The Dragon Boat Festival is soon approaching. Every Chinese family is now preparing the tradition food for this day. What is the traditional dish for the Dragon boat festival?
A notable part of celebrating the Dragon Boat festival (also known as the Duanwu festival) is making and eating ‘zongzi’ with other family members. People traditionally wrap zongzi in bamboo leaves or lotus leaves which give a special aroma and flavour to the sticky rice and fillings. Choices of fillings vary depending on regions. Northern China prefer sweet or dessert-styled zongzi, with bean paste, dates and nuts as fillings. Southern China prefer savoury zongzi, with a variety of fillings including marinated pork belly, chicken, sausage and salted duck eggs. The freshness of the lotus leaves bring out the sensational flavour of the fillings.
Every family will have zongzi because it means luck in the Chinese tradition. Some family will put a lucky coin when wrapping, whoever eat the one that has the lucky coin means that in the following year he/she will have good luck.
