Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings)

Zongzi

　　The flowers in the Zhuang villages come in a riot of colors, the glutinous rice cakes are a dazzling array of hues, and the zongzi made here also come in all kinds of shapes and styles!

There are many types of leaves used to make zongzi. By category, there are leaves from fragrant canna, wild rice stem, reeds, and bamboo. By shape, they include large, small, round, oval, long, and short leaves.

The color of the glutinous rice used in zongzi also varies—some are dyed with straw ash to achieve a grayish green...

From the shapes of the finished zongzi, there are four-cornered zongzi, triangular zongzi, horseshoe-shaped zongzi, ox horn zongzi, piglet zongzi, goat horn zongzi, hunchback zongzi, rooster zongzi, and more. Each has a unique form and is exquisitely crafted.

The flavors of zongzi are even more diverse. Those made with just glutinous rice offer the pure fragrance of the rice. The glutinous rice may be dyed red, yellow, blue, black, cyan, or green, giving the zongzi fragrances that range from light and refreshing to rich and aromatic. Some zongzi are stuffed with cured meat, some with chicken, some with sausages, some with red bean paste, some with rose sugar, and so on.