Zongzi
This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2013) |
Alternative names | bakcang, bacang, machang, zang, nom asom, pya htote, chimaki, joong, doong |
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Type | Rice cake |
Place of origin | China |
Region or state | Chinese-speaking areas East Asia |
Main ingredients | Glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves |
Variations | Lotus leaf wrap |
Similar dishes | Mont phet htok |
Zongzi | |
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BUC | cáe̤ng / Min Dong Chinese pronunciation: [tsɔyŋ˨˩˨][2] |
Zongzi (
Names
As it diffused to other regions of Asia over many centuries, zongzi became known by various names in different languages and cultures,[5] including phet htoke (ဖက်ထုပ်) in Burmese-speaking areas (such as Myanmar), nom chang in Cambodia, machang in Philippines, bacang in Indonesia, khanom chang in Laos, and ba-chang in Thailand.
Vietnamese cuisine also has a variation on this dish known as bánh ú tro or bánh tro.[6]
In Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Taiwan, zongzi is known as bakcang, bacang, or zang (from Hokkien Chinese: 肉粽; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bah-chàng; lit. 'meat zong', as Hokkien is commonly used among overseas Chinese). Similarly, zongzi is more popularly known as machang among Chinese Filipinos in the Philippines.
In some areas of the United States, particularly
In Mauritius, zongzi (typically called zong), is a traditional dish which continues to be eaten by the Sino-Mauritian and by the Overseas Chinese communities. It is especially eaten on the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional festive event, to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan.[9]
Popular origin myths
What has become established popular belief amongst the Chinese is that zongzi has since the days of yore been a food-offering to commemorate the death of
Qu Yuan died in 278 BC, but the earliest known documented association between him and the zong dumplings occurs much later, in the mid 5th century (Shishuo Xinyu
As for the origin myth, a fable recounts that the people commemorated the drowning death of Qu Yuan on the
Also, Qu Yuan had (dubiously, by "folklore" or by common belief) become connected with the boat races held on the Double Fifth, datable by another 6th century source.
History
Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) are traditionally eaten during the
The practice of eating zongzi on the Double Fifth or
In the Jin dynasty (晋, AD 266–420), zongzi was officially a Dragon Boat Festival food.[29][30] Anecdotally, an official called Lu Xun from the Jin dynasty once sent zongzi which used yizhiren (Chinese: 益智仁, the fruit of Alpinia oxyphylla or sharp leaf galangal) as additional filling; this type of dumpling was then dubbed yizhi zong (Chinese: 益智粽, literally "dumplings to increase wisdom").[29][31] Later in the Northern and Southern dynasties, mixed zongzi appeared, the rice was filled with fillings such as meat, chestnuts, jujubes, red beans,[32][30] and they were exchanged as gifts to relatives and friends.[29][30]
In the 6th century (Sui to early Tang dynasty), the dumpling is also being referred to as "tubular zong" (Chinese: 筒糉/筒粽; pinyin: tongzong), and they were being made by being packed inside "young bamboo" tubes.[33][d] The 6th century source for this states that the dumplings were eaten on the Summer Solstice,[33] (instead of the Double Fifth).
In the
.In the
In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the wrapping material had changed from gu (wild rice) leaf to ruo (箬; the Indocalamus tessellatus bamboo) leaf, and then to reed leaves,[30][dubious ]and filled with materials like bean paste, pine nut kernel, pork, walnut,[30] jujube, and so on. The varieties of zongzi were more diverse.
During the Ming and
Every year in early May of the lunar calendar, the Chinese people still soak glutinous rice, wash the leaves and wrap up zongzi.[30]
Description
The shapes of zongzi vary,
While traditional zongzi are wrapped in bamboo leaves,[37] the leaves of lotus,[38] reed,[39] maize, banana,[40] canna, shell ginger, and pandan sometimes are used as substitutes in other countries. Each kind of leaf imparts its own unique aroma and flavor to the rice.
