Making dong. What's Dong?

Kathryn, Nora, Chanelle, and Leanne, making dong.

What exactly is dong?  For me, being 0% Chinese, it is a boiled, wrapped leaf containing rice, meat, preserved egg yolk, mung beans, and mushrooms.  But for others, it is much more than that.

Google tells me that the name for the wrapped staple is Zongzi (粽子).  Regardless of what you call it, I'm sure it tastes the same.  I have had it from the store (T&T), made by relatives, and even made by my own hand, with the supervision of my wife (first in the photo above).  They all taste about the same.  The dish itself lacks much in the way of vegetables, but does contain plenty of carbohydrates in the form of rice and protein in the form of meat and mung beans.  Besides that, there is Chinese 5-spice powder, soya sauce, and sesame oil.  You can also add other stuff, depending on what you want or have.

The partly cooked rice and soaked beans are combined with the other ingredients and then wrapped in bamboo or banana leaves and bound with string.  To prepare them to eat, you boil them in a pot of water for about half and hour and then unwrap the contents onto a plate.  Add soya sauce and, voila, dinner.

The great thing about dong is that you can make dozens of them up ahead of time and freeze what you don't use.  We made about 43 of them, most to be frozen, and a few to serve later.  I made a half dozen myself, you can see me in the process in the image below.

Making dong - sweet rice, mung beans, two types of meat, mushrooms, and spices.

If you are interested in seeing more, click here for a web page going into more details.

Thanks for reading. 

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com