Dragon Boat Festival, what does this festival mean to you? Besides eating a bite of sweet rice dumplings, what else does she remind you of? In a modern society where various foreign festivals are becoming increasingly popular, has the Dragon Boat Festival, like some traditional festivals, gradually become a dispensable symbol?

1. Origin of the Dragon Boat Festival:

The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival, is one of the largest traditional festivals in my country. The meaning of "Duan" is the same as "the beginning". Calling "Duanwu" is like calling "the fifth day of the lunar month"; the word "五" in Duanwu is also connected with "Wu". According to the order of the earthly branches, May is the day of "Wu". "moon. And because noon is "Yang Chen", the Dragon Boat Festival is also called "Duan Yang". On May 5th, the month and day are both five, so it is called Chongwu, also called Chongwu.

In addition, the Dragon Boat Festival has many other names, such as: Summer Festival, Bath Orchid Festival, Girl's Day, Tianzhong Festival, Dila, Poet's Day and so on. There are so many nicknames for the Dragon Boat Festival, which indirectly illustrates the differences in the origin of the customs of the Dragon Boat Festival. This is exactly what happened. Regarding the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, there are at least four or five theories today, such as: the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan; the theory of Wuyue national totem sacrifice; the theory of starting from the Summer Solstice Festival in three generations; the theory of driving away evil moons and evil days, etc.

To date, the most widely influential view on the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival is the theory of commemorating Qu Yuan. In the field of folk culture, Chinese people associate the dragon boat racing and eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival with Qu Yuan. It is said that after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, the local people injured him and died, so they tried their best to rescue him in boats because of the custom of boat racing. It is also said that people often put food into the water to worship Qu Yuan, but most of them were eaten by dragons. They were used later because of Qu Yuan's reminder. Rice is wrapped in neem leaves and wrapped with colorful silk to make the later rice dumplings.

2. The northern and southern flavors of rice dumplings:

Due to different eating habits in different places, rice dumplings have formed the northern and southern flavors. Among the more famous rice dumplings are:

Beijing rice dumplings The representative variety of northern rice dumplings, Beijing rice dumplings are larger in size and are oblique square or triangular in shape. At present, most of the products on the market are glutinous rice dumplings. In rural areas, it is still customary to eat rhubarb rice dumplings. Sticky, tough and fragrant, with a unique flavor, Beijing rice dumplings are mostly filled with red dates and bean paste, and a few also use preserved fruit as filling.

The representative variety of southern rice dumplings, Guangdong rice dumplings are the opposite of Beijing rice dumplings. They are smaller in size and unique in shape, with a square front and a sharp corner at the back, like an awl. There are many varieties, in addition to fresh meat rice dumplings and bean paste rice dumplings, there are also egg yolk rice dumplings made with salted egg yolk, as well as assorted rice dumplings with fillings such as diced chicken, duck meat, barbecued pork, mushrooms, and mung beans, which have a better flavor.

3. Some ways to make rice dumplings:

It’s the Dragon Boat Festival again, and every household must eat rice dumplings. In midsummer, I smell the fragrance of mugwort leaves and make rice dumplings to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival. Although there are quick-frozen rice dumplings in supermarkets now, I always feel like there is something missing when eating them, so I still make the rice dumplings by myself. It’s up to you to decide what flavor you want to eat. Maybe a generation of famous rice dumplings will be born in your hands.

1. Preprocessing of raw materials 1. Brewing of glutinous rice, mung beans and peanuts:

After washing the pure glutinous rice, soak it in 60℃ water for 5 hours, or use Soak in cold water for 12 hours.

After washing the mung beans, soak them in boiling water for 3.5 hours, or soak them in cold water for 12 hours and then peel them for the best effect.

Soak peanuts in boiling water for 3 hours, or soak in cold water for 5 hours and then peel.

2. How to make scallion and ginger oil: stir-fry minced scallions, minced ginger, and a little refined salt in 25 grams of lard until golden brown. After the aroma comes out, remove the minced scallions and ginger to make scallion and ginger oil.