The fillings used for zongzi vary from region to region, but the
Southern-style zongzi, however, tend to be more savoury or salty.[41] Fillings of Southern-style zongzi include ham,[30] salted duck egg, pork belly, taro, shredded pork or chicken, Chinese sausage, pork fat, and shiitake mushrooms.[42] However, as the variations of zongzi styles have traveled and become mixed, today one can find all kinds of them at traditional markets, and their types are not confined to which side of the Yellow River they originated from.
Zongzi need to be
Fillings
Sweet:
- White sugar (mixed into rice, frequently present)
- Mung beans, split and dehulled
- Red bean paste[36]
- Lotus seed
- Yam
- Jujube[36]
Salty or savory:
- Soy sauce (mixed into rice, almost always present)
- Chinese sausage[38]
- Mushrooms, preferably xiang gu[38]
- Salted duck egg yolks
- Ham[38]
- Hard-boiled eggs[36]
- Pork, preferably pork belly[38]
- Conpoy (dried scallops)
- Red-cooked meats
- Chicken[43]
Either or neutral:
- Nuts[38]
- Water chestnuts[43]
- Cooked peanuts
- Vegetables
Variations
China
- Jiaxing zongzi (嘉兴粽子): This is a kind of zongzi famous in mainland China and named after the city Jiaxing, Zhejiang. Typically savory with the rice mixed with soy sauce and having pork, water chestnut and salted duck egg yolk as its filling, but sweet ones with mung bean or red bean filling also exist.
- Jia zong (假粽): Instead of glutinous rice, balls of glutinous rice flour (so no individual grains of rice are discernible) are used to enclose the fillings of the zongzi. These "fake zong" are typically smaller than most and are much stickier.
- Jianshui zong (碱水粽): These "alkaline water zong" are typically eaten as a dessert item rather than as part of the main meal. The glutinous rice is treated with jianzongshui (碱粽水, alkali[ne] zongzi water, aqueous sodium carbonate or potassium carbonate), giving them their distinctive yellow color. Jianshui zong typically contain either no filling or are filled with a sweet mixture, such as sweet bean paste. Sometimes, a certain redwood sliver (蘇木) is inserted for color and flavor. They are often eaten with sugar or light syrup.
- Cantonese jung (广东粽): This is representative of the southern variety of zongzi, usually consisting of marinated meat, such as pork belly, and duck, with other ingredients like mung bean paste, mushrooms, dried scallops, and salted egg yolk. Cantonese jung are small, the front is square, back has a raised sharp angle, shaped like an awl.[further explanation needed]
- Chiu Chou jung (潮州粽): This is a variation of Cantonese jung with red bean paste, pork belly, chestnut, mushroom, and dried shrimp, in a triangular prism.[44]
- Banlam zang (闽南粽): Xiamen, Quanzhou area is very famous for its pork rice dumplings, made with braised pork with pork belly, plus mushrooms, shrimp, and so on.
- Sichuan zong (四川粽): Sichuan people like to eat spicy and "tingly-numbing" (麻) sense food, so they make spicy rice dumplings. They add Sichuan peppercorns, chili powder, Sichuan salt, and a little preserved pork, wrapped into four-cornered dumplings. Cooked and then roasted, it tastes tender and flavorful.
- Beijing zong (北京粽): The Beijing zong are sweet and often eaten cold.[42] Common fillings include red dates and bean paste, as well as preserved fruit.[45]
Taiwan
- Taiwanese zongzi are regionally split by the process of cooking rather than filling.
- Northern Taiwanese zongzi (北部粽) are wrapped with husks of Phyllostachys makinoi bamboo (桂竹籜), then steamed.
- Southern Taiwanese zongzi (南部粽) are wrapped with leaves of Bambusa oldhamii (麻竹葉), then boiled.
