How to Wrap Zongzi Huai Yang Style?

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Zongzi {粽子}, or sticky rice dumplings, is a traditional well-liked food in southern China. It features sweet rice, or Nuo Mi {糯米} in Chinese, wrapped in bamboo leaves. Rou Zongzi {肉粽子} featuring juicy delicious pork chunks as a filling is especially popular. They are great for breakfast or snacks. Wrap Zongzi at home can be easy as long as you know a few tips and tricks. I am going to show you how.

Zongzi {Chinese Sticky Rice Dumplings} Fun Facts

Zongzi and Dragon Boat Festival {Duan Wu Jie 端午节}

Traditionally, Zongzi is a celebratory food for Duan Wu Jie {端午节} or Dragon Boat Festival which coincides with the Chinese Lunar calendar on May 5th every year.

The origin of this festival traced back to the ancient Chinese patriotic poet and politician named Qu Yuan {屈原} during the Warring States period around 300 BC. Legend says when Qu Yuan was wrongfully executed, his body was thrown into a river.

The people, deeply caring about him and fearing that the fish may devour his body, decided to throw wrapped rice in bamboo leaves into the river to feed the fish. This way, the fish may just leave the body alone. The village people also went on boats, beating gongs and drums, and chased after the fish to drive them away.

So it began the tradition of eating Zongzi and racing boats in celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival.

Two Styles of Zongzi in China – Huai Yang vs. Cantonese

Generally speaking, there are two styles of Zongzi in China, the Huai Yang Style and the Cantonese Style. By the way, both Huai Yang and Cantonese are among the Four Great Cuisines in China. When it comes to Zongzi, Huai Yang and Cantonese style differ in terms of wrapping and filling.

Huai Yang Cuisine refers to the cuisine in the Yangze River Delta. Shanghai, Suzhou {my hometown}, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Nanjing, and Wuxi are among the most well-known cities in this area. Jia Xing {嘉兴}, a city in Zhejiang province is especially well-known for its Zongzi.

Huai Yang Zongzi looks like a pyramid having four distinct corners. People sometimes refer to “Si Jiao Zong 四角粽” {four corners zongzi}. In terms of filling, plain, sweet, or savory versions are all popular choices. Red beans or red bean paste are favored fill choices.

Cantonese Zongzi looks like a boat or pillow. People sometimes refer to “Zhen Tou Zong 枕头粽” {pillow zongzi}. Regarding the filling, the Cantonese version is almost always savory with salted egg yolk being one of the popular ingredients for filling.

I am going to show you in this post how to wrap Huai Yang style Zongzi in a quick and easy way.

How to Wrap Huai Yang Style Zongzi?

Tip No.1 is to fold two bamboo leaves into a pyramid shaped container with sealed bottom

For regular sized Zongzi, you generally need two bamboo leaves to do the wrapping. Overlay two bamboo leaves with slight offset overlapping. Then located the area about one third length to the bottom of the leave, fold inword. While your left thumb pinch the corner, your right hand continue to fold and turn until the side reaches the tall back of the bamboo leaves.

The reason for pinching the corner is to seal the bottom so that rice doesn’t leak through the hole.

Tip No.2 is to fill the bamboo leaf “pyramid” container

Extend all fingers of your left hand, or the less dominant hand, and then slightly bend the fingers to form the thumb and the rest of the fingers into a quasi triangle shape. Position and hold the pyramid shaped bamboo leaves container in your left hand cooresponding to the triangle shape of the bamboo leaves.

Use a spoon with relatively flat bottom to fill the marinated sweet rice into the bamboo leaves container, fill about 1/3 of the container. Use the bottom of the spoon to compact and flatten the rice as you go.

If you are making Rou Zongzi or pork filling, then add 3 pcs of marinated pork now before filling the container with rice. Continue to use the bottom of the spoon to compact the rice as your go. When you have filled the rice almost to the top, compact and flatten the rice.

Tip No.3 is to close the bamboo leaf “pyramid” container and secure it with baker’s twine

Reorganize and position the bamboo leaf pyramid so that the opening looks like a triangle. While your left hand firmly clamps the two sides of the pyramid, use your right hand to fold the long bamboo leaves down and over the flat surface to cover the entire area with overage. Tuck the overage under the left-hand thumb and index finger.

Do not let go of your left hand, use your right hand to fetch the baker’s twine and wrap it tight around the opposite side of the pyramid. Then cut the twine and tie.

After you have tied the knot, take the time to tweak the shape to make it look nicer. Hooray! You’ve just wrapped a Huai Yang Style Zongzi.