Extra: Breaking the Salty-Sweet Dispute
The Dragon Boat Festival is here, and the whole capital is filled with the smell of mugwort and rice dumplings.
People in Daliang also eat rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival, most of which are filled with sweet fillings.
Just add a few red dates, sweet beans, or bean paste to the glutinous rice.
Some rice dumplings only have glutinous rice without any fillings.
Dip it in sugar when eating.
As the Dragon Boat Festival approached this year, the entire capital city was tacitly waiting for the rice dumplings from Yipintang and the Food Street.
Every time a festival comes, Chen Huazheng always makes some fresh food.
Festivals like the Dragon Boat Festival are definitely no exception.
As everyone expected, when the Dragon Boat Festival was approaching, Yipintang and the Food Street launched rice dumplings of various flavors.
Not only sweet, but also salty.
The sweet ones include alkaline water dumplings, crystal purple potato fillings, sweet-scented osmanthus bean paste fillings, red dates fillings, lotus seed paste fillings, chestnut paste fillings, and custard fillings...
There are even more types of salty ones, such as egg yolk and fresh meat dumplings, seafood dumplings, steamed dumplings, Chinese sausage dumplings, barbecued pork dumplings, roast goose dumplings, preserved vegetable and pork dumplings, ham dumplings...
What’s even more amazing is that there are actually mandarin duck rice dumplings that have both salty and sweet fillings.
It can be said that it has everything, which is dazzling.
And just like last year’s Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival, these rice dumplings are available not only in bulk but also in gift boxes.
Zhou Ying looked at Chen Huazheng and Princess Lejia who were sitting next to her: "Shopkeeper Wu said that the rice dumpling gift boxes were sold out as soon as they were released, and the loose rice dumplings are also selling well."
Princess Lejia picked up the teacup and took a sip.
"I used to think that only the ones stuffed with candied dates were delicious, but I didn't expect there were so many different flavors. And they're all equally delicious. But really, meat dumplings are the most delicious."
Chen Huazheng smiled and said, "I asked someone to prepare some rice dumplings, both meat and other flavors. We can eat them while watching the dragon boat race."
Every year on the Dragon Boat Festival, dragon boat racing is the highlight.
Yipin Building is built by the river, and the window seats inside face the sparkling river surface.
The seats inside were all reserved early, especially the ones by the windows on the second floor.
The river view room where Chen Huazheng and the other two were currently staying was an excellent location for watching the dragon boat race.
Princess Lejia: O(∩_∩)O
"That's great, I can eat rice dumplings again."
Ever since she tried all kinds of flavors with Zhou Ying and Shen Huazheng, Princess Lejia has become obsessed with rice dumplings.
If eating too many rice dumplings would not cause indigestion, Princess Yi'an would not allow Princess Lejia to eat too many. She would have liked to eat fresh meat rice dumplings for three meals a day.
Zhou Ying also smiled: "You can also eat zongzi while watching the dragon boat race. The view of the river here is clearer than from the observation deck."
Princess Lejia put down her teacup and said, "I think so too. The view here is wider and it's more comfortable to sit here."
The waiter brought their rice dumplings to the table, and the dragon boat race was about to begin.
The sun was shining brightly at this time, the riverside was particularly lively, and colorful flags were fluttering on the shore.
Common people all ran to the riverside to watch the excitement, and the diners in Yipintang also stretched their heads to look outside.
A burst of exciting drumbeats came from the river, and the dragon boat race began.
The rowers on the dragon boats are dressed in red, green or yellow and row forward in an orderly and unified manner.
Princess Lejia put her favorite rice dumpling into her bowl and said, "Zhengzheng, Aying, which team do you think will win?"
In previous years of dragon boat racing, everyone would cheer for people they knew or the team they favored.
But this time, the three brothers of the Shen family and Zhou Zeyan all participated in the dragon boat race, and they happened to be in two different teams.
Princess Lejia really wanted to know which team Shen Huazheng and Zhou Ying would favor more.
Chen Huazheng peeled a mandarin duck rice dumpling and put it in the bowl: "Winning or losing is not important, as long as the process is happy."
After Zhou Ying finished peeling the rice dumplings, she picked up a wet handkerchief beside her and wiped her hands.
"Zheng'er is right. Participation is what matters."
The three of them smiled at each other, and then stopped talking tacitly.
Instead, he ate the rice dumplings while looking out the window towards the river.
Among so many kinds of rice dumplings, Zhou Ying’s favorite is the alkaline rice dumpling.
Alkali rice dumplings are different from ordinary glutinous rice dumplings. They are yellowish-brown in color, and the whole dumpling is amber in color.
One is filled with red bean paste, and the other is without filling.
The kind Zhou Ying is eating now has no filling and has to be eaten with sugar.
She picked up a small piece of orange-yellow, crystal clear alkaline rice dumpling with chopsticks, rolled it in a bowl of white sugar, and put it into her mouth.
After being treated with alkaline water, the glutinous rice becomes more firm in texture, has a certain chewiness and is full of elasticity.
Take a gentle bite and you can taste the faint alkaline aroma and the fragrance of rice dumplings leaves.
As you chew, the distinct texture of the white sugar grains combines with the soft, glutinous and chewy texture of the rice dumpling.
The more I eat, the more addictive I become.
Princess Lejia also happily ate the salty and delicious fresh meat dumplings in the bowl, with a look of satisfaction on her face.
The fillings inside the rice dumplings are very rich, including pork belly, mushrooms, peanuts, mung beans, salted egg yolks, and dried shrimps.
During the steaming process, the glutinous rice absorbs the fragrance of the rice leaves and the complex aroma of the ingredients, and the unique fragrance of the glutinous rice is also integrated into the filling.
The pork belly is fat and lean, and is marinated just right, with just the right amount of saltiness and flavor.
The shiitake mushrooms are mellow and sweet, the peanut powder is glutinous, the mung beans are soft and delicious, the dried shrimps are full of freshness, and the salted egg yolk is oily, salty and fragrant.
Under high-temperature cooking, the fat melts and seeps into the peanuts, mung beans, salted egg yolks and mushrooms. It tastes rich and oily, which is very tempting.
As you chew, various unique flavors blend together to form a novel taste.
Sometimes it is soft and sticky, sometimes it is flexible, and sometimes it is fragrant.
Intoxicating.
Princess Lejia swallowed the rice dumpling in her mouth and couldn't help but let out a sigh.
“Salty rice dumplings are still the best.”
Zhou Ying: "I like sweet rice dumplings. The ones with alkaline water filling and lotus seed paste filling are both delicious."
Princess Lejia shook her head: "It was fine when I was used to it before, but now that we have salty rice dumplings, I always feel that the sweet ones taste a little bit different."
Zhou Ying was not to be outdone: "Sweet rice dumplings are the essence."
Shen Huazheng smiled without saying anything and continued to eat the rice dumplings in the bowl.
As expected, no matter where you are, there are always people arguing over whether rice dumplings should be salty or sweet.
However, many people don’t know that in addition to salty and sweet rice dumplings, there are also salty and sweet double-combination rice dumplings.
Only the double-combination Yuanyang Zongzi is a special existence that breaks the dispute between salty and sweet.
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