- The filling is classified simply by eating habits:
Japan
- Japanese chimaki are very similar to the Chinese versions but possibly with different fillings, and are divided into savory and sweet types.[46]
- A special sweet chimaki is eaten on Children's Day (kodomo no hi, May 5), and is identifiable by its long narrow conical shape.[46]
Mauritius
- Sweet zong is a zongzi made of a plain rice (i.e. without any fillings) which is eaten with crushed peanut in sugar.
- Salty zong contains meat, beans and other fillings in the rice.
Malaysia and Singapore
- In Malaysia, ketupat daun palas is a delicacy during festival made by Muslim majority of Malaysia. Like zongzi, ketupat is made from glutinous rice. Soaked glutinous rice is wrapped inside a triangle of "daun palas" a type of palm tree leaves, then steamed.[48] Ketupats are eaten with beef or chicken rendang, a type of curry, during Aidilfitri and Aidiladha festivals. Another variation is lemang, made by cooking the glutinous rice inside of empty bamboo shells using hot coals rather than steaming.
Museum
The Jiaxing Zongzi Culture Museum in
Gallery
-
Zongzi assembly in Shanghai
-
Jianshui zongzi without fillings
-
Japanese-style chimaki may have a long narrow conical shape
-
A very large zongzi
-
Dessert zongzi made with translucent glutinous rice paste
-
Fancy decorated zongzi in a museum display
See also
- Bánh chưng
- Bánh tét
- Lo mai gai, or lotus leaf wrap
- Chinese sticky rice
- Corunda
- Chunga pitha
- Hallaca
- Ketupat
- List of Chinese dishes
- List of dumplings
- List of rice dishes
- List of stuffed dishes
- Lontong
- Onigiri
- Pamonha
- Pasteles
- Peranakan cuisine
- Tamale
- Suman
- Salted duck egg, other food eaten in the Dragon Boat Festival
Explanatory notes
- Chu ci; this according to Wang Yi, the ancient (Han dynasty period) commentator to Qu Yuan as a poet.[11] (More specifically, penning Lament for Ying portion of the Nine Declarations when the Qin general Bai Qi captured Yingtu, then the capital of Chu, in 278 BC[citation needed]).
- ^ The first year of Eastern Han (Year 1 of Jianwu era, AD 25) to be more precise.
- Spring and Autumn Period occurs in a book by a non-expert (Dong Qiang , a French literature professor and translator), and only an unnamed "Record" is cited as evidence.[23]Other web sources concur with this claim.
- ^ Here following Ian Chapman who renders (tong zong) as "tubular zong".[21]
- ^ The original Shuowen Jiezi dates to c. AD 100, but this character was added to the dictionary in the 10th century. The leaf plant is given as lu (simplified Chinese: 芦; traditional Chinese: 蘆; pinyin: lu), or "reed".
References
- Citations
- ^ Cantodict, 粽 (zung2 zung3 | zong4) : glutinous rice dumpling
- ^ ydict, 粽
- ISBN 978-1-61069-221-2. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ETtoday(in Traditional Chinese). 2020-06-25. Retrieved 2023-12-31.
- ^ "Sweet and savory: Zongzi beyond your expectation". China Daily. 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ISBN 978-0-253-35707-6.
- ^ "'Chinese tamales' tastily fete culture". October 14, 2013.
- ^ "Grandma Hsiang's Chinese Tamales - LUCKYRICE". luckyrice.com. Archived from the original on 2018-05-27.
- ^ "LE DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL : Une fête qui réunit toutes les communautés, selon Mike Wong". Le Mauricien (in French). 2014-06-08. Retrieved 2021-04-25.
- ^ Hawkes (1985), pp. 64–66.
- ^ JSTOR j.ctvbkk21j.9.
- ISBN 7-219-03923-9
- ^ Chittick (2010), p. 111: "there is no evidence that he was widely worshiped or much regarded in popular lore prior to the sixth century CE".
- ^ Wu Jun (呉均; Wu chün (d. 520), Xu Qixieji. See below.
