It’s the Dragon Boat Festival again. During the festive season, we miss our loved ones even more. Apart from childhood memories, the only things that can soothe our homesickness are the delicacies that represent traditional festivals.

In the past, in addition to dumplings for the Spring Festival, which were made together by the family, other items such as glutinous rice balls for the Lantern Festival, rice dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival, and mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival were all bought and eaten, because there are all kinds of dumplings in the store. There is a dazzling array of seasonal foods, so there is really no need to spend time and effort cooking and eating them yourself.

But in this foreign land with different customs, if you want to taste the familiar taste of hometown, you can only rely on your own hands. Slowly, at the request of my family, from easy to difficult, step by step, I first learned to make glutinous rice balls from Xiaohongshu, and later learned to make rice dumplings. I even made the most difficult pretzel mooncakes, which made me somewhat familiar with food. Mr. Picky was very satisfied. As a result, those festivals that had been gradually faded became somewhat ritualistic again in the process of making seasonal food by yourself, and the festive atmosphere was smudged in the fragrance of those foods.

Today is the day of local elections in South Korea, and it is also a public holiday. I just took advantage of this time to make rice dumplings for the Dragon Boat Festival. The fillings are extremely simple, including glutinous rice, red beans, and jujubes. After the rice dumplings were cooked, I counted more than a hundred. As usual, I divided out several portions and gave them to Chinese friends and Korean friends who love Chinese culture.

How many years later, they will also recall the lingering fragrance of rice dumplings...