Cultural customs of zongzi

Zongzi not only has many shapes, but also has different varieties. Due to the different tastes in different parts of China, there are mainly two kinds: sweet and salty. Sweet dumplings include white dumplings, red bean dumplings, broad bean dumplings, red date dumplings, rose dumplings, melon seeds dumplings, red bean paste lard dumplings, jujube paste lard dumplings and so on. Salty taste: pork jiaozi, ham jiaozi, sausage jiaozi, shrimp dumplings, diced pork jiaozi, etc. But there are more pork dumplings. There are also Hiragi leaves, egg yolk, meat stuffing, jiaozi (Hainan), assorted jiaozi, bean paste, jiaozi, mushrooms and other southern flavors; There is also a sweet and salty "double dumpling". These zongzi all have different tastes.

Guangxi region

In central Guangxi, big pillow zongzi, which looks like a pillow, is very popular. Jiaozi, a big pillow in Guangxi, uses half a catty to a catty of rice; In Guilin, a kilo of rice can make six or seven dumplings. In the north of Guilin, I like jiaozi wrapped in a dog's head. In the process of making zongzi, the ingredients have their own characteristics. For example, Guilin people like to add some alkaline powder to jiaozi to make the boiled jiaozi produce alkaline fragrance; However, Quanzhou people like to soak glutinous rice with straw ash. The zongzi made by this method has moderate alkalinity and delicious taste.

Guangdong area

Representative varieties of southern zongzi. It is very big and has a unique appearance. In addition to fresh meat dumplings and red bean paste dumplings, there are egg yolk dumplings made of salted egg yolk, and assorted dumplings filled with diced chicken, diced duck, barbecued pork, egg yolk, mushrooms and mung bean paste.

Zongzi in Chaoshan has its own characteristics, one of which is called "double cooking", which is a famous traditional snack in Chaoshan area. Steamed dumplings are a specialty of Zhaoqing, known as the "king of tea", but they are obviously different from the familiar "Dragon Boat Festival dumplings". Generally, zongzi is wrapped with awn leaves in a twisted quadrangle or strip shape, while Zhaoqing is wrapped with winter leaves and aquatic plants in a pillow shape or an Egyptian pyramid shape.

Hainan area

Unlike Zongzi in the north of the mainland, it is wrapped in Hiragi leaves into a square cone and weighs about half a kilogram. Salted egg yolk, pork, pig's trotters, salted fish, barbecued pork and chicken wings can be added to glutinous rice as fillings. It has a unique flavor. After the hot zongzi is peeled off, it first has the fragrance of Hiragi leaves and glutinous rice, and then the fragrance of meat and eggs. The fragrance is strong or weak, and the taste and meat are ready-made, which makes people's appetite open. Loki Zongzi in Danzhou and Ruixi Zongzi in Chengmai are the most famous in Hainan. In addition, plant ash is soaked in water, and then the supernatant is soaked in glutinous rice, which is then made into alkaline dumplings. Hainan Li nationality also has three-color zongzi and coconut leaf wrapped zongzi.

Fuzhou area

The zongzi in Fuzhou can be divided into salty zongzi, original alkali zongzi and peanut alkali zongzi, which are the necessary staple food on the table during the Dragon Boat Festival. In terms of binding, pay attention to the coordination, unity and consistency of size. Only one rope is used to tie them into a string, usually ten in a string, and the five at the head and tail are symmetrical to each other.

Taiwan region

It has a strong Minnan flavor and a wide variety, including white zongzi, mung bean zongzi, barbecued pork bun, eight-treasure zongzi and roasted meat zongzi.

southern Fujian

The roasted meat jiaozi and soda jiaozi in Xiamen and Quanzhou are famous at home and abroad. The rice of roasted dumplings must be the best. Pork is pork belly, which is pickled and fragrant first, plus mushrooms, shrimps, lotus seeds, braised pork soup, sugar and so on. When eating, dip in garlic paste, mustard, red hot sauce, radish acid and other spices, sweet and smooth, oily but not greasy. Zongzi in southern Fujian is divided into alkali zongzi, meat zongzi and bean zongzi. Alkaline zongzi is steamed by adding lye to glutinous rice. It is sticky, soft and slippery. It is especially delicious to add honey or syrup after ice. Jiaozi's meat stuffing consists of braised pork, mushrooms, egg yolk, dried shrimps and dried bamboo shoots. The dumplings in Quanzhou Chonglou Dumpling Shop are the most famous. Bean buns are very popular in Quanzhou. They are made of September beans mixed with a little salt and wrapped in glutinous rice. After steaming, the beans smell delicious. Of course, there are also foods dipped in sugar, namely white water jiaozi.