3. Glutinous rice and mung bean paste: Mix the soaked glutinous rice and mung bean paste in a ratio of 3:1, then add some alkali (3 kg of glutinous rice, 10 g of alkali), and then mix in green onions and ginger. oil to make glutinous rice and mung bean paste.

4. How to make bacon with tangerine peel:

Ingredients: 250 grams of streaky pork, a little salt, 1 tablespoon green onion, appropriate amount of shredded ginger, 20 pieces of tangerine peel, shredded, a little cooking wine.

Preparation method: Wash the meat, cut it into finger-thick strips, mix sugar, salt and cooking wine, rub it on the meat strips, then add shredded green onion, ginger and tangerine peel and mix well. . After pickling for 10 hours, remove the shredded green onion and ginger.

5. Preparation method of fermented bean curd and bacon:

Ingredients: 250 grams of pork belly, sugar, 1 tablespoon green onions, shredded ginger, a little cooking wine.

Preparation method: Cut the meat into finger-thick strips, mix the sugar, cooking wine, green onion knots, and shredded ginger, rub it on the meat strips, marinate for 10 hours, remove the green onions and ginger, and add fermented bean curd. Crush it, mix in the seasonings for marinating the meat strips, and marinate for another 1 hour.

6. Method for making tangerine peel beef:

Ingredients: 500 grams of beef shank, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 100 grams of green onion, 1 teaspoon of cooking wine, a pinch of fennel, 30 fennel ( Wrap it with gauze) Two slices of tangerine peel and a little baking soda

Preparation method: Cut the washed beef into finger-thick strips, rub it evenly with baking soda, put it into an appropriate amount of boiling water, and then put it in order Add sugar, green onions, cooking wine, Sichuan peppercorns, and cumin. Boil for a while, add soy sauce, and cook until medium cooked.

7. How to make bacon:

Ingredients: 500 grams of pork belly, 250 grams of sweet noodle sauce, a little cooking wine, a little green onion, 1 root of ginger, 15 grams of plastic rope hair paper (window paper ).

Preparation method: Wash the meat and cut into strips about 33 cm long, 3.3 cm wide and 3.3 cm thick. Add the cooking wine, chopped green onion, and minced ginger to the sweet noodle sauce and mix well.

Soak the meat strips in the sweet noodle sauce for 2 hours. Wrap each piece of meat tightly with window paper, tie it with rope, and hang it in a cool place to air-dry, which will take about 10 days.

8. How to make sausage:

Ingredients: 1 kg of pig fat and lean meat, half a spoon of cooking wine, 3 tablespoons of refined salt, 1 tablespoon of green onions, 2 roots of ginger, 25 grams of ginger, 3 casings If you like the taste of tangerine peel, you can add some shredded tangerine peel to pickle it, or add MSG.

Preparation method: Cut the pork into 1 cm cubes and marinate with the above seasonings for 10 hours. Soak the casings in 50°C water for 5 to 6 hours until soft, then pour water into the intestines to clear them and set aside. Use a funnel to pour the diced meat (remove shredded tangerine peel, green onion and ginger) into the casings, divide it into sections while filling, and hang it in a cool place to dry in the shade, which will take about a week.

9. How to make barbecued pork:

Ingredients: 500 grams of lean and fat pork, five-spice powder, 1 tablespoon of cooking wine, half a tablespoon of white sugar, 50 grams of shredded green onion and a little fresh ginger, 100 grams of advanced soy sauce, appropriate amount of oil.

Preparation: Cut the pork into long strips 3.3 cm wide, 6.7 cm long, and 2.7 cm thick, marinate with the above seasonings for 24 hours, fry the meat strips over low heat until medium rare, and cut into pieces. Set aside.

10. How to make bean paste:

Put the boiled beans in a small bamboo sieve and put a small basin of water under the sieve. Knead the beans on the bottom of the sieve with your hands, sift the bean paste into the basin, pour the bean paste water into the bean bag cloth bag, squeeze out the water, and serve as bean paste.

