DWJ

It's that time (and day) of the year today, for dumplings. Mum bought a couple of 'em home and was telling me how each one used to cost $1.50 on regular days vs $3.80 each, just a day before the festival! Daylight robbery but we all fall prey to it - willingly or unwillingly...

Duan Wu Jie (端午节), is a widely celebrated festival amongst the Chinese, to pay respect to the patriotic poet Qu Yuan (屈原). Qu was an important official in the Chu Kingdom and was known for his loyalty to the Emperor of Chu, as well as for his love for his country. However, when the King decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. During his exile, Qu wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. 28 years later, Qin conquered the Chu capital, and in despair, Qu committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month.

It is said that the local people, who admired him, threw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu's body. This, apparently is the origin of the zong zi (粽子). The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fishes away or to retrieve his body and this was how the dragon boat races came about.

In the present time and age, I'm not sure that people eat the rice dumplings to commemorate the Qu guy anymore... I for one am eating it because we had to buy some as 'offerings/food' to my Dad anyway.

So which is your favourite type of zong zi? Mine's the bean paste ones but I've never had a really good one here. The ones I've tried in Hong Kong were really tasty though!

I haven't gotten around to snap some zong zi pix because I got up early yet again this morning and now am feeling zombified... so perhaps I'll post the photos after I get my 40 winks.

Later...