Taking the dragon out of the dumplings

The time-intensive art of making healthier dumplings affords cross-generational as well as health benefits, as Phoebe Cheung discovers for herself.

Zongzi or rice dumpling is a traditional Chinese food prepared for the Dragon Boat Festival. Glutinous rice, green beans, fatty pork fat and egg yolk are wrapped in lotus leaves to prepare the festive treat in the traditional way. People love the dumplings - the creaminess of the glutinous rice, the aroma of egg yolk and greasy texture of the pork fat. Health-conscious eaters are saying no to traditional rice dumplings these days. The fillings are simply too heavy. Here are some healthier alternatives for the festival.

Being traditional equates with "high calories, high fat and low fiber" as described by Clara Pi Lee-ming, food services manager at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital.

"Green beans without shells, pork fat and salty egg yolk are used (when making traditional rice dumplings). So actually they are very high in cholesterol and fat because of the pork fat in them and also because oil is mixed in the rice as well before the wrapping up. So there is very little fiber in the rice dumpling," Pi says.

According to her, a 200-gram rice dumpling contains 450 to 600 calories, equivalent to the energy required per meal for an adult woman. She suggested using pumpkin as a substitute for egg yolk. Pork fat should be taken out and replaced with chicken, to reduce cholesterol. High-fibre rice like black glutinous rice and multigrain can be used to replace white glutinous rice, to aid digestion and provide more fiber.

"When we are talking about healthy eating, we want to have higher fiber and less fat, less sugar. For things that are low in fiber, like the white glutinous rice, the sugar just goes straight into the blood. That causes high sugar levels very quickly," she says.

Pi suggests people with diabetes should avoid rice dumplings because the white glutinous rice which is low in fiber and Glycemic Index will increase the sugar level.

"If we want to reduce that (sugar level), we have to add fiber back into the diet," Pi said.

Other possible fillings include red bean, shiitake mushroom, black fungus, carrot, oats and taro. All are high in fibre.

"For the traditional rice dumpling, if you eat it all at once, you will feel really full and stuffed. It's because all the sticky rice, which doesn't have enough fiber, sticks together and causes indigestion. But if you add this extra fiber, you won't feel so full. It's less filling. And because you reduce the fat content, it's healthier," says Pi.

With less oil, less meat and more vegetables, the calorie count of the rice dumplings is reduced to just 125 per 100 grams.

Pi's suggestion may be useful to Granny Yeung, a 70-year-old, wandering in the wet market in Sham Shui Po, shopping for the ingredients to make the rice dumplings for the festival. She had in her hand, some lotus leaves, pork, glutinous rice and green beans. Besides the traditional rice dumplings, she is making a healthier one which contains only green beans and glutinous rice. This is exclusively made for her granddaughter, who is about 20.

"She (her granddaughter) used to love the rice dumpling with egg yolk and pork fat when she was small. But now she said she wants to keep fit and refuses to have any of them. She said those ingredients are too fatty to eat," Yeung said.

Despite the extra work, Yeung won't purchase the rice dumplings available directly from the market. She said she is more confident in the food quality if she makes it herself.

"At least I know what is inside the dumplings," she said. She also believes in keeping to the traditional way to celebrate the festival.

Yeung has been making rice dumplings for more than 30 years. She said neither her daughters nor daughter-in-law knows how to make them. She observes sadly that the art of producing the traditional food will fade away.

"They have no time and patience to make the food," she said.

With all different kinds of pre-made rice dumplings available in the market, no wonder Hong Kong people, who are usually busy and packed with tight schedules, tend to avoid the complicated procedure of wrapping their own rice dumplings but simply buy mass produced dumplings from shops.

There are choices ranging from the most authentic ones to those made of innovative fillings like Japanese braised pork rice dumpling, ice dumplings made of fruit mousse, etc. Vegetarian rice dumplings have proven especially popular in recent years. Customers today pay more attention to the healthfulness of the food, according to Patrick Tang, food and beverage manager of Golden Bauhinia Cantonese Restaurant.

"Customers are very health-conscious and they pay attention to the food they eat," Tang said.

On top of the more traditional rice dumplings with abalone and conpoy, the restaurant provides mixed fungus vegetarian rice dumplings. Carrot is used to replace egg yolk in the vegetarian rice dumplings. Other ingredients include yellow fungus, matsutake mushroom, bamboo pith, chestnut, and vegetarian shark's fin. Tang said the strong taste of mushroom is the cream of the healthy choice.

Tang believes there will be more healthy choices for rice dumplings available in the markets. Although people are looking for innovative choices, Tang thinks it is also important for the festive food to maintain a sense of tradition.

Cheung Cheuk-ming, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Chinese (Dim Sum) Sous Chef, thinks authentic rice dumplings are more timeless and long lasting.

"We don't quite accept those which are too inventive," Cheung said. With 40 years of experience in making rice dumplings, he suggested that sticky rice, green beam, egg yolk and pork are the must ingredients of the rice dumplings. If you are adding more vegetables into the rice dumplings like boletus of steppes which is healthy, I think it's acceptable. But you can't stray too far from the authentic style."

Cheung recommends having fewer traditional rice dumplings if you think they are too heavy. "It's just once a year for the festival," he said.

(HK Edition 06/16/2010 page4)