center and the Boys & Girls Club of the Redwoods. Zongzi are labor intensive and time-consuming, but with a few of my Chinese friends’ help and the support from the community, it’ll be a success.
Country Zongzi Makes about 12 dumplings. Dumplings can be refrigerated or frozen. For best results, reheat by boiling them for 15 minutes.
