The Land Down Under enjoying a feast of zongzi

With social restrictions still on shopping and dining in restaurants and no dragon boat race due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, making and eating zongzi has become the only way for many Australian Chinese to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival.

Zongzi is a traditional and iconic food, which Chinese people enjoy on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival. It is a sticky rice dumpling wrapped up with bamboo or reed leaves. Normally, people in southern parts of China like to eat salty ones, having sticky rice with pork, salted yolk or even mushrooms and chestnuts while people in northern parts of China prefer the sweet variety, having sticky rice with red jujubes.

Zhang Peng, owner of Ample Grocery in Wollongong, just south of Sydney, started to replenish her zongzi stock nearly three months before Thursday’s Dragon Boat Festival.

Many challenges

“Due to COVID-19 restrictive measures, the logistics was affected and many products were in shortage weeks before. Zongzi is very important for the Dragon Boat Festival and the flavor diversifies. I want to make sure every customer could find his or her favorite ones,” Zhang said.

Getting enough stock was not the only challenge posed by the pandemic. To help customers who were not able to go shopping for various reasons, Yan Zhe, manager of Ustore in Zetland, an inner-eastern suburb of Sydney, opened an online ordering and home delivery service.

“For safety and health, we use our own staff and cars to deliver. All the zongzi are delivered to customers the same day they are delivered to our store by the food processors,” Yan said.

He said this new way of selling zongzi helped flourish his business. His store has already sold hundreds of zongzi and some new flavors such as the purple sticky rice with ground red beans sold out before the festival began.

Nevertheless, there are some positives to life under the pandemic, such as more time spent at home.

Zhang said sales of finished zongzi in his store fell 30 to 40 percent this year, but the raw materials for making zongzi such as sticky rice, leaves and red beans witnessed a remarkable increase because many people now have time to cook and would like to try the traditional technique themselves.

“Even some local Australians bought materials and make zongzi with their Chinese friends. Many friends of mine also showed their products on the social media. No matter if it looks good or not, it is the atmosphere of the festival, and that matters,” he said.

This year Annie, whose son studies in Australia, tried to wrap zongzi herself. Her husband works in China and cannot celebrate this year’s festival with them due to the travel ban. She thought the traditional way of celebrating might bring a stronger sense of ceremony.

“We took video of how to make zongzi and send to my husband. This makes us feel like we are celebrating the festival together,” Annie said.

Unlike Annie, Mrs Jiang has handmade zongzi for dozens of years. Her zongzi, large and with rich fillings according to a classic recipe, have become a signature snack in the restaurant run by her son in northern Sydney.

It takes her more than a whole day to prepare, wrap and cook the zongzi.

“Our handmade zongzi is very popular among regular customers, especially during the Dragon Boat Festival. Some of them even drive from other suburbs. They told me it is the taste of home,” she said.