Monday, June 18

who says i don't eat meat?

Our chinese neighbors speak very little English but their eyes are always smiling. We shock them with gifts of homemade saurkraut and parties with live bands where they politely pretend to enjoy the wine, and they shock us with some of their delicious (and strange) delicacies from their native country.

I complimented Hong on her zongzi (at least that's what I think it is) last year and today her husband, Henry, waved me over to come inside. There Hong and her sisters welcomed me in to show me (entirely in pantomime) how this traditional chinese dish is made. How sweet she had remembered that I wanted to know how to make this!
  • Rinsed white rice (raw)
  • yellow bean of some kind (raw) that looks like a yellow lentil only more oblong
  • salt pork
  • something that looked like salami
  • salted duck egg yolk (bright orange globes in the photo)
  • chicken egg yolk
  • scallops
  • little dried shrimps
  • some kind of corn kernal looking stuff
Pile all this in two cupped bamboo leaves and wrap up with a couple more bamboo leaves and secure with string. Boil 1-2 hours.   Zongzi!