Compiled by ALLISON LAI, HO JIA WEN and R. ARAVINTHAN
THE humble zongzi or Chinese dumpling, made with glutinous rice, has become haute cuisine for the rich and sold at exorbitant prices in China, Sin Chew Daily reported.
Made with exquisite and expensive ingredients such as abalone, shark’s fin, ginseng, birds’ nest or truffle, these delicacies are often sold in ostentatious packaging and marketed as luxurious gifts.
But the Chinese government has frowned upon such excessive practices and enacted laws to reduce the amount of packaging of mooncakes and zongzi to meet national green and low-carbon targets.
This year’s Duan Wu Festival, which falls today, is the first since those laws came into effect last year.
But zongzi makers who still want to offer these posh packages are going online to skirt the law.
Besides the sticky delicacy, the hampers come with other products, such as tea leaves, clay utensils and premium rice.
A check at a five-star hotel in Xinan found that an abalone zongzi hamper with only 12 dumplings is being advertised for around 988 yuan (RM639).
Online retailers have priced their dumpling hampers above 500 yuan (RM323).
One online food trader said his bestseller was the 1,288 yuan (RM832) hamper that was sold at a promotional price of 820 yuan (RM530) with 12 dumplings.
Another seller said some of his clients bought vouchers that could be exchanged for zongzi hampers.
“Some places have strict enforcement on packaging. As such, the vouchers allow the recipients to collect the hamper or exchange it for cash if the person does not want the gift.”
> Due to his doctor’s cryptic handwriting, a man took to social media to get help on deciphering his medical report, Kwong Wah Yit Poh reported.
Quoting Thai portal Sanook, the man posted a picture of his medical report on his TikTok account.
He poked fun at himself and asked if he was having an intestinal parasite due to his doctor’s illegible squiggle.
The man’s riddle was finally answered when a user with a medical background clarified that the baffling note was “WNL”, an abbreviation of “within normal limits”.
The report also said that a doctor’s handwriting changed according to seniority, with younger doctors’ notes being the most readable.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