Wuxi area

Compared with Suzhou, which is also the land of Wu civilization, Wuxi's zongzi is not so particular about the wrapping method and materials, let alone so exquisite. From the way of jiaozi, Wuxi people prefer jiaozi with small feet and jiaozi with triangle. In terms of materials, jiaozi eaten by Wuxi people is mostly red bean stuffing, white rice stuffing and meat stuffing jiaozi. These fillings are relatively simple and have a long storage time.

Hunan area

Hunan Mimi has always been famous for its variety and exquisite production. Miluo's roasted dumplings, glutinous rice must be the best, pork should be three layers, pickled first, plus mushrooms, shrimps, lotus seeds and braised pork soup, sugar and so on. When eating, dip in garlic paste, mustard, red pepper sauce, radish acid and other seasonings, which is oily but not greasy.

Hangzhou area

Hangzhou Zongzi is different from Jiaxing Zongzi and Huzhou Zongzi, and has its own style in appearance and binding mode. Its representative is "Tangqi Zongzi" from Huichang Store for a century, and its main features are pork belly, Shaoxing wine, glutinous rice, green bamboo leaves, earthen stoves, iron pots and soup stock. Hangzhou Zongzi cooking also has a unique technique, which requires a particularly long time, emphasizing that "a thousand rolls are not as boring as one roll". Chen Guoming's poem "Eat Huichang Zongzi" said: "Gentle people are always baked in winter, and young people are never poor. Solve the true taste of the world, Mijia painting and calligraphy will be prosperous. "

Ningbo area

Zhejiang Ningbo Zongzi is quadrangular, and there are varieties such as alkaline water Zongzi, red bean Zongzi and red date Zongzi. Its representative variety, Sour Water Zongzi, is made by adding a proper amount of sour water to glutinous rice and wrapping it with old yellow leaves. Glutinous rice turns pale yellow after cooking, and can be dipped in sugar, which is fragrant and delicious.

Huzhou area

Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, located on the coast of Taihu Lake, has been a famous land of plenty since ancient times. Huzhou zongzi is pillow-shaped, hence the name pillow zongzi. Some people call it Beauty Zongzi, because it has beautiful lines and is small and elegant.

Jiaxing area

Jiaxing Zongzi is quadrangular, with fresh meat, bean paste, eight treasures and other varieties. For example, in jiaozi, fresh meat, there is often a piece of fat in lean meat. After jiaozi is cooked, the fat oil seeps into the rice, which is fat but not greasy.

Zhenwushan's high-quality sweet tea leaves are boiled to make zongzi. Zongzi is golden in color and lustrous, smooth and tender in mouth, soft and waxy, fragrant in teeth and cheeks, sweet in aftertaste, greasy and difficult to digest, and rich in nutrition, which is suitable for diabetics. In most parts of Zhejiang, especially in the mountainous areas of western Zhejiang, people have cooked zongzi, tea rice and tea porridge with sweet tea for generations. In the sixty-second chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Baoyu's love for sweet tea and fragrant rice was mentioned many times.

Beijing area

Beijing Zongzi is a representative variety of northern Zongzi, with a small head and an oblique quadrangle. In rural areas in the northern suburbs, people are used to eating rhubarb zongzi, which is sticky and fragrant, and the stuffing is mostly red dates and red bean paste.

Shanghai area

Cantonese zongzi, represented by Xinghualou and Xinya, has a soft and firm taste and a flat, square and pentagonal shape.

Shape: one corner is upward, and the rest extend in all directions. There are many varieties in jiaozi, including chestnuts, fresh meat, egg yolk and mushrooms. Jiaozi has roast duck, mushrooms, chestnuts, fresh meat, egg yolk, rice kernels, etc., and others include jiaozi with alkaline water, jiaozi with bean paste, jiaozi with fresh meat, jiaozi with fresh egg yolk, and jiaozi with red beans.

