Comments on: Secret of the Zongzi

By: Kian Lam Kho

Kian Lam Kho — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 15:16:54 +0000

Hi JP, In my recipe the filling is marinated overnight to enhance the flavor. Pre-cooking is not necessary. The boiling will cook through the entire zongzi. You can pre-cook the filling in a wok if you are not planning to marinate the filling. I hope you enjoy the zongzi. Happy Dragon Boat Festival!

By: JP

JP — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 02:33:13 +0000

Thank you for sharing this recipe. I am getting ready to make zongzi and have looked at a few different online recipes. Yours is the most like the kind I grew up eating, but I have one question. Do you really put the pork in raw? Most of the other recipes have you at least partially cook the pork first. Just checking!

By: Kian Lam Kho

Kian Lam Kho — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 05:35:35 +0000

tze hwei yeh

Thank you for your comment. Traditionally these dumplings are tied using straw rope made from rice or wheat plant. But for modern use any butcher twine would work well. It is however very romantic to hear stories of straw rope’s magical power in marriage arrangement.

By: tze hwei yeh

tze hwei yeh — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:54:30 +0000

is there a special string used for this? the Canton style uses bamboo. when my amah taught me about 60 yrs ago she said we had to use a special type so that to gain favor in the eyes of a possible family of prospective new proper in-laws they could see that i would be an acceptable daughter-in-law. ok..but the foot binding was a bit much. any string ideas?

By: Melissa Peterman

Melissa Peterman — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:06:59 +0000

Oh Wow! This looks heavenly. I could go for this right now.

By: MaryMoh

MaryMoh — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:07:50 +0000

I love to eat zongzi. My mum used to make a lot when we were young. I hope to make one of these days. Looks easy here…and mouth-watering.

By: Kian

Kian — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:54:28 +0000

The bamboo leaves need to be soaked in water for a few hours. Keep the leaves in the water until you wrap the zongzi. I’ve not heard of using lye solution to soak the leaves.

However lye solution is used in soaking the glutinous rice when making a special type of zongzi. In Chinese it is called 鹼水粽子 or lye dumplings.

By: LN

LN — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:55:52 +0000

Hi, when my grandmother made these, she would make me go buy a bottle of lye solution that she would use to wash (or soak) the bamboo leaves with. What’s the purpose of that? Did you buy dried bamboo leaves? What was the preparation to the leaves before filling them?

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:46:26 +0000

Kian, Hope everything goes well at your side.

By: Kian

Kian — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:49:58 +0000

Very funny Greg!