Today, I revisited the Food Place food court, located at Pavilion Mall. The food court is located beside the Oriental Kopi Restaurant. It is time to try another stall.
This time, I ordered Traditional Rice Dumplings with York from the Bee Cheng Hiang stall for RM22.90 per plate.
The dumpling has a traditional pyramid shape, tightly wrapped in fragrant bamboo leaves that impart a subtle earthy aroma during cooking. This is a classic Cantonese-style bak chang (zongzi), wrapped in bamboo leaves and filled with glutinous rice, marinated pork, mushrooms, chestnuts, and a whole salted egg yolk. Bee Cheng Hiang sells this as one of its seasonal specialities during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Rice dumplings (zongzi, 粽子) are among China's oldest traditional foods, dating back more than 2,000 years.
The food is closely associated with the Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu Festival), celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar.
According to the most famous legend:
During the Warring States period (around 278 BC), the patriotic poet and minister Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River after the fall of his kingdom.
Local villagers raced out in boats to search for him.
They threw packets of sticky rice wrapped in leaves into the river, so fish would eat the rice instead of Qu Yuan's body.
This act gradually evolved into today's Dragon Boat Festival traditions, which include dragon boat races and eating rice dumplings.
The version of Rice dumplings shown here is a Cantonese style.
There are many other versions of rice dumplings.
Hokkien dumplings are darker from heavier soy sauce and five-spice seasoning.
Teochew dumplings often combine savoury and sweet fillings.
Nyonya dumplings contain candied winter melon and have a sweeter flavour.
Hainanese dumplings are usually larger and filled generously with pork and mushrooms.