Huaiyang's special dumplings, represented by Laobanzhai and Yangzhou Hotel, have eight flavors and eight styles, including authentic dumplings with small feet, square red dates and red beans, weight-shaped egg yolk chestnuts, ingot-shaped ham dumplings, triangular douban bacon dumplings, pillow-shaped fresh meat dumplings, long pillow chicken dumplings and rhombic bean paste dumplings.

Kutokuhayashi's mushroom dumplings, bean plate dumplings, bean paste dumplings, red bean and red date dumplings, pine nuts and white rice dumplings and arhat dumplings are all vegetarian.

The zongzi of Muslim Hongchangxing is very Muslim, with slightly green shell, sharp edges and corners, delicate appearance and pure taste, especially beef zongzi, which is not available in other gangs.

Traditional specialty stores, such as Shen Dacheng, Jiaxing Zongzi Store and Wufangzhai, offer all kinds of zongzi, such as bean paste, fresh meat, white rice, red dates and red beans, and fresh egg yolk. Shen Dacheng pioneered curry chicken zongzi, which is colorful. All kinds of zongzi are different in variety, shape, taste and color. There are 450 grams of big zongzi wrapped in Cantonese pillows, but only 25 grams of mini zongzi.

Suzhou area

Suzhou Zongzi is mostly a slender quadrangle with fresh meat, jujube paste, bean paste, lard mixed with sand and other varieties, which has the characteristics of exquisite ingredients and fine production.

Sichuan area

Sichuanese like spicy food, so zongzi can be divided into sweet and spicy. Sichuan spicy zongzi is exquisite in production, complicated in technology and unique in taste.

Shaanxi area

Candied zongzi is a unique summer popular food in Xi, Guanzhong and southern Shaanxi. Shaped like a water chestnut, white as jade, cool and refreshing. When eating, cut small pieces with silk thread or bamboo knife, put them on a plate, and pour honey or rose osmanthus syrup. The taste is soft, cool and sweet, fragrant and delicious, refreshing and unique.

Candied zongzi has a long history and is described in many history books. Duan, who grew up in Chang 'an in the Tang Dynasty, wrote in Youyang Miscellany: "Zongzi is as white as jade". As early as the reign of Tang Zhongzong, it was a delicious dish in the popular "barbecue" at that time. At that time, it was called "Give Fei Xiang Zongzi" (honey-drenched). Later, shops specializing in making this kind of zongzi gradually appeared in Chang 'an city, and the skills of making this kind of zongzi were also quite superb. Yuan Zhen, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, once wrote a poem praising: "Colorful green zongzi, fragrant rice and white rice balls". According to Chronological Miscellanies, "There are many famous Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi with different shapes, such as horn Zongzi, cone Zongzi, ling Zongzi, barrel Zongzi and called Zongzi (also called Jiuzi Zongzi)". Therefore, as early as the Tang Dynasty, Chang 'an candied zongzi was a famous food from court to folk.

Western Henan mountainous area

Fog drop is one of the special snacks in the western and southwestern mountainous areas of Lushan County, Henan Province.

Mistletoe is an essential food for the Dragon Boat Festival. It is a special kind of zongzi, as long as the Dragon Boat Festival. Oak (Hu) bag is used for leaves of Quercus plants, including millet or millet, adzuki bean, adzuki bean, western pea (bean seed), and chestnut and jujube if the family is better; After washing, kneading, wrapping, boiling, steaming and covering, we can only eat this fragrant, My Sweetie, sticky and delicious mistletoe bag in the morning of Dragon Boat Festival two days later. Here, we should pay special attention to the leaves of Quercus-the best green packaging for food. According to Compendium of Materia Medica, the leaves of Quercus are sweet, bitter, flat and non-toxic, and have the functions of stopping bleeding, quenching thirst and diuresis. Generally taken orally: decocted, mashed or ground. External use: decoct and wash. After washing, kneading, boiling, steaming and covering, oak leaves are reddish brown in color and fragrant in smell. Eating zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional custom in China and a unique seasonal food in China. However, eating zongzi abroad has different customs.

North Korea's Zongzi Koreans have the custom of eating "wheel cakes" on the Dragon Boat Festival. People put fresh buds.

After boiling, mugwort leaves are mashed, mixed with rice flour, and then made into wheel shapes. Koreans call it "wheel cake".

Japanese Zongzi Japanese also eat Zongzi on the Dragon Boat Festival, but the Dragon Boat Festival in Japan is on May 5th in the solar calendar. Japanese zongzi is made of rice flour instead of glutinous rice. The shape of zongzi is different from that of China. It looks like a seed.

