Accessories: Zongzi leaves, Zongzi rope.
Ingredients: white alkali
Zongzi is a festival food for the Han people to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival. It was called "Jiaoshu" and "Zongzi" in ancient times, and it was steamed by wrapping glutinous rice with zongzi leaves. Legend has been passed down in memory of Qu Yuan who threw himself into the river, and it is the traditional food with the deepest cultural accumulation in the history of China. There are many kinds of zongzi. From the stuffing, there are Beijing jujube brown wrapped in jujube in the north. In the south, there are many kinds of fillings, such as bean paste, fresh meat, eight treasures, ham and egg yolk, among which Zhejiang Jiaxing Zongzi is the representative. The custom of eating zongzi has been practiced for thousands of years. Every year on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, China people have to soak glutinous rice, wash zongzi leaves and wrap zongzi. This custom has also spread to North Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries. 20 12 Zongzi was selected as one of the series of delicacies in the second episode of the documentary China on the tip of the tongue, The Story of Staple Food.
Zongzi (Pinyin: zòng zi, English: rice dumpling) is a festival food of the Dragon Boat Festival, which was called "Jiaoshu" in ancient times. Legend has it that it was born for the sacrifice of Qu Yuan who threw himself into the river. On that day, Zongzi was given to each other as a souvenir. And Zongzi is still the traditional food with the deepest cultural accumulation in the history of China. Because of the different customs in different places, people give different meanings to zongzi, which is quite different in the south and the north.
Eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival is another traditional custom of China people. Zongzi, also known as "corn millet" and "zongzi". It has a long history and various patterns.
According to records, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, corn was wrapped in leaves to form a horn called "horn millet"; Rice in a bamboo tube is sealed and baked, which is called "tube zongzi". At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the millet was soaked in plant ash water. Because the water contained alkali, the millet was wrapped in leaves to form a quadrangle and cooked, which was called Guangdong Suanshui Zongzi. At the same time, a small number of stuffed zongzi appeared, and the most popular one was pork zongzi.
In Jin Dynasty, Zongzi was officially designated as Dragon Boat Festival food. At this time, in addition to glutinous rice, the raw materials for dumplings are also added with Alpinia oxyphylla, and the cooked dumplings are called "educational dumplings". Rice is mixed with rare animal meat, chestnut, etc., and the variety is increasing. Zongzi is also used as a gift for communication.
By the Tang Dynasty, the rice used for zongzi was "white as jade" and its shape appeared cone and diamond. There is a record of "Datang Zongzi" in Japanese literature. In the Song Dynasty, there was already a "candied dumpling", that is, the fruit entered the dumpling. Su Dongpo, a poet, has a poem "See Yangmei in Zongzi". At this time, there were also advertisements made of zongzi piled into pavilions and wooden carts and horses, indicating that eating zongzi was very fashionable in the Song Dynasty. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the wrapping material of zongzi changed from leaves to leaves. Later, zongzi wrapped with reed leaves appeared, and additional materials such as bean paste, pine nuts, dates and walnuts appeared, making the varieties more colorful.
Cold zongzi has been used all the time. Every year in the early May of the lunar calendar, every family in China has to soak glutinous rice, wash zongzi leaves and wrap zongzi, and its varieties are more varied. From the perspective of stuffing, there are many Beijing jujube dumplings with small dates in the north; In the south, there are many kinds of fillings, such as bean paste, fresh meat, eight treasures, ham and egg yolk, among which Zhejiang Jiaxing Zongzi is the representative. The custom of eating zongzi has been popular in China for thousands of years, and spread to Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.
Children wear sachets on the Dragon Boat Festival, which is said to have the meaning of avoiding evil spirits and expelling plague. In fact, it is used to decorate the inner head. The sachet contains cinnabar, realgar and fragrant medicine, wrapped with silk cloth, which is full of fragrance, and then tied with five-color silk threads to form a rope, making a string of different shapes, all kinds of exquisite and lovely. In some southern cities of China, young men and women also put sachets into the customers who have extended the insertion time to express their deep love.