Dragon Boat Festival 2024: 10 Hong Kong restaurants’ creative sticky rice dumplings
- Sticky rice dumplings are the stars of the Dragon Boat Festival. This year, try ones made with Omnipork or quinoa among other ingredients
It is the time of year to eat zhong or zongzi, the pyramid-shaped sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaf that are the culinary stars of the annual Dragon Boat Festival, which this year takes place on June 10.
The story of zongzi stretches back to when Chinese poet, politician and patriot Qu Yuan, from the State of Chu, who lived during China’s Warring States period (475 BC to 221 BC), jumped into a river to kill himself.
When efforts to save him failed, people threw rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river to try to divert the fish away from dining on Qu’s body, and banged drums on boats to ward off evil spirits.
Whatever you may think of their origin story, sticky rice dumplings remain a staple of the Dragon Boat Festival, and come with a range of fillings.
In Hong Kong, the most common zongzi are Cantonese-style dumplings with traditional fillings such as marinated pork belly, dried scallops and salted egg yolk; a sweet option is filled with red bean and tangerine peel.
Some restaurants depart from tradition by offering different fillings, such as sea urchin and fish maw. One brand has launched a low-carb “rice” dumpling that fits the keto diet.
