Қытай халқының дәстүрлі тағамы – жасыл жапыраққа оралған жеміштер мен еттің шағын нандары

Traditional Chinese food

Zongzi (; ZOHNGzih), rouzong , or simply zong is a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Fillings can be either sweet, such as red bean paste, or savory, such as pork belly or Chinese sausage. The bamboo for wrapping the zongzi is generally of the species Indocalamus tessellatus, although sometimes reed or other large flat leaves may be used. Zongzi are cooked by steaming or boiling. People in the Eastern world often translate this dish into English as rice dumplings or sticky rice dumplings, although the Chinese government has registered Zongzi as the formal name in global use.

As it diffused to other regions of Asia over many centuries, zongzi became known by various names in different languages and cultures, including phet htoke in Burmese speaking areas (such as Myanmar), nom chang in Cambodia, machang in Philippines, bacang in Indonesia, khanom chang in Laos, and ba chang in Thailand. Vietnamese cuisine also has a variation on this dish known as bánh ú tro or bánh tro. In Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Taiwan, zongzi is known as bakcang, bacang, or zang (from Hokkien , as Hokkien is commonly used among overseas Chinese). Similarly, zongzi is more popularly known as machang among Chinese Filipinos in the Philippines. Japanese cuisine has leaf wrapped glutinous rice flour dumplings called chimaki. They may be tetrahedral, square, rectangular, or long narrow conical in shape. In some areas of the United States, particularly California and Texas, zongzi are often known as "Chinese tamales". In Mauritius, zongzi (typically called zong), is a traditional dish which continues to be eaten by the Sino Mauritian and by the Overseas Chinese communities. It is especially eaten on the Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional festive event, to commemorate the death of Qu Yuan.

Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) are traditionally eaten during the Duanwu Festival (Double Fifth Festival) which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, and commonly known as the "Dragon Boat Festival" in English. The festival falls each year on a day in late May to mid June in the International calendar. The practice of eating zongzi on the Double Fifth or summer solstice is concretely documented in literature from around the late Han (2nd–3rd centuries). Refn|group="lower alpha"|The claim that the zongzi dates to the Spring and Autumn Period occurs in a book by a non expert (Dong Qiang [zh], a French literature professor and translator), and only an unnamed "Record" is cited as evidence. Anecdotally, an official called Lu Xun (Jin dynasty) [zh; 卢循] from the Jin dynasty once sent zongzi which used yizhiren [zh] (, the fruit of Alpinia oxyphylla or sharp leaf galangal) as additional filling; this type of dumpling was then dubbed yizhi zong (, literally "dumplings to increase wisdom"). Every year in early May of the lunar calendar, the Chinese people still soak glutinous rice, wash the leaves and wrap up zongzi. and range from being approximately tetrahedral in southern China to an elongated cone in northern China. In the Chiang Kai shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, plastic mock ups of rectangular zongzi are displayed as an example of the zongzi eaten by Chiang Kai shek. Wrapping zongzi neatly is a skill that is passed down through families, as are the recipes. Making zongzi is traditionally a family event in which everyone helps out. While traditional zongzi are wrapped in bamboo leaves, the leaves of lotus, reed, maize, banana, canna, shell ginger, and pandan sometimes are used as substitutes in other countries. Each kind of leaf imparts its own unique aroma and flavor to the rice. The fillings used for zongzi vary from region to region, but the rice used is almost always glutinous rice (also called "sticky rice" or "sweet rice"). Depending on the region, the rice may be lightly precooked by stir frying or soaked in water before using. In the north, fillings are mostly red bean paste and tapioca or taro. Northern style zongzi tend to be sweet and dessert like. In the northern region of China, zongzi filled with jujubes are popular. However, as the variations of zongzi styles have traveled and become mixed, today one can find all kinds of them at traditional markets, and their types are not confined to which side of the Yellow River they originated from. Zongzi need to be steamed or boiled for several hours depending on how the rice is prepared prior to being added, along with the fillings. With the advent of modern food processing, pre cooked zongzi (usually in vacuum packs or frozen) are now available.

Jiaxing zongzi (嘉兴粽子): This is a kind of zongzi famous in mainland China and named after the city Jiaxing, Zhejiang. Typically savory with the rice mixed with soy sauce and having pork, water chestnut and salted duck egg yolk as its filling, but sweet ones with mung bean or red bean filling also exist. Jia zong (假粽): Instead of glutinous rice, balls of glutinous rice flour (so no individual grains of rice are discernible) are used to enclose the fillings of the zongzi. These "fake zong" are typically smaller than most and are much stickier. Jianshui zong (碱水粽): These "alkaline water zong" are typically eaten as a dessert item rather than as part of the main meal. The glutinous rice is treated with jianzongshui (碱粽水, alkali[ne] zongzi water, aqueous sodium carbonate or potassium carbonate), giving them their distinctive yellow color. Jianshui zong typically contain either no filling or are filled with a sweet mixture, such as sweet bean paste. Sometimes, a certain redwood sliver (蘇木) is inserted for color and flavor. They are often eaten with sugar or light syrup. Cantonese jung (广东糉): This is representative of the southern variety of zongzi, usually consisting of marinated meat, such as pork belly, and duck, with other ingredients like mung bean paste, mushrooms, dried scallops, and salted egg yolk. Cantonese jung are small, the front is square, back has a raised sharp angle, shaped like an awl. Chiu Chou jung (潮州粽): This is a variation of Cantonese jung with red bean paste, pork belly, chestnut, mushroom, and dried shrimp, in a triangular prism. Banlam zang (闽南粽): Xiamen, Quanzhou area is very famous for its pork rice dumplings, made with braised pork with pork belly, plus mushrooms, shrimp, and so on. Sichuan zong (四川粽): Sichuan people like to eat spicy and "tingly numbing" (麻) sense food, so they make spicy rice dumplings. They add Sichuan peppercorns, chili powder, Sichuan salt, and a little preserved pork, wrapped into four cornered dumplings. Cooked and then roasted, it tastes tender and flavorful. Beijing zong (北京粽): The Beijing zong are sweet and often eaten cold.

The Jiaxing Zongzi Culture Museum in Jiaxing, China has exhibits of the cultural history and various styles of zongzi.