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Random Musings

The Dumpling Festival

The annual Dumpling Festival is here again. Here’s an excerpt from here about the history of dumpling festival:
The Dumpling Festival commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a patriot and the first great poet in Chinese history, who lived during the Warring States period. Legend had it that he was so aggrieved when he received news that his country had fallen into en

emy hands that he threw himself into the river and drowned. While the life and death of Qu Yuan could hold an audience in rapt attention, it was the actions of the villagers or the community that was of greater significance.

On hearing that Qu Yuan had thrown himself in the river, the villagers rushed in their boats to try to save him. When they failed in their attempts and did not find his body, they were much aggrieved and were worried that his body would be eaten by the fish in the river. So, they came up with the ingenious idea of throwing packets of rice into the river to feed the fish, thinking that then, the hungry creatures would not feed on Qu Yuan’s body. The dragon boat races of today commemorate the rescue attempts by the villagers, and the rice dumplings bring to mind the packets of rice thrown by villagers into the river.

I’ve always loved the dumplings that my grandparents made. The dumplings are cooked in a very traditional manner, and this year I have a chance to help in the wrapping of the dumplings. Before the actual day of wrapping, we soak the rice in water overnight to soften it. The rice used is traditionally glutinous rice. So on that day itself, we cook the rice in oil and season with pepper and dark soy sauce to get the fragrance and the colour.

Next up is introducing the rest of the companions of the dumplings. There are a lot of variations out there in the market. We only use three: dried shrimps, shiitake mushrooms and pork (a mixture of fat and lean pork slices), all of which have been stir-fried the day before.

I’ve not wrapped dumplings for a VERY long time. It took me a very long time to get started. It’s difficult to start, easy to fill and difficult to finish. There’s a hell lot of knowledge involved in dumpling wrapping. I think we have a total of 150 odd dumplings, maybe more. But the number of dumplings wrapped by me can be counted just using my fingers. :p

Next we cook the dumplings in water to make sure they are all thoroughly cooked and soft throughout. Accidents do occur: we have dumplings who committed suicide in water, meaning they aren’t wrap properly and they opened up in the water. Well it’s not such a bad thing because we still eat it (to me it’s another excuse to eat dumplings.) 😀

Well I’m not going to say more as pictures speak louder than words.


One thing for sure: nothing is better than home cooked food, filled with love and dedication to make them.

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