Zongzi Wrapping Lesson from a Master

This Thursday, May 28 is the fifth day of the fifth moon according the Lunar Calendar. On that day, a good billion plus people around the world will be celebrating Duānwǔ Jié (端午節), a Chinese holiday that’s also known as the Double Fifth Festival in China and the Dragon Boat Festival in the West. What’s the deal with dragon boats? The story is that the holiday commemorates the drowning suicide death of Qu Yuan, a poet, scholar, and minister to the King of Chu in 278 BCE. A man willing to sacrifice his own life for the sake of his moral convictions, Qu was banished for treason when the king allied with a rival warlord. When the rival warlord over took the Chu state, Qu threw himself into the Miluo River in Hunan province.

The local people admired Qu so much that they attempted to preserve his body by throwing food into the river to distract the fish from eating his corpse. This is how the practice of making zòngzi , a.k.a. Chinese tamales, began. You have to paddle dragon boats out into the river and then throw the bamboo-leaf wrapped dumplings into the water. Pyramid-like zòngzi, made primarily of sticky rice and either a sweet or savory filling, becomes very heavy and hearty after its hours boiling so they’re bound to keep the fish busy for a while.

Stalwart Chinese cooks annually make a ritual of preparing and sharing zòngzi with family and friends. This last weekend, I was privileged to participate in a zòngzi wrapping session with the Pan family in San Francisco. Fanny Pan, a budding food stylist, invited me, my husband and friend Karen Shinto to attend and learn how to wrap zòngzi from her mother, who has been annually making 100 dumplings for years. With so many of the hearty dumplings around, Fanny grew up not wanting to eat or make zòngzi. This year, however, she had Karen and me, along with her parents, to goad her to master the ancient Chinese tradition.

By the time we arrived, Mrs. Pan had wrapped a good 60 zòngzi. She had carefully organized all the prepped ingredients on her tidy dining table. The long-grain sticky rice had been soaked and mixed with oil, salt, and ‘chicken essence.’ Thumbsize-pieces pork belly was marinated in Chinese 5-spice powder and salt. There were salted chicken egg yolks that she’d brined 28 days earlier. And yellow-split mung beans had been soaked and drained. (The filling varies according to cook, and this was Mr. and Mrs. Pan’s favorite filling.) All we had to do was wrap. Mr. and Mrs. Pan boiled the assembled zòngzi for 4 hours. Zòngzi tips I learned from Mrs. Pan included:

How to form the bamboo leaf cone for zòngzi:
Three (3) soaked and boiled bamboo leaves are needed for each zòngzi. Do not use ones with holes! Hold two leaves with their flat sides facing upward (the spines facing downward) with enough overlap so that there is 1-inch protruding on the furthermost edge. Then fold in the middle to the spine, and then bring up the lower edge to form a cone. 

Now take a new leaf and position it with the stem end facing the opposite direction (smoother side facing upward). Put your index and middle finger atop the leaf at the midpoint and then use those fingers to push the leaf into the assembled cone. Now you have architecturally built up the cone so that it is taller. Makes sure that the third leaf covers any gaps between the two initial leaves.

How to fill and wrap zòngzi:
First some rice, shaped into a trough. Then pieces of pork and egg. Next some mung bean and finally some more rice to cover. Tap it down well, then close up the bottom and two sides. Finally the top comes down and you finish by wrapping it all in lots of twine. For greater detail and some laughs, watch this video on how to fill and wrap the dumpling:

What do you do with zòngzi dumplings?
The Pan family will exchange them with their clan and friends, comparing their versions with others to see who made the best. “Can you differentiate the filling?” Mr. Pan asked. “That is the mark of a good zòngzi!” Below are the Pan family's dumplings:

There will be incense lit at the altar and prayers said. Though we got to eat zòngzi fresh from the 20-quart pots of boiling water, the Pans sent us home with a few so that we could savor them the next day, when they’ve aged a bit and taste better. Yesterday, my husband warmed one in the microwave oven and we tore into it for lunch. I like to sprinkle a little sugar on mine, a practice related to Vietnamese sticky rice cakes called banh trung. It was marvelous on its own and in my opinion a nice savory sweet contrast with the sugar. Now that I know how to wrap them, I’m ready to make my own in 2010!

