Duan Wu Jie or the Dumpling Festival has arrived!

For those who don't know the significance of this day, it is to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan who decided to end his life by drowning himself in the river. He was upset that his kingdom was being controlled by others. The people threw rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into river so that fish would feed on the rice instead of Qu Yuan's body. Hence the tradition of eating rice dumplings on Duan Wu Jie.

My friends and I have a habit of celebrating tradition chinese festivals like the Mid Autumn Festival among ourselves. We bring food and games, gather at a location and have heaps of fun. And everytime, I try to make traditional food to bring to our gatherings, like mooncakes at our previous meeting.

This year is the first time we're celebrating Duan Wu Jie, and I'm making rice dumplings for my friends for the first time.

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I started making dumplings when I was in primary school. My mother wanted to teach me but I refused to learn, so she promised me a few dumplings of my own if I promised to help.

Wrapping the dumplings is not as easy as it looks. There is alot of technique involved - you need to wrap it tightly so water doesn't seep in when you steam them.

I tied a special knot around my dumplings (which were looking like cubes, not pyramids) so I would recognize them when we were done steaming.

When I finally removed the leaves from the first dumpling I'd made in my life, water sloshed out from my dumpling in all directions. The same thing happened to my second and third specially knotted dumpling.

Then my mother handed me another perfect looking dumpling that I didn't remember I'd made, but still bore my trademark knot. I opened it, and it tasted wonderful. I've started making edible dumplings ever since and once during our dumpling making sessions Mum let the cat out the bag and told me that she'd copied my trademark knot on one of her dumplings so I wouldn't feel like such a failure. Haha.

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Anyway, I've gotten all my ingredients ready for this weekend:

Bamboo leaves
Glutinous rice
Lots of garlic
Fatty pork meat
Mushroom
Roasted chestnuts
Salted egg yolks (I almost forgot this one because I'm not a fan of them)

Now, I just have to wait till midnight to start preparing everything so that they can be consumed as fresh as possible on Saturday night.

Happy Dumpling Festival everyone!

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wen is 21, loves furry things and whines alot. Sometimes affectionately referred to as nannywen.

She changes her favourite things all the time and is a big fan of Mahjong.

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