I love Chinese holidays because there’s always some sticky, glutenous food associated with it, and lots of it! The Dragon Boat Festival is no exception as we eat zong zi, packets of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and filled with various goodies.
According to legend, a poet named Qu Yuan also served as a loyal adviser to the emperor. But because the emperor was a big butt and refused to listen to Qu Yuan’s advice, he exiled Qu Yuan and went ahead with his plans of conquest. Eventually, his kingdom crumbled and in despair, Qu Yuan threw himself into the river. The local people admired the poet and threw these rice packets into the river so the fish would eat these instead of his body.
Mine is the savory kind, graciously wrapped and given to me by a Chinese “auntie”, filled with pork belly, peanuts, shiitake mushroom, and some unidentifiable grain of some kind? If it’s tasty, I don’t question it.
Apparently, this year is lunar leap year, meaning the lunar equivalent of May is happening again, also meaning that there’s a second Dragon Boat Festival, meaning more zongzi for me to eat. Yay!
oh my good gravy! 