No recipe here. Just a picture of what I helped my mom make alllllll Monday morning. We made maybe 70 of these?
Guess which one was mine. Yes, it’s the sad looking one, third from the left. As you can tell, I have very little skill in manipulating the bamboo leaves to get that perfect shape.
Zongzi (in Cantonese, it’s pronounced Jungz) is sticky rice with various meat fillings wrapped in bamboo leaves. It’s made mostly for the Dragon Boat Festival. Everyone has their own way of making them. My way is making them very badly :) It’s my specialty.
But here’s my little heartwarming story that goes along with making these. After finishing up, my dad comes home examining all the hard work. He says to me, “when we’re dead, you’ll know how to make these for yourself now.”
That’s my story.
Here is a link showing the laborious process on a great site I found:
My mom’s eggrolls always look better than mine. I relate.
Yes, but compared to everyone else’s (friends, people your age) they seem to be pretty decent, right? I think I choke when I’m preparing food with my mom. It has something to do with trying too hard, and expectations. I’ll get the hang of it in 10 more years :)
I think your zongzi (duong) is very cute-looking!
Well, my comment is that daughters are NOT supposed to cook better than their mothers! Especially with their old family recipes! We can only make a similar version, slightly different, maybe even a personalized original version, but not better…or even the same.
And that’s okay!
Haha – agreed. Maybe someday, in 20-30 years, I’ll just ‘get it’ and make it the best way I can. And I assume maybe my mom thinks HER mom cooked better too. That’s how it always happens.
Your zongzi are rectangular (and yummy looking)!!! But I totally understand what you mean when it comes to wrapping zongzi. Mines always come out like a monster from the depths of the ocean… And then my mom’s comes out all perfect (but ours are rectangular!)
And your heartwarming story is very heartwarming. I hope you will be able to spend many more happy years wrapping zongzi with your mom (and feeding them to your dad) :]
Thanks for the comment Kelley! It took me YEARS to wrap won tons, spring rolls, and potstickers correctly.
It’s funny when my dad basically says the whole point of my learning was so after they die, I could feed myself.
I love your website! Your photos are amazing and you make good Chinese food :)
Ron – Thank you very much, I appreciate the comment! :)