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Zongzi Wikipedia

Image:Zongzi.jpg|thumb|300px|Rice dumpling with red bean filling

The zongzi or rice dumpling (zh-cpw|c=?????? or ??????|p=z??ngzi|w=tsung-tzu) is a traditional Cuisine of China|Chinese food, similar to the Mesoamerican tamale|tamal. Many other Asian cultures also claim these rice dumplings as traditional dishes. In Taiwanese, the meat version is "bah-tzang" whereas the vegetable version is "tsai-tzang." Laotians and Vietnamese also have a similar dish.

The origins of rice dumplings are traced to the legend of Qu Yuan, a well-loved poet who drowned himself in a river. To stop the fish from eating his body, people made rice dumplings and threw them into the river. Another version of the legend states that the dumplings were made to placate a chinese dragon|dragon that lived in the river.

Rice dumplings are made for the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar.

The fillings for the dumplings vary from region to region but the rice used is always sticky rice. Fillings may be sweet, such as mashed yellow beans or savoury and may include pork, Chinese mushrooms, salted Egg (food)|egg, chestnuts or even no filling at all and eaten with sugar or syrup.

The rice dumpling is usually a pyramid of rice which encloses the filling and wrapped in dried (or more rarely fresh) leaf|leaves. Bamboo leaves are perhaps the most common, but nelumbo nucifera|lotus, maize, banana, canna lily, Alpinia zerumbet and Pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius) leaves are not unknown. Wrapping a dumpling neatly is a skill which is passed down through family|families, as are the recipes. Dumpling-making is usually a family event with everyone helping out.

Image:Zhongzi_unwrapped.JPG|thumb|Unwrapped Rice Dumpling
Image:Zhongzi_wrapped.JPG|thumb|Wrapped rice dumpling

The dumplings need to be steaming|steamed for several hours and one superstition says that dumplings will never cook if a pregnant woman enters the kitchen whilst they are being steamed.

In 2005, the earliest zongzi ever found in China was discovered in a 700 year old tomb in De'an County, Jiangxi Province. http://english.people.com.cn/200506/08/eng20050608_189199.html

Category:Dumplings
Category:Chinese cuisine
Category:Rice dishes
Category:Chinese terms

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Last Modified:   2005-11-07