Today is the 5th day of the 5th Lunar month which means its Bak Chang day!
Traditionally, these rice dumplings are made at home. I remember my late grandma packing these. Hers were delicious! Giant pyramid packages of glutinous rice and lumps of tender meat mushrooms and chestnuts to be savoured. I never quite tired of eating hers.
I remembered watching her get the things ready – soaking the bamboo leaves days ahead, cooking the meat filling with lots of dried prawns and chestnuts and then packing them into the bamboo leaf parcels before deftly tying it up.
I think making these bak chang is a dying art. These days, people would rather just buy it because of the hassle. Personally I don’t even know how to make these – I’m told that if you don’t tie it properly, it’ll all fall apart when you put them to boil.
It being bak chang festival and all, I had one in the afternoon. It wasn’t quite what gran used to make, but it’ll have to do.
Not very appetizing picture eh? LOL!
You can read about the what and why of Bak Chang or ZongZi on Wikipedia. We can now get Bak Chang every day of the year if we wanted to, but I’m a stickler for tradition, so I only ever eat it once a year.
During the Bak Chang Festival 
Popularity: 2% [?]
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I love bak chang! Mine are waiting for me in the freezer back home. My mum made a batch for me just before we left and I scoffed about 3 in 2 days. My bad. BURP.
Just got back to Liv, will look into the luggage space for you and let you know. We bought this mini chest of drawers from Luz and that’s the one that’s taking up all the space!