zhongze

Rice triangles. Most prominent around Dragon Boat Festival (heh heh, oops, definitely a little behind), they are consumed year round, as they are the most dense and filling thing you may ever eat.

Legend has it that townspeople dropped these in the river (lake?) to stop the fish from eating a famous poet and advisor to an emperor that had committed suicide after his good name had been slandered. They searched for him using Dragon Boats. I think that’s it. Now they eat it and watch dragon boats.

Glutinous rice surrounds almost everything, and there are a variety of innards that can be found – peanuts, hairy pork, meat of various types. I don’t know what that black thing is, though. Not meat. The zhongze served at room temperature in a banana leaf (needed to keep your fingers from getting sticky). A friend was told once by a Taiwanese woman that you should eat it with ketchup and by gum I love it that way. Taiwanese he’s talked to since are about half and half, but it’s definitely a love-hate thing.