Vietnamese Zongzi Vietnamese Zongzi is wrapped in banana leaves, round and square. They believe that the round zongzi represents the sky, the square zongzi represents the earth, and the heaven and the earth are integrated and thriving. There is also a kind of sweet zongzi, which is made by kneading glutinous rice flour into dough and stuffing coconut shreds, red beans or mung beans into the dough to make a diamond-shaped zongzi. After steaming, dip it in honey juice or sugar to eat. Vietnam eats square salty zongzi on Dragon Boat Festival. This kind of zongzi is filled with shrimp, lean meat, duck egg yolk and red beans, which is quite Fujian-Guangdong flavor. Myanmar's Zongzi Burmese love to eat Zongzi, but it has no festive cultural color and commemorative activities, just as a kind of food. Myanmar Zongzi is mainly made of glutinous rice, with bananas and coconuts as stuffing. It is fragrant, soft and crisp, sweet and intoxicating.

Zongzi in Singapore Singaporeans love flowers very much. Whenever a guest visits, the host will send some flowers, and he will also bring some zongzi soaked in flower juice for the guests to taste. This kind of flower juice zongzi is wrapped in green leaves into a polygon, only the size of an egg. After the green leaves are unfolded, the zongzi inside is refined from rice flour dyed with light green flower juice, with attractive color and delicious taste.

Malaysian zongzi is in Malaysia, and the zongzi made by Chinese people is a bit like that made in Guangdong. In addition to the common varieties such as fresh meat zongzi and ham zongzi, there are several kinds of zongzi such as bean paste and coconut milk, which are sweet and delicious.

Thai Zongzi jiaozi wrapped by Thai people is as small as an egg. Because they are wrapped in green zongzi leaves, they are light green after steaming and taste delicious.

Mexican Zongzi Mexican Zongzi is also called "Dagmar". Its raw material is coarse-grained corn flour, its stuffing is sliced meat and pepper, and it is wrapped with corn leaves or banana leaves, which has a unique flavor.

Indonesia's Zongzi Indonesians are particularly particular about Zongzi stuffing, including pork stuffing, beef stuffing, chicken stuffing, bacon stuffing, ham stuffing, Cantonese sausage stuffing, shrimp stuffing and fish stuffing. Indonesian zongzi is made of japonica rice, which is easier to digest than glutinous rice, and the attractive aroma of bamboo leaves can arouse people's appetite.

Zongzi in Costa Rica The zongzi in Costa Rica is made of a specially processed sticky corn flour as the main material, with chicken, beef, carrots, potatoes, olives, peppers and so on. Some are also poured with beef juice, and then wrapped in fresh banana leaves into a flat square.

Philippine zongzi Philippine zongzi is a bit special. I used to wrap it in strips, but the taste was similar to that of Zongzi in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces of China. Moreover, they regard zongzi as an indispensable food for Christmas.

Zongzi in Latin America A kind of food similar to Zongzi is also very popular in Latin America, which probably originated from the traditional Indian food. They use banana leaves to wrap zongzi, and the main ingredients are corn flour and kidney beans, which are delicious. There is another legend about it: more than 400 years ago, Spanish colonists ruled most of Latin America, and Indians were forced to go out to work. To this end, women wrapped cooked corn flour and green beans in banana leaves as dry food for their relatives to take on the road. Over time, this has become their tradition.

Peruvian zongzi Peruvians eat zongzi at Christmas. The family sat together, eating zongzi and celebrating Christmas. Even the married daughter rushed back to her mother's house to taste zongzi.

Venezuelan Zongzi comes every Christmas, and every household in China makes Zongzi, which becomes a festive scene. At that time, even the shops selling hearts on weekdays were full of zongzi. This kind of zongzi takes corn flour as the main material, ham, bacon or sausage as the stuffing, and olives and raisins are added. They are wrapped in fresh banana leaves into rectangles, each weighing about half a kilogram. After baking banana leaves, zongzi will be cooked.

Zongzi in Cambodia Zongzi in Cambodia is called "Bao Zongzi". It is not wrapped in plant leaves, but a bag filled with glutinous rice, red beans, red dates and so on. Layer by layer, and then tightly steamed. When eating, peel off the cloth bag and cut it with a knife.