In the Zone for some Zongzi
I wanted to make a quick and dirty post about this zongzi stand I found not too long ago. Zongzi, or zong, are more commonly known as rice dumplings or sticky rice dumplings. As the name suggests, it is made from short grain rice aka glutinous rice aka sticky rice, aka really tasty rice. I'm a big fan of street food, but some would say I'm a bit too courageous in my eating habits. Especially with concern in the east in regards to gutter oil, and the lack of regulation of many food carts, it's difficult to really determine what is good and what is bad. But nothing ventured is nothing gained, right?
So I was on my way to Hong Kong Supermarket when I stumbled upon this lovely sight. Two elderly Chinese ladies sitting on small stools cracking ginkgo nuts (we call them bat guo in Cantonese). These are often used in congee and other soups since they have medicinal properties. They were cracking them and bagging them up. If anyone has cracked ginkgo nuts before you would know this chore stinks, literally. They smell terrible. I usually would have kept walking, but what stopped me was this other elderly Chinese woman walked up to them and bought zongzi. In my experience, elderly Chinese women know everything, including good cheap eats. She must have been a friend or a local in the area. This picture was taken on Hester, between Mott and Elizabeth.
But being the prudent person that I am, I needed a second opinion to confirm my hypothesis. I called my mother. I asked if there was some Chinese holiday coming up that I was unaware, and sure enough there was some lunar holiday that warranted the making of zongzi to celebrate. I asked the old lady how much they were and she told me it was a dollar fifty each. oh a dollar fifty. Hold up. What? A dollar fifty? HOLDUP HOLDUP HOLDUP. A DOLLAR FIFTY?!! That's $1.50 for something that I can barely finish in one sitting. Without a second thought I bought 5. She sells them in two varieties, peanut and green bean. I prefer the green bean. Side note: to differentiate the two kinds, she wraps one with a single thread, and the other two double threads. I thought that was genius.
Typically a zongzi will include a piece of fatty pork, salted duck egg, sticky rice, and green beans or steamed peanuts. All this is then wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed. As it steams the pork fat melts into the rice, flavoring it with the seasoned pork. It's basically amazing.
The egg yolk is hidden in this picture. The zongzi she sells are already steamed as most zongzi are, and require minimal effort to reheat, be it microwave or re-steaming. I've been told that even boiling it works since it is wrapped in bamboo leaves, the rice won't get soggy. These also store incredibly well, you can freeze them and keep them for quite a while. They were extremely delicious, both the green bean and peanut. I did find that one of my zongzi was slightly under-steamed, in that the rice was a under cooked toward the center. All the other ingredients are precooked beforehand, so I wasn't too worried about having uncooked pork. I microwaved them, but had I boiled them, I don't think I would have any complaints. She says she is there most weekends. next time I see her, I will definitely buy more.