These morsels of glutinous rice in lotus leaves are a well-known traditional favourite.
Filial piety. Loyalty to king and country. Be righteous and stand by your principles. These are the symbolic teachings behind the bak chang.
Synonymous with the Dragon Boat Festival, which is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, these morsels of glutinous rice in lotus leaves, are a well-known traditional favourite.
Chen Lek Chuan, who sells the vegetarian version of it in SS17, Petaling Jaya, said it was important that the younger generation did not just see it as another piece of edible confection. They have to know the moral behind the story.
Chen, who hails from Rawang, said his mother would regale how villagers tried to rescue a minister who jumped into a river after hearing that his state had fallen into the hands of the enemy. When the rescue attempt failed, they threw rice dumplings into the water so the fish would eat the rice and not the minister’s body.
What was once fish food has now evolved to become an upper class fare. At Noble Mansion, an upscale Cantonese restaurant under the Oriental Group of Restaurants in Plaza 33, the dumpling comes in the shape of a well-stuffed, one-kilogramme pillow. Black beans, meat, salted egg yolk, black-eyed peas, lotus root, chestnuts and scallops make up the ingredients list.
Oriental Group marketing and PR manager Emily Chiam said they had targeted to sell 2,000 dumplings for the season.