11. Specific ways to make various types of rice dumplings:

Ingredients for ham rice dumplings: prepared glutinous rice, 750 grams of mung bean wedges, 50 grams of diced ham, 50 grams of winter mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms, 25 grams of minced pork, 50 grams of refined starch, 10 grams of sesame oil, 5 grams of lard, 25 grams of minced green onion, minced ginger, appropriate amount of refined salt, 1 tablespoon of white sugar, bamboo leaves, and catnip.

Preparation method: Use lard to fry the minced onion and ginger until yellow. After removing the minced onion and ginger, add diced ham, minced pork, diced mushrooms, white sugar and salt and stir-fry for 30 seconds, thicken and pour on sesame oil, serve as filling and set aside.

Take 2 soaked rice dumpling leaves, fold them into a bucket shape, fill them with glutinous rice and mung bean wedges, sandwich the filling in the middle of the glutinous rice, cover it with glutinous rice, wrap it into a pentagonal square bottom cone shape, and tie it tightly. Then put it in the steamer, tighten it tightly, put in cold water until the rice dumplings are covered. After cooking for 1 hour, reduce to simmer and cook for 30 minutes. If using a pressure cooker, cook for 25 minutes, then remove from heat and simmer for another 5 minutes.

If there are no bamboo leaves, reed leaves will also work. There are three reed leaves on each side, folded into a bucket shape.

Ingredients for tangerine peel and bacon rice dumplings: 750g of soaked glutinous rice and mung bean wedges, 50g of peanut wedges, 250g of tangerine peel and bacon strips, bamboo leaves and horse lotus.

Preparation method: The wrapping method and cooking time are the same as ham rice dumplings, except that the filling is made of tangerine peel bacon strips.

The ingredients, preparation method, and cooking time of fermented bean curd and bacon rice dumplings are the same as those of ham meat rice dumplings, except that the filling is replaced with tangerine peel beef.

Ingredients for salted duck egg rice dumplings: prepared glutinous rice, 750 grams of mung bean wedges, 25 grams of peanut wedges, 5 cooked salted duck egg yolks, 5 bamboo leaves, and lotus root.

Preparation method: The wrapping method is the same as that of ham rice dumplings. Wrap it up, put it in the steamer and cook for 1 hour, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Ingredients for bacon rice dumplings: prepared glutinous rice, 750 grams of mung bean wedges, 25 grams of peanut wedges, 250 grams of diced bacon, 2 tablespoons of white sugar, bamboo leaves, and lotus root.

Preparation method: The wrapping method and cooking time are the same as those of ham rice dumplings, except that the filling is changed to bacon.

The ingredients, packaging, and cooking time of sausage rice dumplings are the same as those of ham rice dumplings, except that the filling is replaced with diced sausage.

Ingredients for barbecued pork rice dumplings: 750g of prepared glutinous rice and mung bean wedges, 250g of diced barbecued pork or shiitake mushrooms, 25g of lard, 25g of white sugar, 1 tablespoon of refined starch, 10g of sesame oil, 5g of diced horseradish, 50 Appropriate amount of onion knots and ginger slices.

Preparation method: Use lard to sauté the onion knots and ginger slices until fragrant, remove the onion and ginger, add diced barbecued pork, diced mushrooms, diced water chestnuts, white sugar, and an appropriate amount of soy sauce to marinate the barbecued pork, and stir-fry for 30 minutes After a few seconds, thicken the rice dumplings, pour some oil over them, and serve as rice dumpling fillings. Fold two bamboo leaves into a bucket shape, fill it with glutinous rice and mung bean wedges, sandwich the filling between the glutinous rice and mung bean wedges, wrap it into a pentagonal square bottom cone, tie it tightly, put it in the pot and seal it tightly, add cold water and rice dumplings, and cook for 1 hour Finally, simmer for 30 minutes. If using a pressure cooker, cook for 25 minutes, then remove from heat and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Ingredients for small oyster rice dumplings: 750 grams of prepared glutinous rice and mung bean wedges, 25 grams of fresh and plump oysters (mussels), 75 grams of minced pork, 100 grams of tender shredded bamboo shoots, 25 grams of refined starch, 1 tablespoon of chopped green onion. , minced ginger, white pepper, a little lard (or vegetable oil), refined salt, and an appropriate amount of white sugar.

