The fatty chang - rice dumplings : an incredible feeling of euphoria !

Suddenly, I have an urge for rice dumplings from Juru, Penang especially with the fatty meal.  My friend,PH bought a few for me and it was wonderful and incredible , it just melt into my mouth. Ow, the bite is like eating Tou Fu with the fatty meal oozing out the juice and blend it with the rice. It gives you the lift to seventh heaven. Wonderfully done and I cannot get over the feeling of euphoria. I suggested to PH to buy me a few for lunch tomorrow but he told me that it is closed tomorrow and I have to swallow back my Silvia. Mama mia.....

Anyway, the Chinese rice dumplings have a history in China and the festival is just around the corner. It was said that a famous  Chinese poet got drunk while travelling on a river and he fell into the river and drown. His body could not be found, so the Chinese villagers make the rice dumplings and throw it into the sea to feed the fishes so that the fishes would not eat the body of the poet. Incredible story, how the fishes can like  rice dumplings ?  Maybe, the fishes are not the same in the yesteryears.

My sister also makes good rice dumplings and it can be filled with fatty meat, lean meat, red beans or white beans or black sugar or just plain rice. She learned it from my late mother and all of us just long for the occasion to eat the dumplings. The youngsters now a days is not interested in the art and it will be lost one day. Not only the art but also the history.

Hence, this is just to remind the youngsters. I have got a brief history on the Chang festival. Sometime good things should not be forgotten but to relive it with renewed vigor. Without such festivals, life is like a piece of plain paper fill with vision of hamburgers , french fries and fried chickens and Pizza. You should try to read on to understand and appreciate the Chinese culture:

Dragon Boat Festival / Chang Festival   (according to lunar calendar - June/July)    This festival marks the death of a Chinese poet and scholar Qu Yuan who drowned in 296 BC in Hunan province in China . When people heard of his disappearance, they scoured the river in boats to rescue him, beating their drums to scare off the fishes from nibbling at his body. Unable to find his body, they made glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river in the hope that the fishes would eat these dumplings instead of his remains.  To commemorate the occasion, boats were decorated with dragon heads on their bows.

     This day falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar.The tradition of making dumplings (called 'chang')is celebrated by the Chinese community in Malaysia with the offering of the dumplings to the gods and their ancestors. The festival is celebrated in Penang annually with an international dragon boat competition which is immensely popular and attracts participants from all over the world.