Download pronunciations for:

• Duānwǔ Jié = 端午節 = Dragon Boat Festival
• Zòngzi= 糭子 = Chinese tamales

Additional information:

• Though we know of Duānwǔ Jié in English as the Dragon Boat Festival, its literal translation is “Solar Maximus Festival,” which you could interpret as the spring solstice celebration.
• You can buy zòngzi at Chinese supermarkets in the refrigerated section.
• Nonya Zong, made on the Malay peninsula by Peranakan cooks, are wrapped in pandan leaves.
• In China, an aloe-like leaf, is used to wrap huge forearm-size zòngzi.
• Though Duānwǔ Jié is an ancient holiday, after 1949 when the communists took over China, it was no longer observed as a public holiday. In 2005, the government decided to relax and allow for 3 public holiday celebrations. Last year, 2008, was the first time that Duānwǔ Jié was officially celebrated as a public holiday in the People’s Republic of China.
• Variants of Duānwǔ Jié festival are celebrated in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, where the holiday is called Kodomo no hi, Dano, and Tết Đoan Ngọ, respectively.
• This year, 2009, Starbucks is selling a frappucino-flavored zòngzi in China!
• In China, zòngzi can be wrapped in leaves similar to aloe, with their thorns having been removed. You can see zòngzi being wrapped in traditional leaves in a January 2008 episode of Gourmet magazine's Diary of a Foodie.

If you have stories or zòngzi recipes to share, do provide them below!

Comments

[Elise]

Never heard of these! Question. Both corn husks and banana leaves, traditionally used for Mexican tamales, impart a distinct flavor to the filling. Can the same be said for the bamboo leaves and zòngzi?

[wayne wong]

Just saw PBS TV show "Diary of a Foodie" (unsure if that's correct series title but it's close---Gourmet Magazine's involved) and one segment of today's show dealt with Zongi. Without knowing better, I could've sworn it was scripted upon your article---it explained the mythical origin of Zongi, followed by an acknowledged expert showing a young couple step-by-step how to add "a bit of lean filling" then "some fatty filling", etc., then how to fold and tie the delicacies (both laughing at how "ugly" the wraps of the other were ... Looked like a good(and delicious) time was had by all.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Elise, you're absolutely right on the mark! The bamboo leaf does impart a mild grassy note to the rice. Texturally, they are firmer than tamales because the leaves have to be wrapped very tightly, lest the rice leaks. Karen and Fanny reported that some of the ones we three girls wrapped leaked during the 4-hour boiling. With steaming tamales, the cooking is a lot less violent and some leaking is forgivable.

Wayne, thanks for pointing out Gourmet's covering zongzi in their PBS series. Ruth Reichl is very keen on Chinese food traditions. I'm flattered that my content here mirrors theirs.

[Nancie McDermott]

Fantastic to have this "animation" on the process. Won't make it this year, but next year, I'm in. My husband adores these and so do I. Taiwanese word is "JUN-zuh", and he gets all misty reminiscing about how many he could eat in one sitting. That boy can chow down some zongzi. I love and admire that you have Chinese characters and transliterations here. That would be harder for me than making zongzi that survive the boil-off. Not that I can read them, but there it is for reference; what a boon to looking for studying on the subject. Here in Chapel Hill we can find them at Eastern Market, small and wonderful Taiwanese-owned Asian market; she has them in the freezer, so we can keep them on hand and microwave for Good Fast Food. From NYC sources I believe. "Solar Maximus Festival", eh? Sounds like a body-building competition --- Dragon Boat has more charm.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Nancie -- Well, now you HAVE to make them next year. It's one of the most important Chinese holidays. A Chinese high holy day -- seems like an oxymoron, huh? That's cool that the Easter Market has zongzi, which I tend to pronounce like your husband, with zh/j sound, so I often misspell it in pinyin. My character-spelling ability is practically nil these days.

There's bound to be a Thai version of zongzi, don't you think?

[OysterCulture]

I just stumbled across your site after reading your comment on FoodGal's site. I want to thank you - what a gift of information you provide. Thanks for sharing!

[Carolyn Jung]

I confess I've never made them, either. But I love zongzi, or joong as I know them as. Homemade definitely is best. That way you get to pick the fillings precisely to your taste. My aunt used to make batches when she was younger. It was always a treat to get a supply from her.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Thanks OysterCulture! This is a new site and I'm really loving doing the posts.

Carolyn, what do you like in the filling? Or, what does your auntie do?

[Peter Tsai]

Great tutorial - I like the English \ Spanish translation of "Chinese tamales" - we usually call them bamboo rice.

I like the kind with peanuts, mushrooms, and braised pork - i think it's harder to find those in the States.

Thanks for posting.

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