Preparation method: Stir-fry minced pork with lard. When fragrant, add oysters, chopped green onion, minced ginger, sugar, refined salt, stir-fry for 1 minute, add white pepper, stir-fry evenly, and thicken the sauce. Into rice dumpling filling.

The wrapping method and cooking time are the same as those of barbecued pork rice dumplings. Dried oysters must be soaked in cold water for about 3 hours.

The above 9 kinds of salty rice dumplings can be dipped in red soy sauce when eating.

Ingredients for Chengsha Zongzi: 1kg of soaked glutinous rice, 500g of mung bean paste or black bean paste, 250g of white sugar, 250g of lard, 250g of refined salt, appropriate amount of sugar and osmanthus.

Preparation method: Stir-fry the bean paste with lard until thoroughly stir-fried, add sugar (white sugar for mung bean paste, and native brown sugar for black bean paste, also called flat sugar). After taking it out of the pot, add some sweet-scented osmanthus. Fold two reed leaves into a bucket shape, fill it with glutinous rice and bean paste stuffing, cover it with glutinous rice, and wrap it into a pentagonal square-bottomed cone shape. After tying it tightly, put it in the pot and stack it tightly. Pour cold water until the rice dumplings are covered.

Cook for 50 minutes, remove from heat and simmer for 4 minutes until cooked.

Ingredients for nut-osmanthus rice dumplings: 750 grams of glutinous rice, 50 grams each of black and white sesame seeds (2/3 broken), 100 grams of raw lard, 250 grams of white sugar, a little salt, 50 grams of sweet-scented osmanthus, 50 grams of refined starch, 1 tablespoon of bamboo leaves , Ma Lian.

Preparation method: Mix the white sugar, salt, and black and white sesame seeds evenly, stir into the raw lard (pick out the filaments in the lard), pour the wet starch while mixing, and finally add the sugar osmanthus. , mix well and serve as filling.

The wrapping and cooking time are the same as Chengsha Zongzi.

Ingredients for Baiguo Zongzi: 750 grams of glutinous rice, 25 grams each of green plums, pineapple meat, and winter melon strips. 15 grams each of watermelon seed kernels, walnut kernels, raisins, and red silk. 300 grams of white sugar.

Preparation method: Boil the green plums, pineapple flesh, and winter melon strips in white sugar, drain the water, then marinate in white sugar for 24 hours, and wrap them in glutinous rice with the above ingredients. The wrapping method and cooking time are the same as the nut-osmanthus rice dumplings.

4. Articles related to Zongzi:

1. The fun of eating Zongzi is about the cook’s lotus roots and pine trees

The Dragon Boat Festival is coming soon again, the Dragon Boat Festival Eating rice dumplings is a very old tradition, and there is an interesting legend here.

In 340 BC, Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet and official of the Chu State, faced the pain of subjugation. On May 5, he threw a large stone into the Miluo River in grief and indignation. In order to prevent fish and shrimp from damaging his body, people put rice in bamboo tubes into the river. From then on, in order to express their respect and memory for Qu Yuan, on this day, people would pack rice in bamboo tubes and throw them into the memorial ceremony. This is the origin of the earliest rice dumplings in my country - "Tong Zong".

Why were moxa leaves, reed leaves, and lotus leaves used to make rice dumplings later? There is such a record in "Ji Xue Ji": During the Jianwu period of the Han Dynasty, people in Changsha dreamed of a man at night who claimed to be Dr. Sanlu (Qu Yuan's official name) and said to him: "Everything you sacrifice has been destroyed by the dragon in the river." If it is stolen, it can be wrapped in moxa leaves and tied with five-color silk thread. Jiaolong is most afraid of these two things. "So people used "moxa leaves to wrap millet" to make "corner millet". Passed down from generation to generation, it gradually developed into our country's Dragon Boat Festival food.

Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, after eating Nine Rice Dumplings in the palace during the Dragon Boat Festival, Long Yan was overjoyed and full of praise. He happily composed a poem: "Flowers in four seasons are unexpectedly coincidental, and Nine Rice Dumplings are competing for new ones." . ”

Nine-zi rice dumplings: It is a kind of rice dumplings, which are nine rice dumplings connected in a string, some are big and some are small, the big ones are on the top, the small ones are on the bottom, with different shapes, very beautiful. And the silk threads of nine colors are tied together to form a colorful display. Jiuzi Zongzi is mostly given as a gift to relatives and friends, such as a gift from a mother to her married daughter, a gift from a mother-in-law to a newlywed, etc. Because "Zongzi" is homophonic to "neutral son", there is a folk custom that eating "Zongzi" can lead to a son. Wu Manyun, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, wrote a poem praising the Nine-Zi Zong:

“Wrapped in even tubes of spring rice, the Nine-Zi Zong is heavily tied with colorful strands,

The green rice dumplings have faded into clouds The skin is white, and the cook laughs at the lotus roots and the loose ones. "

Zongzi not only come in many shapes, but also in different varieties. Due to the different flavors in different parts of our country, there are mainly two types: sweet and salty. The sweet flavors include white water rice dumplings, red bean rice dumplings, broad bean rice dumplings, date rice dumplings, rose rice dumplings, melon rice dumplings, bean paste lard rice dumplings, date mud lard rice dumplings, etc. Savory flavors include: pork rice dumplings, ham rice dumplings, sausage rice dumplings, shrimp rice dumplings, diced meat rice dumplings, etc., but pork rice dumplings are more common. There are also Southern-style assorted rice dumplings, bean paste rice dumplings, winter mushrooms, etc.; there is also a "double-combination rice dumpling" with one end sweet and the other salty, and one rice dumpling with two flavors. These rice dumplings all have different flavors, making the rice dumpling family colorful.

Due to the spread of food culture, the technology of making rice dumplings in my country was spread abroad as early as ancient times, so many countries in the world also have the custom of eating rice dumplings.

Peruvian people eat rice dumplings on Christmas. The whole family sits together to celebrate Christmas and eat rice dumplings. Even some married daughters have to rush back to their parents’ homes on this day. , come and taste the flavor of the rice dumplings made by my mother.

Burmese people also love to eat rice dumplings. During the Dragon Boat Festival, they use glutinous rice as the main ingredient and ripe bananas and coconut as fillings. This kind of rice dumplings has an attractive aroma, is soft and crispy, sweet and unique. With flavor.

Japan’s Dragon Boat Festival falls on May 5th in the Gregorian calendar. The main ingredient of their rice dumplings is rice flour, and the shape of the rice dumplings resembles a bell.

The shape of the rice dumplings made by Malaysians is very similar to the rice dumplings in Guangdong, my country. They are characterized by their large size. In addition to fresh meat rice dumplings and ham rice dumplings, there are also bean paste rice dumplings and coconut rice dumplings, which are very delicious.

Philippine rice dumplings are long in shape and have the same flavor as those in eastern Zhejiang, my country. Zongzi is also an indispensable food during Christmas in the Philippines. (Text/Fu Zhiyu)

2. Drink tea and eat rice dumplings to enjoy the Dragon Boat Festival.

Not everyone likes to eat rice dumplings, but eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival is a feeling. atmosphere. Today I tell you to drink tea with rice dumplings. If you pair them with tea, the rice dumplings will taste better.

Super sweet rice dumplings, such as date paste, bean paste, etc., and matching teas include mint tea and green tea. Super sweet rice dumplings require tea to aid digestion. Light green tea and mint can promote glucose metabolism and prevent excess sugar from staying in the body. These two kinds of tea are cold in nature and suitable for hot and sweet rice dumplings. Super oily rice dumplings, such as fresh meat, ham, sausage, etc., match with Pu'er tea, chrysanthemum tea, hawthorn tea. Greasy rice dumplings are suitable for heavy-flavored tea to remove the greasiness in the mouth. Pu'er tea is the best choice because it has sweet and cold properties and is good at removing fat. Chrysanthemum tea can reduce inflammation.

