Once ‘fast food’ for farmers: How rice dumplings have evolved over the years
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Once 'fast food' for farmers: How rice dumplings take evolved over the years
We wait forward to new zong zi flavours every year, only practise y'all remember the lore and history behind them?
Buddha Jumps over the Wall Rice Dumpling. (Photo: Yi by Jereme Leung)
twenty Jun 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 09 Jul 2022 08:06AM)
They may be synonymous with the Dragon Boat Festival, merely rice dumplings predate the event and have been a staple for millennia. More than five k years agone, the Chinese began wrapping food in leaves and roasting them by the burn, preserving them for future, fuss-gratuitous consumption.
They were, equally Echo Zhao wrote in The Earth of Chinese, "A customary version of fast food, especially for farmers who were too decorated in the fields to head home for a meal".
Across the middle kingdom, rice dumplings varied as widely as the crops that were planted or the dialects spoken from province to province. Some were sugariness; others, salty. Some were austere, while others were more lavish.
The Northern Chinese preferred their dumplings sweetness. Some of these sweet treats were plain and dipped in sugar, which is peradventure the root of Southeast Asia's kueh lopes – gluey rice dumplings coated in coconut and served with molten gula Melaka. Beijingers, meanwhile, liked to stuff their rice dumplings with candied or dried crimson dates.
The Southerners, ever the maximalists of the land's two halves, filled theirs with salted egg yolks, pork, chestnuts, mushrooms, mung beans, red beans and dates. In fourth dimension, these variants came to be associated with festival foods. After all, as Chinese celebrations go, more is joyously more.
And so each year, Chinese restaurants around the earth outdo themselves with always more creative renditions. The dumplings – gilded with gold leaf, anointed with truffle oil, perfumed with roses – are celebrated equally foods are celebrated today: With prayerful grace of a pretty photo and a pensive caption on social media before they are consumed.
Just lest we lose sight of the story behind the rice dumpling or Dragon Boat Festival (and there's ever a good story backside a Chinese food tradition), hither's a quick epitomize of its history and lore.
During the tempestuous Warring States Period (475-221 BCE), the exiled poet, patriot and royal advisor Qu Yuan dramatically flung himself into a river upon learning that rival kingdom occupiers had taken hold of his domicile land of Chu. Unable to recover his body, locals dropped rice dumplings into the water in the hopes that the fish would find them more than palatable than Qu Yuan's corpse.
Qu Yuan's expiry is now commemorated annually on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar agenda, with the auction and devouring of sumptuous rice dumplings. Hither is a sampling of what'south available this yr.
CRYSTAL JADE
Even if you lot're going low carb, at that place'south a dumpling out there for you. For one, Crystal Jade's (estore.crystaljade.com) new 8 Treasure Quinoa Rice Dumpling (South$vi.80), studded with flavourful delights such as chai poh (preserved radish), Japanese Nameko mushrooms, black-eyed beans, stale shitake mushrooms, ruddy beans and chestnuts.
Bonus: It happens to be vegetarian. Also new is the umami-laden Spicy Dried Shrimp or Hei Bi Hiam Dumpling (Southward$ix.80) fabricated with Indonesian stale red prawns and Hokkaido conpoy.
HAI TIEN LO
Healthier too is Pan Pacific Singapore's (shop-panpacificsingapore.panpacific.com/en_SG) new Grain Dumpling with Cordyceps Flowers (S$8.80). Filled with light-green beans, black sesame, barley, corn and peanuts, this mucilaginous rice dumpling gets a fragile hit of cordyceps flowers that are known for their immunity-boosting properties.
Naturally, the classics remain. As e'er, the Traditional Jumbo Rice Dumplings (Southward$33.eighty) are on offer, every bit well every bit the Cantonese Pork Dumplings (S$nine.80) with pork belly, salted egg yolk and green beans. Use the promo lawmaking TAKEAWAY25 to enjoy a 25 per cent discount.
