Hechi Duck Bundle

The Zhuang people of Hechi's Jinchengjiang district have long observed the tradition of slaughtering ducks during the Sixth and Seventh Lunar Months for ancestor-worship festivals including 六月六, 七月七, and 七月十四. The duck bundle dish arose from the Zhuang principle of using every part of the animal: offal and pork belly were cooked and sliced, duck blood was mixed with soaked glutinous rice and steamed into cakes, and the local herb 鸭仔香 — a fragrant wild aquatic plant prized in Zhuang folk medicine for clearing heat — was used both to suppress gamey odours and as a flavour element. Bundling these components together was practical and symbolic: the character 把 connotes gathering, harvest, and unity. Listed in the 2025 Guangxi Intangible Cultural Heritage Food Map.

Untying the ginger-leaf knot releases a rush of mingled herb aromas — mint, perilla, and the lemon-anise note of 鸭仔香; the duck gizzard and pork belly strips are firm and subtly gamey, the blood rice cake is sticky and iron-rich, and the duck blood dipping sauce ties every element together with sharp vinegar acidity and raw mineral freshness.

Duck blood glutinous rice cake (鸭血粑) forms when myoglobin in fresh duck blood denatures and coagulates around the amylopectin network of soaked glutinous rice during steaming at 80–85°C. Haem iron in the blood colours the cake deep red and the coagulated proteins form a resilient, slice-able slab. The wild herb 鸭仔香 contains volatile aromatic phenolics and terpene-family compounds that actively suppress sulphur-containing gamey volatiles produced by duck muscle protein degradation, keeping the dish clean and fragrant at room temperature. The raw duck blood dipping sauce delivers a final burst of haem-iron richness, brightened and microbiologically tempered by rice vinegar's acidity.