Hawthorn tea can promote gastric acid secretion and help gastrointestinal digestion. Salty and sweet rice dumplings such as salt and pepper, egg yolk, etc. can be paired with oolong tea. Compared with super sweet and super oily rice dumplings, the salty and sweet taste is relatively refreshing, so drinking oolong tea is a good idea. Because oolong tea is semi-fermented tea, it is not as astringent as green tea, but has a warm and moist aesthetic, which can bring out the nostalgia of the salty and sweet taste. Light rice dumplings: such as red bean, white rice dumplings, etc. can be paired with slightly flavored tea. Adding a sour plum to a pot of rose tea can bring out the aroma of roses and bring out a touch of sweetness. It feels particularly good to chew the light and not greasy rice dumplings at this time. Rose tea can also regulate blood circulation, which is especially good for women. The catechins in matcha have anti-cancer and anti-aging effects. Both of the above are suitable for health-conscious people. The above series of green tea, black tea, and scented tea are all sold at the food cabinet on the first floor of Nanjing Hualian Commercial Building. During the Dragon Boat Festival, there are certain discounts on all kinds of tea. (Text/Xiaoyan)

3. Eating rice dumplings and racing dragon boats

Every year on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, during the Dragon Boat Festival, there are customs of eating rice dumplings and racing dragon boats in various parts of the country.

Everyone knows that this ancient custom passed down from generation to generation is to commemorate Qu Yuan. But why commemorate Qu Yuan in this way? It turns out that there is such an interesting story circulating in Qu Yuan's hometown.

After Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River, one night, people in Qu Yuan's hometown suddenly dreamed that Qu Yuan was back. His Eguan Bodai was just like before his death, his face looked slightly sad and haggard. The villagers were very happy and rushed forward to salute him one after another. Qu Yuan returned the gift and said with a smile: "Thank you for your kindness. The people of Chu State are so clear-cut in love and hate. If they don't forget me, I will die with no regrets." Putting aside the old relationship, everyone found that Qu Yuan's body was in poor condition. He went over and asked with concern: "Doctor Qu, have you eaten the rice we sent you?" "Thank you." Qu Yuan was grateful at first, and then sighed and said, "What a pity." The rice you gave me was all eaten by fish, shrimps, turtles and clams. After hearing this, the villagers were very anxious: "How can we prevent the fish and shrimps from eating it?" Qu Yuan thought for a while and said, "If rice is wrapped in Ruo leaves and made into horned millet with sharp corners, the Shui people will think it is water chestnut and dare not eat it." "

During the Dragon Boat Festival the next year, the villagers wrapped many corn millet with bamboo leaves and threw it into the river. But after the Dragon Boat Festival, Qu Yuan dreamed again and said: "I will eat the corn millet you sent. A lot of it was taken away, but a lot of it was snatched away by the water tribe. "Everyone asked him again: "What other good ideas are there? Qu Yuan said: "There is a way. You can just add the dragon's mark on the boat where you put the horned millet." Because all the water tribes are under the control of the Dragon King, when the time comes, the drums and horns will sound and the oars will flap. They think it is sent by the Dragon King, and they will no longer dare to snatch it. "Jiao millet is the current rice dumpling.

From then on, the custom of making rice dumplings and rowing dragon boats during the Dragon Boat Festival spread from Qu Yuan's hometown to the whole country, from ancient times to today.

Pepper and salt rice dumplings

The custom of eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival has a history of more than 2,000 years. According to the Song Dynasty's "Tokyo Menghua Lu", "People today make rice dumplings on May 5th, which is a legacy of the Liang Dynasty." Wu Jun's "Xu Qixie Ji" records: "Qu Yuan died by throwing himself into Miluo on May 5th. Chu mourned him, and on this day, rice dumplings were stored in bamboo tubes and poured into water as a sacrifice." It has become a popular festival food. A poem by Emperor Ming of the Tang Dynasty once wrote: "Flowers compete in the four seasons, and nine rice dumplings compete for new ones." The poems of Yao He of the Tang Dynasty also recorded the folk customs at that time: "Zhu is noisy and singing, and the wind is gentle." It shows that in ancient times, both the palace and the people ate rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival.

