Happy Duanwu Festival or Dumpling Day!

Source: Redcook.net

The Chinese community celebrates a number of major festivals in a lunar year. We celebrate one today. Today, we celebrate Duanwu Jie/Festival - which literally means double five as in fifth day of the fifth month. It is also referred to as Dragon Boat Festival as racing dragon boats is one of the activities connected with this festival. The island of Penang holds annual dragon boat races and has been doing so for three decades. This year's races were held last weekend at the usual venue of Teluk Bahang Dam in Batu Ferringhi.

Besides the legend, Chinese festivals are usually associated with a specific food item. The food related to this Duanwu Jie is the conventional triangular-shaped rice dumplings or zongzi as they are called in Mandarin. Traditionally, these rice dumplings are made at home but these days, you can buy them from foodstalls in markets and eating places. They are now available all year round.

Zongzi is a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo, reed, or other large flat leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling, usually the latter.

If you are interested to try cooking/preparing zongzi, here's a traditional recipe to try on how to make savoury rice Zongzi.

And here's a recipe for making Alkaline Zongzi with Red Bean Paste Filling.


Also, see if you'd be able to get an egg to stand up. It is believed and proven that eggs can stand up on this festival or rather during summer solstice at noon. Try it and let us know.

Here's the proof..

Source:Cultureofchinese.com

Happy Duanwu Jie or colloquially, Happy Dumpling Day!

More information:
Dumpling Day or Duanwu Festival - June 24,2012
Dumpling Day - A Chinese festival - June 6, 2011