Steamed zongzi is the most famous traditional snack in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, and it is also one of the most popular local characteristics since ancient times. The main raw materials of steamed dumplings are similar to other zongzi, mainly glutinous rice, pork, mung beans, salted egg yolk, mushrooms, dried shrimps, scallops, chestnuts and peanuts. However, steamed dumplings are different from other zongzi mainly because the leaves of zongzi are wrapped with Hiragi leaves and aquatic plants, and the steamed dumplings are relatively large.
Steamed dumplings have a long history. It is said that in the Qin Dynasty, farmers at that time wrapped rice in bamboo leaves or lotus leaves for the convenience of labor, cooked it and brought it to the ground as dry food for labor. Later, after continuous improvement and evolution, today's steamed dumplings were formed. Zhaoqing people like to eat steamed dumplings, and they are also very particular about making this snack.
During the tour in Zhaoqing, we went to Liu Yi's home in Xiayao Village, Mugang Street, Duanzhou District, Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province, and learned more about the production technology of steamed dumplings in typical local family workshops.
Zhaoqing people make zongzi. The leaves of Zongzi must be made of green shiny Hiragi leaves, first-class glutinous rice and mung beans, and fat and thin fresh pork belly. After preparing the raw materials, they should first soak glutinous rice and mung beans, peel the mung beans, and then add spiced and distiller's yeast to marinate the pork. After all the basic raw materials are processed, you can make zongzi.
Spread a few Hiragi leaves in a triangular mold, put two spoonfuls of glutinous rice, put a spoonful of mung bean and two pieces of pork in the middle, and finally put a few spoonfuls of glutinous rice to cover it, and finally wrap it, and a zongzi will be wrapped. However, it takes a long time to cook steamed dumplings. It usually takes nearly 8 hours to cook on an open flame before it is completely cooked. Therefore, it usually takes a whole night to cook a pot of zongzi.
In Liu Yi's workshop, the familiar Liu Yi can wrap a zongzi in less than a minute. Every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, her family's orders for zongzi suddenly increase, with an average of more than 400 packets per day, four times more than usual. Liu Yi and her husband did it entirely by hand. Compared with the steamed dumplings produced by the factory assembly line, this handmade zongzi workshop hidden in the alleys of urban residents is not very eye-catching. But the smell of zongzi is not afraid of the depth of the alley. Liu Yi said that many local restaurants and neighborhoods prefer handmade zongzi produced by family workshops to steamed zongzi produced in batches by factories.
This is the neighborhood's fascination with traditional food culture and taste habits, and it is also an unforgettable taste and emotional memory. Liu Yi and her husband said that they didn't want to expand their business, just to wrap up every zongzi, ensure the quality of the products and earn enough money to live according to their own abilities.
Steamed dumplings are very big and pyramid-shaped, which is 3-5 times that of ordinary zongzi, each weighing about 0.5 kg. A cooked zongzi is enough for 2-3 people. More interestingly, there are many differences between the inheritance and production of Zhaoqing steamed dumplings and traditional jiaozi, so when Zhaoqing declared the intangible cultural heritage of steamed culture, local experts put forward the view that "steamed dumplings are not jiaozi". Obviously it looks like zongzi, but the locals say "it's not zongzi that is steamed"! In this regard, friends who know about Zongzi culture are welcome to leave a message and "popularize science" with everyone.