The fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year is the Dragon Boat Festival in China. Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi is a traditional Chinese custom and a unique seasonal food in China. But did you know? Zongzi is no longer a specialty of China. Many countries in the world also have the custom of eating zongzi. Zongzi in most countries originated from China.
Zongzi in North Korea
North Koreans have the custom of eating "wheel cakes" on the Dragon Boat Festival. People boil fresh mugwort leaves, mash them, and mix them into rice noodles. Made into the shape of a wheel, Koreans call it "wheel cake".
Japanese Zongzi
Japanese people also eat Zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival, but the Japanese Dragon Boat Festival is on May 5 in the Gregorian calendar. Japanese Zongzi is not made of glutinous rice, but Made from ground rice flour, the rice dumplings are uniquely seed-shaped unlike Chinese rice dumplings.
Vietnamese Zongzi
Vietnamese Zongzi are wrapped in banana leaves and come in round and square shapes. They believe that round rice dumplings represent heaven and square rice dumplings represent earth. The unity of heaven and earth brings good luck and good fortune. Eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival can bring good weather and good harvests.
Zongzi in Myanmar
Burmese people love to eat zongzi, but there is no festival culture or commemorative activities. It is just a kind of food. Burmese rice dumplings are made with glutinous rice as the main ingredient and banana and coconut as fillings. They are fragrant, soft, sweet and intoxicating.
Thailand Zongzi
The rice dumplings wrapped by Thais are as small as eggs. Because they are wrapped in green rice dumpling leaves, they turn light green when steamed and have a very refreshing taste.
Mexican Zongzi
Mexican Zongzi is also called "Damale". Its raw material is coarse-grained cornmeal, and the filling is meat slices called chili, wrapped in corn leaves or banana leaves. Yes, it has a unique flavor.
Zongzi in Indonesia
Indonesians are very particular about the filling of rice dumplings. They often use fresh minced meat, mushrooms and green onions to make rice dumplings. It's smooth and delicious when eaten, and you won't get tired of it if you eat more.
Costa Rica’s rice dumplings
Costa Rica’s rice dumplings are made of a specially processed, sticky corn flour as the main ingredient, with chicken, beef, carrots, potatoes, olives, Chili peppers etc. Some are also topped with beef juice and then wrapped in fresh banana leaves into a flat square shape.
Philippine rice dumplings
Philippine rice dumplings are a bit special. They are used to be wrapped in long strips. Their taste is similar to the rice dumplings in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas of China. Moreover, they treat rice dumplings as Christmas dishes during Christmas. Indispensable food.
Zongzi in Latin America
A food similar to zongzi is also popular in Latin America. This probably originated from the traditional food of the Indians. They use banana leaves to make zongzi. The main ingredients are Cornmeal and kidney beans taste delicious. There is also a legend about it: more than 400 years ago, Spanish colonists ruled most of Latin America, and the Indians were forced to go out to work. For this reason, the women wrapped the cooked corn meal and beans in banana leaves as dry food. Relatives lead the way. Over time, it became their tradition.
Dragon Boat Festival is popular all over the country in making rice dumplings, but each has its own style in the way of wrapping the rice dumplings. Guizhong area likes to make large pillow rice dumplings that are shaped like pillows. The large pillow rice dumplings in Guizhong area use half a catty to one catty of rice; while in Guilin area, one catty of rice can be used to make six or seven small pillow rice dumplings. In the north of Guilin, dog-head rice dumplings shaped like a dog's head are popular. The ingredients used in the process of making rice dumplings have their own characteristics. For example, people in Guilin like to add a little alkali powder when making rice dumplings to produce an alkali aroma in the cooked rice dumplings; while people in Quanzhou like to soak glutinous rice in straw gray water when making rice dumplings. The rice dumplings made in this way have both a moderate alkali aroma and a mild alkali aroma. Appetizing color.