Introduction: For people nowadays, we have abundant materials and a lot of food to choose from. Even if it is not a festival, we can easily eat complicated delicacies like zongzi. Many times we call Zongzi Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi. So why are rice dumplings called Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings? Let’s take a look at the detailed introduction of what Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings are.
What is Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi? Why Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi?
Zongzi is a traditional delicacy of the Dragon Boat Festival. It is called Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings. The abbreviation is Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings, Dragon Boat Festival. There is a tradition of eating palm trees during the festival. In addition to the tradition of eating rice dumplings, there are also traditional customs of drinking realgar wine, hanging calamus, and hanging mugwort leaves.
The origin of Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings
According to legend, the day when Qu Yuan committed suicide by throwing himself into the river was the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which is the Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival was originally a festival for the Chinese people to cure diseases and prevent epidemics. Before the Spring and Autumn Period in the Wuyue area, there was a custom of holding tribal totem sacrifices in the form of dragon boat races on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Later, because Qu Yuan died on this day, it evolved into a traditional festival for the Chinese people to commemorate Qu Yuan.
The documents that tie Qu Yuan and the Dragon Boat Festival together began in the Southern Dynasties. The Dragon Boat Festival originated from Qu Yuan, and the earliest legend spread in the Jingchu area. "The Chronicles of Jingchu", a collection of notes compiled by Liang Zongmao of the Southern Dynasty that records the seasonal scenes of the ancient Chu land, states: "According to the race on May 5th, it is customary for Qu Yuan to throw himself into the Miluo sun, injuring his place of death, so the boat was ordered to "Save him."
"Xu Qi Xie Ji" written by Liang Wujun of the Southern Dynasty records: "Qu Yuan threw himself into Miluo and died on May 5. The people of Chu mourned him. Every time on this day, they would store rice in bamboo tubes. People in the Jingchu area make rice dumplings with colorful silk and neem leaves as a memorial to him. "The custom of the Dragon Boat Festival is also one of the ways for people in Jingchu area to commemorate Qu Yuan.
Varieties of Dragon Boat Festival rice dumplings
Suzhou rice dumplings
Suzhou rice dumplings in Jiangsu Province are long and thin, square in shape, with fresh meat and date paste. . Bean paste, lard with sand and other varieties. It is characterized by exquisite ingredients and fine production. Take lard rice dumplings with sand as an example: use high-quality red beans, boil them, peel them, filter the sand, then add double the sugar and an appropriate amount of fat to make the filling. When wrapping, a piece of fat suet (or fat meat) is also included in the stuffing. It cooks into crystal-bright fat and has a sweet flavor.
Jiaxing Zongzi
Zongzi in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, first came from Huzhou, and later gradually developed and developed its own characteristics. This kind of rice dumplings are short, stocky and rectangular (like pillows), and come in varieties such as fresh meat rice dumplings, brown bean paste rice dumplings, eight-treasure rice dumplings, chicken rice dumplings, etc. The ingredients are carefully selected and seasoned. For example, fresh meat rice dumplings (also known as ham rice dumplings) are made from high-quality glutinous rice mixed with soy sauce, fresh leg meat is cut into small pieces, and the filling is mixed with sugar, wine, salt, etc. When wrapping, use two pieces of lean meat to sandwich one piece of fat meat. After the rice dumplings are cooked, the fat from the fat meat will seep into the rice. It tastes delicious, fat but not greasy.
Cantonese rice dumplings
Cantonese rice dumplings are large in size and unique in appearance. They are square in front and have 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 filling rice dumplings with diced chicken, duck meat, barbecued pork, egg yolk, mushrooms, green beans, etc. . The rice dumplings are wrapped in lotus leaves, and each large one weighs about 500 grams.
Beijing Zongzi
Beijing Zongzi is smaller and has an oblique square shape. At present, most of the rice dumplings supplied in cities are glutinous rice dumplings, but in the vast rural areas, they are still used to eating rhubarb rice dumplings, and a few are sticky sorghum rice dumplings. Rhubarb rice dumplings are a representative variety of northern rice dumplings. They are sticky, tough, fragrant and have a unique flavor. Beijing rice dumplings are mostly filled with red dates and bean paste, and a few also use preserved fruit.
Ningbo Zongzi
Zhejiang Ningbo Zongzi is also very famous. It is square in shape and has alkaline water rice dumplings, red bean rice dumplings, red date rice dumplings and other varieties. The representative variety is alkaline rice dumplings, in which an appropriate amount of alkaline water is added to glutinous rice. Wrapped with old yellow Ruo leaves, the glutinous rice turns yellow after cooking, which is elegant and unique. It is eaten dipped in white sugar and is sweet and refreshing.