Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Duan Wu Jie (端午节 ) / Dragon Boat Festival

Duan Wu Jie (端午节) or Dragon Boat Festival falls on 31/5/2006 this year (5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese Lunar calendar), which commemorates Qu-Yuan, one of the China well loved poets and patriots, who drowned himself in a river. To stop the fish from eating his body, people made rice dumplings and threw them into the river.

Nowadays we can savour zongzi (粽子) or chang or chung or rice dumplings or "whatever you called it" all years round. The most popular one is Bak Chang or Ham Yuk Chung (Steamed glutinous rice with soya sauce stuffed with fatty pork, sausages, chinese mushroom, dried prawns, chestnut, salted egg yolk and beans which are wrapped up in bamboo leaves. Another oily and sinful delight.

I still remember helping my mother preparing the ingredients and wrapping up & tied the chang prior to cooking. Those were the good old days.. Haven't do that since I left home to further my studies more than a decade ago. Nowadays everything becomes more expensive. One huge Bak Chang cost RM 4.

Albie Kor, since no lormaikai, bak chang or ham yuk chung also will do, right? Since the taste is similar ;)

28 comments:

Selba said...

CHUPçççç oopsççç forgotçççç no chup ın hereççç you don,t have the hughugclub franchıse!!! hehehe

ıs that bachang??? hungry!!!! am gettıng sıck of turkısh dıshes,serıouslyçççç

Anonymous said...

I love nonya chung!!
of course, the classic ones are yumyum too.. :)

Chen said...

selba,
wow.. Greetings from Turkey once again? I feel honoured :D

so many çççç ... see till I blur blur :P u know, the ç looks like "something" to me :P

yeah, that is bak chang which carries the same meaning as bachang :D Wonder what u eat everyday in Turkey. Can't wait to hear your stories :)

may,
Nyonya chung is it the one with the black-eye beans? U knowlah, chung have many different names :P

I haven't eat the alkaline dumplings or kan sui chung or kee chang for ages already... (so many names for the same thing, haha)

rainbow angeles said...

chup!!! 3rd yay!

rainbow angeles said...

I was just going to ask you when is this Duan Wu Jie. Thanks!

Oh, I lurve the bakchangs Mama make... I just finished the ones she brought for me last week... Yummy! Got meat, got tungku, got chestnuts, got heh bee... *drools*

That day I bought a nyonya chung from the Auntie Buah... RM3.50! So expensive and nothing much inside also... She said, sedap, got sambal, got meat... But me thinks not sedap oso... Mama's wan 10x more sedap...

BTW...

Meme meme meme

You you you

Ya ya ya ya!!!

La la la... la la la...

a^ben said...

wah~ hahahah I like my ah ma's bak zhang` super nice` hahahahha home made bak zhang is the best. :P *droooooooooolsss and float the dragon boat* ahhaha` jk :P

YD said...

hehe when i was small, i used to call it MY festival cuz it's got the word 端 inside. :-)

Bak Chang... i want bak chang... stomach growling now...

Anonymous said...

Difficult to find good nyonya chung..of course nothing is ever as good as homemade ones. Nyonya chung, to me, are the sweet & salty ones with peanuts, cekur, glaced wintermelon and some other ingredients.

But the normal salty ones are nice too. Can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

Chen said...

angel,
so "hang fopk". Home made chang is always the best ;)

Hah? meme again ah? So many meme this month :P I will do it one of these days..

ben,
home made one is the best cos there's "love" component inside --> ♥♥♥ made the chang more delicious ;)

Btw, u drool near the Sarawak River can liao, don't drool near my house. I dowan flood, hahhaa..

yd,
Woo.. so 端 is the chinese word for d in your name? I presume bak chang in UK is very expensive and not as nice as the one back home.

kat,
so many different varieties. Cannot eat so many chang for 3 meals a day lah.. bad for digestion :P

Winn said...

31/5? really ar?

hm..i sorta confused with all these things la..

this is the disadvantage of not staying with parents! hehe.

Kristopher said...

so early u have bak chang already ahhhh....

Alicia said...

xD i loveeee bak zhang with salted egg yolk + the sweet nut (fung lut) xD

c a r c a r said...

congrate selba! gold! but chen is so lazy to count the point :P

i am not home for bak zhang! sob sob...any one wanna treat me a bak zhang pls...

