Homemade Chinese Fermented Rice 自製甜酒釀

One of the special traditional foods that my grandma knew how to make was Homemade Chinese Fermented Rice, also known as Jiu Niang or 甜酒釀, a fresh, sweet and slighty winey fermented rice with a porridge like texture.  She would make tons of the stuff and pass it out to all the family but no one liked to eat it as much as me.  I loooved the stuff and would eat it slowly, one delicious creamy spoonful at a time, from a huge jar in the fridge.

Now I know that my childhood fondness for Chinese fermented rice was probably due in a large part to my predilection for the tastes and flavors of alcoholic beverages as this fermented rice is slightly boozy.  (Ummm...mom, dad, what the hey?!)  But I digress from the topic at hand.  

The point here is that I still love this stuff and I finally got up the gumption to try to make Chinese Fermented Rice at home.  Guess what?  It was easy peasy and it is so d*mn good when freshly fermented!  I'm over the moon...I can have all the Jiu Niang I want forever!

Red Bean Paste Zong Zi Rice Dumpling 紅豆沙粽子

It's almost that time of the year, the time for dramatic Duanwu Dragon Boat Festival races and yummilicious Zong Zi!  To be honest, I always get a bit melancholy as well around this time, because the thought of zong zi, or 粽子, always gets me to reminiscing about my dearest grandmother, or 奶奶, who pretty much brought me up and taught me most of what of know about real traditional Chinese cooking.  

My dear grandma handmade the best and yummiest zong zi for us every year!  So I am always missing her cooking and her grumpiness and her giggles whenever the Dragon Boats are dragged out from storage and the folks begin their arduous practice sessions in preparation for the big races.  

To get over my blues I usually make my grandma's delectable savoury pork Zong Zi, pottering about happily in my teensy, tiny kitchen, listening with half an ear for sounds that I will swear are my grandma amongst her pots and pans.  This year, I decided to also make my most favorite food ever that my grandma made for me, the awesome and incredible Red Bean Paste Zong Zi, or 豆沙粽子.  My. Favorite. Food. Ever!!!! (Psst!  We even made a video of the Zong Zi wrapping process!)

Grandma's Zong Zi Meat Dumpling 肉粽子

Zong zi, I think, is love. A tender and lovingly wrapped package of pure love.  Find this hard to swallow?  Prove it to yourself by unwrapping and eating a zong zi, or 粽子, that is laboriously prepared by someone who loves you and see if you don't feel completely satisfied, happy, really loved after that deliriously aromatic, droolingly savory (or sweet) zong zi.  

I know that I had that feeling often enough in my childhood, while happily eating the 粽子 that my dearest grandmother made just for us.  I truly believe, as taught to me first by Tita from the wonderful story Like Water for Chocolate, that the feelings and love that you have inside can be transmitted into the food that you cook and thereby to the people who eat your food.