Kaohsiung Rice Dumpling

The southern-Taiwanese rice dumpling, rou zong, is the Kaohsiung and deep-south version of the sticky-rice dumpling eaten across the Chinese world at the Dragon Boat Festival, but with distinct southern-Taiwanese characteristics. Unlike the northern-Taiwanese version, which steams the rice plain and stuffs it, the southern style stir-fries the glutinous rice first with soy sauce, fried shallots, pork fat and five-spice, seasoning the rice through and giving it a dark colour and savoury depth, before it is wrapped in bamboo leaves with chunks of braised pork, a peeled chestnut, a salted duck-egg yolk, dried shrimp and a soaked mushroom. The wrapped dumplings are then steamed for hours, the flavours melding inside the leaf. The southern zong is darker, oilier and more deeply seasoned than the northern, reflecting the southern palate, and it is eaten not only at the festival but as an everyday snack, sold from specialist zong shops and breakfast stalls across Kaohsiung. The Dragon Boat Festival origin, commemorating the ancient poet Qu Yuan, is shared across the Chinese world, but the southern-Taiwanese style is its own.

A dense, dark, leaf-wrapped pyramid unwrapped to fragrant sticky rice, deeply savoury from soy and shallot, studded with melting pork, a floury chestnut, a rich egg yolk and savoury mushroom. Eaten with a sweet-savoury garlic-chili sauce.

The southern zong's character comes from the pre-stir-fry of the rice. Glutinous rice is soaked, drained, then stir-fried in pork fat or oil with soy sauce, fried shallots, sugar and five-spice until each grain is coated and coloured, the seasoning absorbing into the rice, this is what makes the southern zong darker and more savoury than the plain-rice northern version. The fried rice is wrapped in soaked bamboo leaves, in a triangular pyramid shape, with a filling of braised pork belly chunks, a peeled chestnut, a salted duck-egg yolk, dried shrimp and a soaked shiitake mushroom, the leaves folded and tied with string. The wrapped dumplings are steamed for 2 to 3 hours, the long steam fully cooking the rice and melding the flavours inside the fragrant leaf wrapper, the leaf itself perfuming the rice. The dumplings are eaten hot or warm, unwrapped, with a sauce of soy, garlic, sugar and chili, and the dense, savoury, multi-textured bite is the southern style. The pre-fry is the technical distinction.