DRAGON BOATS AND DUMPLINGS

Traditional and fusion cooking styles, regional and international ingredients and a new awareness of healthy eating are all factors contributing to an exciting time for Chinese cuisine. Pauline D Loh explores the possibilities.

Every Chinese child knows the story of Qu Yuan, the folk hero who threw himself into a raging river when his country was vanquished three centuries before Christ was born. And every Chinese child would have listened wide-eyed to this patriotic tale while munching away on a zongzi, the glutinous rice dumpling.

These rice cakes, swaddled in reed or bamboo leaves, are supposed to commemorate his death, but were actually eaten long before that. Like many foods for festivities, they started off as sacrificial items.