Zongzi: Tasty and fragrant like jasmine flowers

These rice dumplings wrapped in leaves are also known as "alkaline water rice dumplings wrapped in leaves." People eat "alkaline water rice dumplings wrapped in leaves" in summer to let off the heat. Today, some businesses use chemical agents to soak glutinous rice in order to save time and money. Although these rice dumplings are alkaline, too, they are different and do no good to people's health.

Ms. Xuan and her packinghouse has been making rice dumplings wrapped in leaves in the original way. That's why the rice dumplings wrapped in leaves made by her packinghouse are so popular, she said. She led us through the infrared light sterilization area and into the packing shop on the second floor. It is simple, and does not have any equipment, but a big platform, a big basin holding glutinous rice, and several middle-aged women sitting around the basin in white uniforms each with a surgical mask wrapping rice dumplings with leaves quickly. Each woman can wrap 400 to 500 rice dumplings with leaves every day.

Workers sitting around the basin to make rice dumplings wrapped in leaves in the traditional way. Photo by Huo Yan

 

 

The traditional way of making rice dumplings wrapped in leaves has not changed, only the straw thread has been changed into string. Photo by Huo Yan

Rice dumplings wrapped in fresh leaves and those wrapped in leaves that have been boiled. They taste different. Photo by Huo Yan

 

It takes four hours to boil rice dumplings wrapped in leaves. Usually, a big pot could boil 500 rice dumplings wrapped in leaves each time. Photo by Huo Yan

After the rice dumplings wrapped in leaves were wrapped, they were sent to the kitchen downstairs. It is a kitchen with two rows of traditional cooking stoves built against the wall. The fuel used was longan wood. Before each cooking stove, there is a traditional timber pier for chopping wood. Ms. Xuan told us that each pot could boil 500 rice dumplings wrapped in leaves each time; 60 pots together would be able to boil tens of thousands of rice dumplings wrapped in leaves. Even with such numbers, sometimes they are still unable to meet the demand. She told us with pride that she and her workers wrapped a 90kg rice dumpling with three hundred leaves one year and boiled it for three whole days and nights.

After being boiled, the rice dumplings wrapped in leaves were fished out, and then cooled. Tasting them triggered my childhood memories. Was it not the unique taste I had been looking for, the fragrance of jasmine flowers?

 

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