Almost every year without fail, Por Por (Grandma from dad's side) will give us her handmade zhang.
Well, years goes by, and so is her age.
Hence, this year, the aunt decided to ask the younger ones to join in so that the tradition can be passed down.
So, last Saturday was the day! I'm actually not a virgin packer. My mum and I did this before at home, many many years ago. Where Youtube have not covered dumpling tutorials. Hahaha. Many of our dumplings "melted" through the boiling process, leaving very little survivors.
The tricky part in doing this dumpling is the wrapping. You need to get it into a steady pyramid shape and tie them in a rope and ensure it didn't get themselves loosen while it is boiled.
And, the additional effort you need to put in is to prepare all of the ingredients the day before which includes:
- Soaking of beans, mushroom and leaves.
- Wash the glutionous rice and amrinate.
- Wash the chicken. (Yup. We used chicken meat. Halal zhang lol)
Not only that, we used the charcoal to boil them zhangs.
Whoever came up with this in the past clearly has 101% dedication and patience.
On top of that, Por Por single handledly wrap 6kg of glutinous rice in 4 to 5 hours in her younger days. We wrapped only 3kg in 5 hours. #hallofshame
Our pointy pointy zhang clearly improves as we do. Practice makes perfect!
At the end of the day, I do really deeply appreciate the zhang we made because clearly so much effort has been put into it. #superprotectiveovermyzhangs
It's also a lesson to us to appreciate the food that people have made for us, even though it didn't taste up to your standards.
Well, today's lunch is Zhang. hahaha
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