JADE
This year's dumplings from The Fullerton Singapore's (store.fullertonhotels.com/en_SG) Chinese restaurant get a shot of colour thanks to Turmeric-spiced Pork with Black-Eyed Peas (S$nine) and Fermented Ruby Yeast (Southward$9).
The latter is made with pork belly marinated in rice vino for 24 hours, fermented cerise yeast, Chinese ham and reddish beans that not simply imbue the dumpling with a lovely cerise hue, only besides give it incredible depth of flavour.
MADAME FAN
Its ingredients sound like that of whatsoever other classic Cantonese dumpling – pork belly, stale scallops, salted egg yolk, mushrooms and chestnuts. But say the magic word – yes, "truffles" – and these dumplings transform into something gloriously appealing.
Aside from the Truffle Rice Dumplings (S$28), this modern Chinese restaurant (jwmarriottsg.oddle.me) is serving upward Jasmine Smoked Pork Belly Rice Dumplings (S$16), filled with a generous mound of twice-cooked pork belly (first in a two-hour jasmine tea broth and then smoked), and Morel Mushroom Rice Dumplings (S$14). Free islandwide delivery with a S$100 spend.
RESORTS World SENTOSA
Resorts World Sentosa has gathered dumplings from its stable of restaurants including Feng Shui Inn, Woods and Malaysian Food Street, presenting them as a set of 5 in an elegant three-tier steamer.
The Dumpling Feast (South$98) comprises Sawara (Spanish mackerel), Takenoko (bamboo shoots) and Yuzu Chimaki Dumpling; Kampong Braised Gula Melaka Dumpling with Ruby-red, Purple and White Mucilaginous Rice; Wild Morel and Abalone Dumpling; XO Sauce Pork Belly, Mushroom and Chestnut Bean Dumpling; and Khao Niew Nha Goong Dumpling, a riff on the traditional Thai sweet gluey rice snack topped with shrimp.
Order (rwsentosa.com/en/promotions/restaurants/dumpling-feast-2020) at least iii days in accelerate.
SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, SINGAPORE
Blackness truffles also season the Organic French Craven with Buddha Jumps Over The Wall Rice Dumpling (S$108, 800g) should yous be in the marketplace for some decadence.
Otherwise, there are more down-to-earth options similar Sweetened Imperial Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Custard (S$12.80), and the Eight Treasures Rice Dumpling with Mixed Grain Rice and Organic Quinoa (S$14.lxxx).
If all you're after is something homespun and familiar, so perhaps the Shang Palace Signature Barbecued Pork Rice Dumpling with Yunnan Ham and Conpoy (South$24.lxxx, 750g) volition practice the trick.
Order through this link (bit.ly/slsdumplings2020) and go 20 per cent off. Also available on Grabfood, Foodpanda and Deliveroo.
YAN
Caput chef Ng Sen Tio has come a long way from his humble childhood when a unmarried rice dumpling might have counted as his merely meal of the day.
This year, he'southward celebrating the tradition at Yan (yan.com.sg/estore) in incomparably luxe style with Abalone and Fish Maw Dumplings (S$28.80) featuring a stewed filling of 8-head abalone from Commonwealth of australia, sea cucumber and fish maw; and Shrimp and Scallop XO Sauce Rice Dumplings (S$18.80) generously filled with whole Australian scallops, wild-caught prawns and braised pork belly fried with garlic, stale prawns and XO sauce.
This Singaporean chef who fabricated his name in Mainland china is extremely proud of the speciality Yunnan roses that he sources from the motherland. Incredibly fragrant, the flower's petals perfume Yi's (rafflesgrabandgo.com) Yunnan Rose Carmine Bean Dumpling (S$18 for three), which are filled with a silky handmade scarlet bean paste.
Traditionalists might prefer the Buddha Jumps Over The Wall Dumpling (Southward$48) with South African abalone, Japanese sea cucumber, sakura ebi and Japanese stale scallops.
READ> Male parent's Day feasts: Leave restaurants to the eager crowds, order in instead
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/experiences/dumplings-dragon-boat-festival-singapore-251541
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