1: Glutinous Rice White Rice Dumplings

2: Small Jujube Rice Dumplings

3: Bean Paste Rice Dumplings

4: Huzhou Rice Dumplings

5: Pepper and Salt Bean Rice Dumplings

6: Zhongshan Ludu Rice Dumplings

The origin of the Rice Dumplings

The fifth day of the fifth month of the Lunar Calendar is the Dragon Boat Festival, and the folk are used to eat rice dumplings, which legend says were made in honor of Qu Yuan, a minister of Chu during the Warring States period.

Qu Yuan was a great patriotic poet in China, who actively advocated that Chu unite with Qi to fight against Qin, but his views were not adopted, instead, he was dismissed from the government and sent to a remote place.

When Chu was about to fall, Qu Yuan committed suicide by throwing himself into the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

After Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River, the people of Chu threw delicious food into the river in order to prevent the fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs from eating Qu Yuan's body. In this way, year after year, the people in order to commemorate the patriotic poet, every Dragon Boat Festival day, they will throw food into the river to worship Qu Yuan.

One night, an old man dreamed of Qu Yuan and asked him, "We threw so much food to you, did you eat it?" The old man asked him, "Have you eaten all the food we've thrown at you?" Qu Yuan said, "All the food you've given me has been eaten by the fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs." The old man asked, "How can I not be eaten by them?"

Qu Yuan said: "You use bamboo leaves to wrap the rice, made into a rhombus-shaped sharp angle zongzi, they think it is a rhombus will not dare to grab eat."

The next year's Dragon Boat Festival, the people followed what Qu Yuan said, to the Miluo River to cast the sharp corner of the dumplings. However, after the Dragon Boat Festival, Qu Yuan sent another dream to the old man, saying, "Thank you for sending me so many dumplings to eat. But most of them are still eaten by fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs."

The old man asked Qu Yuan, "What else can be done?"

Qu Yuan said, "The boat that delivers the zongzi should be dressed up as a dragon, because fish, shrimp, turtles and crabs are under the jurisdiction of the dragon, and they don't dare to eat the king of the dragon."

Since then, every year on the Dragon Boat Festival day, people rowed a dragon boat to Miluo River to send zongzi. This is the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival to eat zongzi paddling dragon boat.

The shape of the dumplings

Because of the different regions, from the material to the dumpling leaves, there are great differences, even "wrapped" shape, there are also very different, such as the early people prevailed in the bull's horns to sacrifice to heaven, so the Han and Jin dynasties when the dumplings, more made into a horn-shaped as one of the ancestor worship supplies. In addition, there are generally triangular, quadrangular, pointed triangular, square, long and other shapes.

The taste of zongzi

Zongzi filling meat and vegetable, sweet and salty. The dumplings in the north are mainly sweet, and the dumplings in the south are less sweet and more salty. The content of the material, on the other hand, is the part that best highlights the local characteristics.

[Beijing]

Beijing's zongzi can be divided into about three kinds: one is purely made of glutinous rice white zongzi, steamed and dipped in sugar to eat. Another is the small date dumplings, filled with small dates, dried fruit-based. The third is bean paste zongzi, relatively rare. North China has another kind of yellow corn instead of glutinous rice dumplings, filling with red dates. After steaming, only to see the yellow sticky corn embedded with red colorful dates, some people beautifully named "gold wrapped agate.

[Zhejiang]

Zhejiang Huzhou zongzi, soft rice, divided into sweet and salty species. The salty ones are made with fresh pork and soaked in the finest soy sauce. Each zongzi with a piece of fat and lean meat for filling. Sweet dumplings are filled with date paste or bean paste. A piece of lard is added on top. After steaming, the lard is blended into the bean paste, making the dumplings very smooth and flavorful, and the Wu Fang Zhai dumplings are especially famous. Fillings are selected by the person, there are eight treasures dumplings, chicken dumplings, bean paste dumplings, fresh meat dumplings, etc., each with its own characteristics.

[Sichuan]

The Sichuan rice dumplings with salt and pepper are also unique. Soak the glutinous rice and red beans for half a day, add pepper, Sichuan salt and a little bacon, and wrap them into small four-cornered dumplings. The dumplings are then cooked over high heat for three hours, and when they are cooked, they are placed on a wire mesh and baked over charcoal. It's very flavorful and tender on the outside.

[Guangdong Province]

Guangdong's Zhongshan Ludou zongzi, characterized by a round stick shape, thick as an arm. The ingredients are also divided into sweet and salty. Sweet lotus seed paste, bean paste, chestnut paste, jujube paste; salty salted meat, roast chicken, egg yolk, sweet shellfish, mushrooms, green beans, barbecued pork, etc.. The dumplings in southern Fujian are divided into alkali dumplings, meat dumplings and bean dumplings. Alkaline rice dumplings are made by adding lye to the glutinous rice and steaming it. They are sticky, soft and slippery at the same time. After the ice plus honey or syrup is especially delicious. Meat dumplings are made of marinated meat, mushrooms, egg yolks, shrimp and dried bamboo shoots. Xiamen's meat dumplings are the most famous. Bean dumplings are popular in Quanzhou, using September beans mixed with a little salt, with glutinous rice wrapped into. After steaming, the fragrance of beans, some people also dip in sugar to eat.