To celebrate this year’s Dragon Boat Festival on the 18th June, Zen Garden has prepared the Premium Glutinous Rice Dumplings in a unique way. The grains are particularly smooth, supple and bursting with flavour. You will be impressed with the delicacy of this treat, the savoury taste comes with the faint scent of the leaves imprinted on the skin of the dumplings. For those who are not familiar with this Chinese Festival, these types of dumplings are known as the zongzi (粽子). Zongzi is a glutinous/sticky rice dumpling of Chinese origin wrapped in bamboo leaves and stuffed with tender, morsels of pork belly, salted duck egg yolk, dried shiitakes, and more. Legends never die…. The festival commemorates the life and death of the famous Chinese scholar Qu Yuan, a patriotic Chinese scholar who threw himself into the Milou River upon hearing that the Zhou emperor had been defeated by the Qin Kingdom. To honour his death and protect his body, fishermen rushed out in long boats equipped with drums, which they beat to scare away the fish. This is said to have been the origin of dragon boat festival. The local people began the tradition of throwing sacrificial cooked rice into the river for Qu Yuan, while others believed that the rice would prevent the fishes in the river from eating Qu Yuan’s body. This is said to have been the origin of zongzi.