To this day, the custom of eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival spreads across the north, south, east and west of our country, and even spread to Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan , Thailand, etc. People use the ancient rice dumplings to reflect on the ancient times. Zongzi has actually been integrated into the taste of Chinese culture.

Zongzi from all over our country have developed many flavors in history. Unique varieties, each with its own fame, such as Beijing's jujube rice dumplings, Shandong's yellow rice rice dumplings, Shandong's yellow rice rice dumplings, Shanghai's lard rice dumplings with sand, Jiaxing's fresh meat rice dumplings, Huzhou's lard rice dumplings with bean paste, Shaanxi's The honey cold rice dumplings, Guangdong's alkaline water rice dumplings, roasted duck rice dumplings, coconut velvet rice dumplings, and Sichuan's salt and pepper rice dumplings are all very famous, and have always been praised by gourmets.

Sichuan rice dumplings are famous for their production technology. It was quite advanced in the Song Dynasty. The poet Lu You, who traveled to Sichuan during his official career, mentioned Sichuan-style rice dumplings more than once in his poems. In a few days, there are more words to explain the rice dumplings. According to the "Chengdu General Guide. Chengdu's Children's Mantra" in the late Qing Dynasty, there is: "If you have a stomachache, beat the drum to send it, pick up a grain of rice, wrap a rice dumpling, eat it twice and then eat it twice." The record of "pain" shows that Chengdu people have been fond of eating rice dumplings for a long time.

Chengdu has many varieties of rice dumplings, but the flavor of "salt and pepper rice dumplings" is particularly outstanding. Zhang Yueying, Xinjin County, Chengdu City, has been making rice dumplings for generations. , Yeerba and other snacks. The salt and pepper rice dumplings made by her are moist and refreshing, soft and fragrant, with a comfortable texture, simple and delicious taste. In April 1987, they became a famous snack, famous craft and famous product in Chengdu. At the evaluation exhibition, he won the "Famous Snacks" award; in June 1990, at the second individual snack evaluation exhibition in Chengdu, he won the "Traditional Award"; in September of the same year, he was invited to Beijing to perform at the Asian Games Food Festival, and was well received by both China and foreign countries. Customers welcomed it; in December 1990, the salt and pepper rice dumplings and washed sand leaf rice dumplings made by Zhang Yueying were named "Chengdu Famous Snacks" by the Chengdu Municipal People's Government.

Zongzi is a festive food during the Dragon Boat Festival. Chinese people all over the world, whether local, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, or overseas Chinatowns, will traditionally prepare various kinds of rice dumplings before the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Festival.

But did you know that Zongzi has a long history? In the book "Shuowen Jiezi" written by Xu Shen of the Han Dynasty, "Zongzi" has been recorded, which is a food wrapped with reed leaves. .

However, in ancient times, zongzi was called horned millet.

After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, rice dumplings were mostly wrapped in glutinous rice. At this time, they were no longer called Jiao Millet, but Zongzi.

Due to different regions, the materials and even the leaves of the rice dumplings are very different. Even the shape of the "wrapped" is also very different. For example, in the early days, it was popular to worship the sky with ox horns, so in the Han and Jin Dynasties, Traditional Chinese rice dumplings are mostly made into angular shapes and are used as one of the items for worshiping ancestors. In addition, there are generally various shapes such as equilateral triangles, equilateral squares, pointed triangles, squares, and rectangles.

The taste of rice dumplings also varies from place to place. In the Tang Dynasty, there were many rice dumpling shops on Chang'an Street with a variety of nut fillings.

The name of zongzi has also undergone many changes. "Fengtu Ji" written by Zhou Chu in the Western Jin Dynasty said that during the Dragon Boat Festival, millet, chestnut and jujube were wrapped in wild rice leaves, which was called tube rice dumplings, also called horn millet. In the "Compendium of Materia Medica" written by Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty, it is clearly stated that rice is wrapped in wild rice leaves and boiled into a sharp corner or palm leaf-shaped food, so it is called "cornered millet" or "zong".