Every Chinese festival has its own special food. For the upcoming Duanwu Festival, or the Dragon Boat Festival, it's Zongzi, a glutinous rice dumpling with various fillings. In east China's Fujian province, the Quanzhou Zongzi has a history long enough to rival some of the countries in the world.
The Quanzhou Zongzi goes back more than a thousand years. It was the experiment of a creative local official keen to explore new ingredients.
The glutinous rice is stuffed an explosion of flavors: fried egg, minced pork, shredded mushroom, shrimp, chestnuts, lotus seeds and more. Everything is wrapped up in boiled bamboo or reed leaves.
Though ingredients may vary, Zongzi makers in Quanzhou are not keen to change the shape. They view it as a symbolic form of history and tradition.
Zongzi need to be boiled for two or three hours before they're ready to eat. Typical accompaniments are peanut butter, chilli sauce and ketchup.