- ^ Lee-St. John, Jeninne (14 May 2009). "The Legends Behind the Dragon Boat Festival". Smithsonian Magazine.
- ISBN 0-78764-378-5.: "chiao-lung"
- ^ JSTOR 20789417.
- Gujin Tushu Jicheng 『古今圖書集成』Book 51, excerpt from "Xu Qixieji《續齊諧記》.
- ^ Chan (2009) citing Wu Jun Xu Qixie though not explicitly mentioning zong, only paraphrasing as "rice wrapped with five-colored strings".[17]
- ^ Jingchu Suishiji
- ^ ISBN 9780231531009
- ^ The origin of tsungtsu Archived May 15, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ISBN 9781921816918.
- ^ Gujin Tushu Jicheng 『古今圖書集成』 Book 51, excerpt from "Fengsu Tongyi《風俗通義》".
- ^ Hsu (2004), pp. 39–40.
- ISBN 9789812296429.
- ISBN 9787307200487
- ^ Wu, Yue 望岳 (2007). Ershisi jieqi 二十四節氣與食療 [Twenty-four solar terms prescribed food therapy]. Jilin Science and Technology Press 吉林科学技术出版社.
- ^ a b c "Zongzi fazhanjianshi." 粽子发展简史:古称 “角黍” 晋代加入中药材-新华网 [Brief developmental history of the zongzi dumpling..]. www.xinhuanet.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2021.
- ^ OCLC 751763923.
- ISBN 9780520291973.
- ^ Actually, "chestnut and jujube dates" (Chinese: 栗棗) were already documented in the Fengsu Tongyi account of zong.[24]
- ^ a b Jingchu Suishiji 《荊楚歲時記》(6th c.), under the "Summer Solstice" heading.[21]
- ^ Xu, Ruoxin 許若馨 (25 June 2020). "Duanwu jie / zong, zong, zong nage zi cai zhengcue?" 端午節|糉、粽、糭哪個字才正確?中文系講師端午節「糉」字逐個解 [Double Fifth Festival/zong, zong, zong which character is correct?]. Ming Pao 明報., citing scholar Hung Yeuk Chun 若震認.
- ^ "端午节吃粽子的来历由来__中国青年网". news.youth.cn.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-313-33504-4. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ^ Thurman, Jim (June 9, 2016). "Where to Find Chinese Zongzi, the Sweet Pork-Filled Tamales Wrapped in Bamboo". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4222-9448-2. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-3134-8. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ISBN 978-1-86450-370-8. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-7-5085-1102-3. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ^ OCLC 25272938.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8351-2481-2. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
- ^ "北方粽/南方粽/廣東粽/潮州粽 有何分別?". 恆香老餅家 Hang Heung Cake Shop. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
- ^ "不同地区的粽子,你了解多少?". www.sohu.com.
- ^ a b Ung, Judy (April 27, 2019). "Facts About Japanese Chimaki". The Spruce Eats. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ^ "Nyonya Rice Dumplings Recipe (Zong Zi) 娘惹粽子". Huang Kitchen. June 17, 2015.
- ^ "Cara Buat Ketupat Palas Lemak Yang Sedap Untuk Raya". RASA (in Malay). 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2022-11-15.
- ^ "Museums in Zhejang: Jiaxing Zongzi Culture Museum_In Zhejiang". inzhejiang.com. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ^ "Jiaxing Zongzi Culture Museum". www.chinawiki.net. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- Bibliography
- Chittick, Andrew (2010), Patronage and Community in Medieval China: The Xiangyang Garrison, 400-600 CE, SUNY Press, pp. 112–113, ISBN 9781438428994
- ISBN 9780140443752.
- Hsu, ManLi 許曼麗 (2004), "Tango fūbutsushigo shōkō" 端午風物詩語小考 [A study about poems of 'Duan-wu'] (PDF), The Geibun-kenkyu: Journal of Arts and Letters 藝文研究 (in Japanese): 39–67