Zhong Zi!

Photos taken with my hp: Sony Ericsson K600i

BLUE Morning

it’s a great morning, I woke up and had a look at outside through the window. Well I’m not sure why the sky is extraordinarily beautiful today.. so blue… I took a photo of it then.. and when I set my eyes upon the dining table, i know d~ it’s because of Dragon Boat Festival! one of the chinese traditional festival…and I had my favourite “zhong zi” for my breakfast… yummy yummy~

Zhong Zi, is the traditional Chinese food, a food that honor someone in the history- Qu Yuan, a pioneer poet of ancient China and also a minister to the Zhou Emperor. He fought hard against corruption until the officials pressured the emperor to remove him from service. Qu Yuan traveled, taught and wrote for some years then and when he knew that Zhou had been defeated by Qin Kingdom, he drowned himself in the Miluo river on the 5th May as he was so despair that he couldn’t save his country and the Chinese people felt the loss deeply… as he was a much beloved poet by his people… fishermen beating their drums in the long boats to scare the fishes away and to grab the attention of God Dragon in the river.. people were throwing zhong zi into the river in order to prevent fishes eat his body… :(

My delicious Zhong Zi or glutinous rice dumpling that is wrapped in bamboo/reed leaves is a must eat food every fifth day of the fifth moon of Chinese calendar (agak agak is early to mid June) to make sure that we Chinese remember Qu Yuan, who is so well known for his patriotism… it has been customary to enjoy Zhong Zi on this day…

I still remember my first time making a Zhong Zi, as clumsy as always… I almost burn down the kitchen as I thought Zhong Zi is being made by using fire to burn the leaves! How stupid >< I was unable to wait for a taste until it was cooked… and I even added on candles to burn it, well.. im speechless too whenever I think back what I did that time, haha, and my frenz had a great laugh of it too!

Last time, during young age, we always eager to makan it as it was made only once in a year, during Dragon Boat Festival… but nowadays, Zhong Zi is available at any time of the year and can be bought from those Chinese stalls/ pasar etc… and more styles of cooking has been developed too, especially in the restaurants! However, the main ingredient is still the glutinous rice and the bamboo/ reed leaves. And the usual recipes include dates, sweetened red bean paste, meat, chestnuts, lotus seeds, dates, and yolk of egg….

Share with u the result after i done some research on recipe of Rhonda Parkinsan.

The CORRECT recipe for making ten Zhong Zi, NOT burning =P

Ingredients :
1. 50 sheets of bamboo or reed leaves
2. Glutinous rice (1 kilogram)
3. Chinese dates (250 grams)
4: Fillings such as char siu, chinese sausage, chinese black mushrooms, salted duck egg, chestnuts, cooked peanuts, dried shrimp, red-cooked pork

Directions:
1. Soak the rice and the dates 12 hours or more till they are soaked thoroughly.
2. Wash the leaves.
3. A chopping board is necessary for laying out the leaves.
4. Fold the leaves flat at the leafstalk to make a sheet.
5. Hold the sheet, fold it round in the middle and make a funnel till both ends are laid over each other in one direction.
6. Use about 1/10 kg. of rice and 6 dates for each dumpling. The dates must be covered by the rice so that they won’t lose too much syrup in cooking.
7. Fold the leaves up to seal the open side of the funnel and tie the bundle with a band made of twisted leaves. Make sure that the bundle is tied neither too tight nor too loose. This helps make sure that the ingredients are well cooked.
8. Put the dumplings in a pot, cover with water and make sure they are pressed and kept still while being boiled.
9. Cooking time: 40 minutes in a pressure cooker; 2 hours in an ordinary pot.
source: Rhonda Parkinsan

my breakfast… =) I ate two as I couldn’t stop the temptations! As for my family, we still have it once in a year… but not other time >< my mom insisted that~

At this modern days, Dragon Boat races are the most exciting part of the festival too! Those open-mouthed dragon boats were painted in bright colors with a lot of ornaments and their bodies are 40-100 feet in length with a tail. At the front of every boat, there will b a drummer and flag-catcher. Every year, Dragon Boat annual races are taking place all over China (including HK, Macao, Taiwan…) and some other Chinese communities at other country… but not Malaysia… The coolest part is the “brought to life” ceremony, a ceremony to paint the eyeball of the dragon. There are no specific numbers for the boats to compete, it ends with the first team that grab the flag at the end of course.

Perhaps someday we can also have those long cool boats with Dragon=symbol of Chinese at our rivers too, Sg Rajang (Malaysia Longest River, Sarawak) may b? haha

Before bye bye, share with you the last poems of Qu Yuan:
Many a heavy sigh I have in my despair,
Grieving that I was born in such an unlucky time.
I yoked a team of jade dragons to a phoenix chariot,
And waited for the wind to come,
to sour up on my journey.

it is so beautiful… don’t u agree? tata ^^