Dumpling Festival

It's the Dumpling festival today which the Chinese celebrate by making pyramid shaped glutinous rice dumplings (Chong in Cantonese or commonly also known as bak chang) wrapped in lotus leaves for their family and friends. It's also known as the dragon boat festival with the ever popular dragon boat races. This year seems to be a quiet affair probably because of the controversy regards the shortage of meat to make the dumplings.

Last year, I covered the festival extensively with step by step pictures on how to make them. This year, I thought it's nice to focus instead on how to celebrate the festival especially after reading yesterday's Star Metro article on the significance of the dumplings to a little village at the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Every year my aunt will make her batch of dumplings and distribute it among us which we love as they're excellent. We also get another batch from my dad's old friend who has them specially made for him that is equally good. As the best things in life should be shared or else it's no fun, I pass down the favour by sharing these dumplings among friends. So today, do remember to have some dumplings and share the delicious food with your family and friends as that's the fun and significance of this festival.

For detailed write ups this year, do check out:

• Malaysia Best for the history on the dragon boat festival plus pictures of the plain glutinous rice dumplings (Kan Shui Chong in Cantonese). She also has pictures of this year's Dragon Boat Race in Penang.
• Foodcrazee has details also on the background of the festival plus pictures of the savoury dumplings
• Eat First Think Later has the step by step pictures on how to make the dumplings (not too late if you want to still make some!)
• Egullet's forummers has lots of information on the festival including how to make them and their experiences.

Tagged with: Bak Chang + Malaysian Food + Zhong Chi Festival