In China, where the land is vast, how many kinds of rice dumplings are there? With this problem in mind, Taitai went deep into the six major provinces in the north and south, traveled tens of thousands of kilometers, from the city to the countryside, and even ethnic minority tribes, and found that the types of rice dumplings were far beyond imagination.
We found the oldest Zongzi in the north in Shanxi Jin, we felt the profound cultural heritage of Zongzi in Jiaxing, a water town in Jiangnan Province; tasted the ancient taste of memory in Quanzhou, the starting point of the Silk Road; witnessed the color change of Zongzi in the mixed village of Li and Miao people living at the highest altitude on Hainan Island.....
On the day of the 2020 Dragon Boat Festival, follow the platform and take a trip to the clouds of Zongzi!
Starting from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, the first stop is Jiaxing, a water town in Jiangnan, a city full of Zongzi cultural heritage. Jiaxing Zongzi has a long history, for thousands of years, the people of Jiahe, planting rice and eating rice, thus evolving a deep Zongzi culture, Jiaxing is also the first city in the country to establish a Zongzi Culture Museum.
Jiaxing fresh meat dumplings are characterized by glutinous but not paste, fat but not greasy, salty and sweet moderate. The ingredients are simple, using only dried rice dumplings, round glutinous rice and fresh native pork.
Because Jiaxing is not rich in fresh rice dumpling leaves, every household is accustomed to using dried rice dumpling leaves. The tight dried rice dumpling leaves have to be soaked overnight to stretch out in turquoise.
In Jiaxing, almost every family has its own "Zongzi Sutra". Speaking of fresh meat dumplings, the selection and salting of pork, the most critical, glutinous rice to use soy sauce, sugar, salt to season, the material should be sufficient, when wrapped to put lean meat, fat meat each piece, when boiled, fat meat is slowly boiled and melted, seepage into the rice, oil moist and attractive!
Sweet rice dumplings are popular in the north, and the yellow rice dumplings in the Jinzhong area of Shanxi are the representatives of sweet dumplings, using millet, also known as yellow rice, which is the oldest staple food in Chinese. Industrious and intelligent locals combine the soft sticky yellow rice and red dates to form the oldest rice dumplings in the north.
To make rice dumplings, you must soak the rice three or four days in advance until it is fermented. The source of sweetness is the red dates, which are simple in material and ensure the purity of the taste. Jinzhong people wrap rice dumplings, as long as one rice dumpling leaf is enough. First fold the rice dumpling leaves into a funnel shape, throw a date into it, then pour yellow rice, and then put two or three dates.
Different from the southern meat dumplings, yellow rice dumplings have a better taste when eaten cold, dipped in sugar, sweet and jinjin, and very simple.
Quanzhou, Fujian, as an ancient cultural city with a long history, Quanzhou roast meat dumplings still retain a strong flavor of southern Fujian.
In addition to glutinous rice, it is also wrapped in mountain treasures and seafood, and lotus seeds, shiitake mushrooms and shrimp are the most basic ingredients. Meat needs to be marinated before stir-frying, and glutinous rice should be fried with dried shallots and marinades before it can be used.
Boiled meat dumplings are more exquisite, the southern Fujian dialect is called "Kang meat dumplings", the ancient practice will be boiled with pork bones boiled broth. Roast meat dumplings should be eaten hot, add sweet and spicy sauce, peanut butter and mashed garlic paste when eating, and the meat dumplings that penetrate into the sauce are not sticky or greasy, super satisfied!
In China's huge territory of zongzi, chao-style zongzi is unique, it can skillfully combine the two flavors of salty and sweet in a zongzi, but there is no conflict in eating.
Two essential ingredients for rice dumplings: pork belly slices marinated in southern milk, sugar and soy sauce, and quail eggs with sugar stains. The rest of the ingredients: long glutinous rice, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, salted egg yolk, sea shrimp, lotus seeds also need to be pre-treated.
Mung bean paste, like sugar-stained quail eggs, is an important ingredient in the sweetness of rice dumplings.
Because the glutinous rice has been fried in advance, the wrapped rice dumplings only need to be cooked for thirty or forty minutes before they can come out of the pot. One bite, sweet and salty, salty and sweet, blending with each other!
Zhaoqing, Guangdong, one of the most important birthplaces of ancient Lingnan culture, as a small city with a history of more than 2,000 years, Zongzi culture is also extremely colorful, salty and sweet. Zhaoqing people will eat steamed dumplings all year round, and relatives and friends will also send two, which means "thriving".
The traditional steamed dumplings will only use three materials, in addition to the glutinous rice and fat pork belly that are generally used in rice dumplings, Zhaoqing people also like to put a large number of peeled mung beans to increase fragrance and degreasing.
The steamed rice dumplings are called wrapped steaming, but they are cooked, and the firewood is also made of laurel wood produced on the local mountains, and the water for boiling rice dumplings is authentic with the spring water of the local famous mountain Dinghu Mountain. Locals believe that the rice dumplings cooked in this way have no peculiar smell and have a natural sweetness.
In order to adapt to the tastes of modern people, Zhaoqing steamed rice dumplings have also evolved many new flavors on the basis of tradition, such as Babao Zonghuang with dried scallops and shiitake mushrooms, and black glutinous rice dumplings made of purple rice. There are also red bean paste stuffed sago dumplings and alkali water dumplings, alternating salty and sweet, forming a unique zongzi culture in Zhaoqing.
In the diet of the Zhuang people in Yunnan, glutinous rice has a pivotal position, and the rice dumplings made of glutinous rice are called zongzi. In Funing Zhuangxiang, there is a special kind of rice dumpling, which is thick and strong, and resembles a horse's leg.
Sesame stalks are an indispensable material for making rice dumplings. After being burned to ashes, mix in the unwashed glutinous rice while hot, sift off the coarser particles, so that the glutinous rice is fully wrapped in rod ash, becoming black and bright, and enhancing the soft texture and fragrance.
In addition to glutinous rice, the filling also uses peeled mung beans and marinated strips of pork belly. In addition to the direct consumption of cooked horse pole foot dumplings, the locals have changed new ways of eating, such as cutting the rice dumplings into slices, frying or frying them in tea oil to eat, the surface is golden and crispy, and the mung bean paste that has been oiled resembles salted egg yolk, and it is another fragrant flavor to eat.
The last stop is the Cold Village of Qiongzhongshi (za) in Hainan, which is also the highest-altitude Li and Miao mixed village on Hainan Island, where a beautiful rice dumpling is produced: five-color rice dumplings.
The white of the five colors comes from the color of the glutinous rice itself, and the dyes of the other four colors are naturally extracted from local plants, and the boiled dye and glutinous rice are mixed and colored.
Pork is made of five-legged pigs produced locally in Wuzhishan, and only the fat and thin parts of the five flowers are used.
The rice dumpling leaves are taken from the leaves of the citrus trees that can be found everywhere on the edge of the field, which are wide and thick, with a natural fragrance.
The wrapped rice dumplings are flat and long, like a canoe, and can be hung on children for them to play. The five-color brown color of the color, the moment it is opened, the appetite will be immediately stimulated!
From north to south, this trip to explore, we saw the thousands of changes in zongzi. From the filling, the method of wrapping, the cooking method are very different, each rice dumpling has its own characteristics! Among these 7 rice dumplings, pick which one you most want to eat!