While many Hongkongers are superficially aware of Dragon’s Boat Festival as a public holiday and boat racing event, far fewer understand how this day even came to be. The primordial custom is as follows: the great Romantic poet Qu Yuan of the Tang Dynasty threw himself in despair into the Miluo River, estranged from the court his poetic verse patriotically served to uphold. To save Qu Yuan’s body from being fed to the fishes, bundles of lotus-wrapped rice dumplings were thrown into the river – and from this, the long-standing tradition of Dragon Boat racing and dumpling eating burgeoned, a pillar of Chinese celebration.
In modern times, craft and thought go into building a recipe for the satiating sticky rice dumpling. Although slow-cooked pork belly, salted egg yolk and dried seafood make its foundation, Hong Kong’s most innovative Chinese restaurants have played on the original recipe, offering some of the finest fares for Dragon’s Boat Festival.
The Peninsula
A cornerstone of sophisticated Cantonese fare, The Peninsula’s Spring Moon restaurant has created its festive rice dumplings with a top-secret ingredient as its speciality. With four flavours to choose from, each rice dumpling is simmered in a house broth (the big secret of the recipe). The glutinous rice is pre-seasoned with abalone, giving the dumpling its all-around umami flavour. Two decadent dessert dumplings are also available, one with lotus seed and red date and the other with a lychee paste filling.
The Peninsula Arcade, Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon; peninsulaboutique.com
Soil to Soul
Soil to Soul’s version of sticky rice dumplings utilise light, vegan ingredients for a Korean-inspired alternative to the traditionally heavy dish. The dumplings pay homage to temple food, following the philosophy of ancient Korean monasteries. In both Soil to Soul’s savoury and sweet dumplings, more traditional ingredients like pork belly, dried seafood and salted duck egg yolk are swapped for an all-vegan recipe that uses pickled kimchi, zucchini flavoured with nutty, sesame oil as well as a mix of grains, plum and aged soy sauce. Helmed by head chef Gu Jin Kwang, this lighter, healthier choice comes as the new restaurant celebrates its first Dragon’s Boat festival.
Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon; https://www.k11musea.com
The Legacy House
The Legacy House is known for their modern yet refined dishes. Their glutinous rice dumpling – available in both a traditional and vegetarian option – is made with indulgent abalone, slow-cooked pork belly and mushrooms. Embracing cuisine from the cradle of Cantonese cooking, Rosewood’s Legacy House perfects the heritage dumpling, incorporating the auspicious “eight treasures” ingredients as well as Shao Hsing Hua Dian wine. The prized parcels are then wrapped in dried bamboo leaves and slow-boiled for a quarter of the day.
5/F, Rosewood Hong Kong, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui; rosewoodhotels.com
Yung’s Bistro
Yung’s Bistro offers up two sticky rice dumplings for the celebrated occasion this year, both featuring their famed charcoal-grilled roast goose. The first dumpling combines the roast goose with Japanese dried scallops, shiitake mushroom, salted egg yolk and pork belly to round out the dumpling’s flavour, while the second included the addition of South African abalone. This recipe, while distinct to other offerings around town, follows an authentic Guangdong recipe for the extra crispy crunch of Yung’s Bistro’s iconic roast goose.
K11 MUSEA, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui; +852 23213800
Sexy Crab
In what can only be taken as total subversion of the glutinous rice dumpling, Sexy Crab has created a rice dumpling made with its signature speciality crab roe. Runny crab roe supplements the standard salted egg yolk for a truly luxurious and indulgent take on the sticky rice dumpling. Development of the recipe took the team at Sexy Crab over three months to carefully procure. It’s all topped off with the very scientific measurement of the restaurant’s ‘golden roe ratio’ (20% crab meat, 50% male roe, 50% female roe).
Shop 401A, 4/F, K11 MUSEA, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East; +852 6655 7629
Editor
Rachelle MaCredit
Featured Image: Rosewood Hotels
