Treats fit for a dragon

Traditional sticky rice dumplings have the place of honor at tables during the Dragon Boat Festival. Ye Jun shares a few nibbles with some passionate makers of zongzi.

One advantage of being in Beijing is that you can taste zongzi, the glutinous rice dumpling that's traditional for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival, in the styles of both northern and southern China. No matter the style, the best-tasting are still those that are handmade and traditional.

This year's festival date is June 2, and Beijinger Han Ping is likely to get busy two days ahead. She will visit the grocer to buy everything needed: glutinous rice and candied red jujube as stuffing, reed leaves for wrapping, and thread to tie them made from the common herb pratia.

The 56-year-old gourmet and TV host will then be ready with dumplings for her friends.

"It is time-consuming work," she says.

It takes her about 70 minutes to prepare more than 70 rice dumplings. After that she boils them to the seething point, and then simmers them for seven hours so they are ready the next morning.

Why boil them so long? "That way, the fragrance of the reed leaf and the aroma of the jujube can get into the rice," Han explains.

Han plans to send the zongzi to friends before evening, when they taste best.

Her secrets include buying this year's rice to make the dumplings. You can't tie the zongzi too tight, she says.

She arranges them in the boiler in a circle so that boiled water can spread evenly. She does not store zongzi in a refrigerator, but in a cooker with cool water. Although they are good for three days, they have the best al dente texture within seven or eight hours.

Another trick to make them taste even better: add a little soda powder to the mixture.

In southern China, people make a special alkali rice dumpling, according to Han, which can make the rice dumplings look temptingly yellowish and semi-transparent. Since cooks in the south always fry dishes with pork oil, which brings a lot of acid into the body, the alkali creates a healthy balance, she says.

Chinese people eat rice dumplings during the festival in memory of Qu Yuan, a poet and politician from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC). Qu drowned himself in sacrifice to his mother country. Local people tried to retrieve his corpse.

When they failed, they made zongzi to throw into the river, hoping the fish and shrimp would eat the dumplings and not his body.

Since then, the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar is celebrated as the Dragon Boat Festival. People hold boat races and prepare zongzi in memory of Qu's righteousness and his beautiful poems.