Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Craving for Zong Zi

Chinese New Year is near and a Chinese in me is screaming and craving for this particular Chinese dish. Although this food is not meant for CNY, it is traditionally prepared and eaten in May during the Dragon Boat festival or Duanw. May just doesnt come soon enough for me. I want it NOW. Just like how you cant wait for Thanksgiving to eat Turkey/pumpkin pie.

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The thought of making this dish was not even in my head when i had a luxury of having food readily available for purchase during the sweet time i lived back home in Bangkok. All you have to do is to step outside your house and have money in your pocket, that's all you really need to survive. However, that kind of luxury is not here while living far away. I gotta do something!!

A while back i was elated when i spotted Zong Zi at a Dim Sum place in Chinatown only to be highly disappointed because it was nothing close to what i grew up eating. I later did a research and found out that it is prepared and cooked slightly different from region to region. The recipe that Thai-Chinese make in Thailand is fully loaded with yummy goodness such as taro, chestnuts, salted egg, marinated pork, peanut, dried shrimp, shiitake mushroom and then some plus glutinous rice in contrast to a plain rice with some pork that i ate at the Dim Sum place.

Then i remember when my parents came over to visit several years ago, my mom showed me an easy version of this Bacang (thats what we call in Thailand). It was not too intimidating as she skipped a wrapping part with leaves which can be REALLY time consuming and daunting to say least least since i have never dobe one in my life. The final result was delightfully tasted. Last weekend i gathered most ingredients i could possibly find at Asian grocery store and local American grocery store and made it. I am now happy and my belly is satisfied.

5 comments:

  1. Your version looks delicious Nelah And you're very resourceful to track down the ingredients. I love having zong zi that my grandmother makes during the Mid-Autumn festival. I only like the savory ones though. The sweet ones always taste funny to me.

    Rowena @ rolala loves
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  2. Looks yum!!! In Malaysia ( where I am from originally) we have Nyonya version which is so yummy!! Luckily for us, it's pretty readily available in most Asian shops n can be just as good at times.

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  3. i'm so glad you were able to prepare it Nelah. it looks so good! i'm a mushroom fanatic, so when i saw the mushrooms in your dish i was like oh yeahhhhhhhhh! hahaha again, looks yummy!
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  4. yum! this looks like such a great dish :)

    Metallic Paws

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