Anonymous said...

ermmm... no, not with black beans. it's got a bit of sambal belacan har mai in it, in white sticky rice. I'm just a sucker for slightly spicy stuff... heheheh!

Anonymous said...

my grandma give us yesterday.. fresh from the steamer...

BTW I just realize that your sister teached me chemistery in SAS.. what a small world

hornbill said...

em..just about to tell u that grandma gave us bachang... fred did it first... hehehe

Anonymous said...

where's mine? :P

Chen said...

winn,
really, I tak tipu punya :P
cos I have the lumba kuda calendar with chinese calendar inside there.. :) and they draw the bak chang picture on the 31/5/06 column summore - so won't miss that out :P

kristopher,
early ah? consider late liao lah.. some people eat the bak chang one weeks before hand already :D

alicia,
yummy, now I feel like eating it :D

carcar,
I wanna treat u but too bad, I only have one.. if u don't mind, I can share mind --> half half with u :P

sharing is caring, right? :P

Chen said...

may,
mmm.. sambal belacan har mai in it, in white sticky rice ah? okie, I have eaten that before :P but dunno the name. Hehe, just makan :D

I like it with lotsa lotsa sambal belachan & har mai. My fren feel scared seeing the way I eat the chilli or sambal :P

fred,
great :) If I'm not mistaken, you have chinese blood, right? can't remember whether your grandma is Chinese or your mum is chinese..

Cool. Yeah, most students from SAS Science stream were previously my sister's student :P How u get to know about that? From your sis or ?

hornbill,
haha, Fred is slightly earlier than u. I guess you are now back at home already? Since Gawai Festival is just around the corner and it's school holidays at the moment.

phangan,
Yours ah? Hanging somewhere in one of the bak chang stall in the market I presume? :P Your mum sure will buy some bak chang leh.. So no worry :D

Wonder if there's any Bak Kut Teh Chang or not? :P since BKT is your favourite..

c a r c a r said...

thanks for the offer. just now i make noise in my site canteen saying i have no bak zhang this yr as i never go home for it, sob sob... then some of them went out to buy for me, ek ek ek :P

*good neh*

L B said...

Yes, yes, sorry for being so late this time.. *mutters breathlessly*..
Thank you, thank you.. I want 4 of those, please.. by Tuk Tuk again?...

c a r c a r said...

*burp*

just finish my 1st bak zhang of the year, is nice! delicious! small enough and i love the mushroom inside!

Chen said...

carcar,
wah, so nice leh your colleagues :P
U really know how to manja, nyek nyek..

lb,
how come u mutter breathlessly?
u run here all the way ah?

4 enough liao ah? but, too bad I only have one left..
too bad :P
guess I have to stock up more bak chang. Going to buy more soon...

still waiting for the mafia mail :D

carcar,
small enough? mini bak chang? ;)
I also want :P

Winn said...

do they still throw bakchang into the sea?

day-dreamer said...

Winn asked a good question...

I am thankful that my grandma sent some bak chang for me to eat. Sure was some consolation of being away from home.

Anyway, happy duan wu jie!!

Chen said...

winn,
other people I dunno lah..
but I definitely won't do that..
Cannot simply waste food leh.. especially delicious bak chang ;)

day dreamer,
Very sweet lah your grandma :)
Happy Duan Wu Jie to u too.. I eat up all the bak chang already. So no more bak chang for today :(

*sob*
no grandma to give me nice bak chang..

Anonymous said...

chen: I found out about your sis from some fellow name Jimmy.. reading his blog and suddenly I read something in the comments... :).

BTW: My mum is 100% pure chinese by blood but pure 100% Iban by heart... and my father is Iban... and Me?

Chen said...

fred,
hahah, okie.. :) Jimmy & his brother is my sister's student :) Really a small small world :D

anyway, my sister is no longer teaching in SAS. She is now in Kuching :)

so u r 50% chinese :P But I remember u can write good Chinese. Bravo. I remember reading one of your chinese post regarding Sarikei ;) I can still remember the last two sentences in your post commenting about your two sisters, hahaha.. although that was so long ago.