Tuen Ng Festival 端午節 June 10, 2008

 

 (Dragon Boat Race)

Today 8 June,2008 is Tuen Ng Festival or Dragon Boat Festival or Duanwu Festival (traditional Chinese: 端午節; simplified Chinese: 端午节, Pinyin: Qū Yuán). It is another Chinese traditional and statutory holiday in China. There are a number of theories about its origins but the most commonly accepted version is related to the death of a poet named Qu Yuan in 278 BC. In this festival, it related to two things and a poet: 1) Dragon Boat, 2) Zongzi, 3) A poet named Qu Yuan. The following paragraphs are the history background about this festival.

 

Qu Yuan

 

Qu Yuan is a poet ( 340 BC- 279 BC) of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period (traditional Chinese: 戰國時代; simplified Chinese: 战国时代; pinyin: Zhànguó Shídài, also known as the Era of Warring States) of the Zhou Dynasty. A descendant of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month. Qu Yuan was accused of treason. Local people who admired him, threw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Qu Yuan’s body.

 

 

This is why Tuen Ng Festival occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, we called “Double Fifth” in here and it is also a statutory holiday as I mentioned at the beginning. In this year, Tuen Ng festival falls on 8 June and next year, it will be on 28 May,2009.

 

 

You might know why the English name of Tuen Ng Festival named Dragon Boat Festival? The Dragon Boat Race is one of the traditional activities for this holiday till now~ As you can see the picture in the above. In the past, people believed that to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve Qu’s body.

 

 

Wrapped Rice dumpling            Unwrapped Rice dumping      Jianshui zong fills with red beans

 

 

Furthermore, we also eat Zongzi / Rice Dumpling, which is a traditional Chinese food, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings ( e.g. fat pork, green beans, mushroom) and wrapped in bamboo leaves and tie it by a seaweed or string. It cooked by steaming or boiling. Another common one is Jianshui zong (碱水粽), it fills with red beans only, people used to serve this kind of rice dumpling with sugar or syrup. Besides, there are many different kinds of rice dumplings fills with different things available in the market nowadays. :-p The fillings used for zongzi vary from region to region, filling maybe sweet or salty. The following are the ingredients might use for the fillings of the zongzi :

• Skinless mung beans
• Red bean paste
• Jujubes

Or savoury with fillings such as: (Highlighted in PINK are the ingredients commonly used for the fillings)

• Char siu (Chinese barbecue pork)
• Chinese sausage
• Chinese black mushrooms
• Salted duck eggs
• Chhestnuts
• Cooked peanuts
• Green beans
• Dried shrimp
• Scallops
• Red-cooked pork
• Curry Chicken

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuen_Ng_Festival

Beijing Roast Duck/ Peking Duck April 16, 2008

*Beijing Roast Duck / Peking Duck

 

BEIJING ROAST DUCK is a famous duck dish from Beijing. This dish has been invented since the Yuan Dynasty. Nowadays, we served this dish as one of the China’s National Foods.

 

As you can see the above picture, the duck is roasted traditionally in an oven either a closed oven or hung oven .

 

Closed oven : It is built of brick and fitted with metal griddles. The oven is preheated by burning Gaoliang wood at the base. Then the duck is placed in the oven immediately after the fire burns out. Why ? It is because it allows the meat to be slowly cooked through by convection of heat within the oven.

 

Hung oven : It is designed to roast up to 20 ducks at the same time with an open fire fuelled by hardwood from peach or pear trees. Ducks are hung on hooks above the fire and roasted at a temp. of 270°C for 30 to 40 minutes. When the ducks are cooking, the chef may use a pole to dangle each duck closer to the fire for 30 sec intervals.

 

How to serve this dish?

The cooked Beijing Roast Duck is traditionally carved in front of the diners and served in 3 stages.

1) Skin is served dipped in sugar and garlic sauce;

 

**(The chef cut the duck skin and meat into slices)

2) The meat is then served with steamed pancakes, scallions and sweet noodle sauce;

3) The meat can be served with several vegetables, typically cucumber and carrot sticks.

***

(Skin, steamed pancakes, slices of cucumber and scallion and sweet noodle sauce)

The diners spread sauce over the pancake, then the meat with the vegetables are wrapped inside the pancake, and then of course taste it with your mouth lol~ :-p

 

We have eaten the meat and the skin of the roast duck, how about the remaining fat, meat and bones? We Chinese do not waste any food as a good manner, we will use them to make a broth (that means a soup lol).

 

I have tried this dish several times, it is really delicious!!! :-p When I am writing this post, I feel hungry and really want to taste it again! :-p :-p :-p