“Beef and lamb tripe mushrooms” added to rice dumplings create a multi-layered texture with glutinous rice

▲ Diverse rice dumpling flavors for the Dragon Boat Festival, including “lamb tripe mushrooms,” combining Eastern tradition with Western taste. (Photo / Provided by the establishment)

Tourism Center / Taipei Report

As the weather begins to feel the heat of summer, it also signals the approaching Dragon Boat Festival. Hotels and major restaurants are creating a variety of innovative rice dumplings, ensuring consumers enjoy a “different” version every year. One domestic hotel has even incorporated “lamb tripe mushrooms” from France into their dumplings, blending traditional Chinese flavors with Western elements.

Chef Kao Kang-hui from the Yiyuan Chinese Restaurant at the Sheraton Taipei Hotel continues the tradition of handmade dumpling wrapping by incorporating the wild French edible mushroom “lamb tripe mushroom” into an Eastern-style dumpling, creating the “Lamb Tripe Mushroom Health Dumpling” that is both nutritious and delicious. Additionally, he pairs Yilan’s premium cherry duck with Cantonese-style traditional cured sausage to launch the innovative “Private Reserve Cured Cherry Duck Dumpling,” where each bite delivers a rich combination of ingredients with glutinous rice.

【Lamb Tripe Mushroom Health Dumpling】
Ingredients: Lamb tripe mushrooms, beef liver mushrooms, black fungus, apricot mushrooms, peanuts, carrots, celery, five-spice powder, salt, pepper.

Using the rare and flavorful lamb tripe mushrooms from France, they are first deep-fried and then combined with apricot mushrooms, carrots, and plump peanuts. These are simmered in a special sauce before adding chopped black fungus and local celery for extra flavor. The result offers a multi-layered aroma from the various ingredients. A spring bamboo shoot from Guanyin Mountain in Taiwan is wrapped in the center to enhance the dumpling’s freshness.

【Beef Liver Mushroom Abalone Dumpling】
Ingredients: South African live abalone, beef liver mushrooms, salted egg yolk, apricot mushrooms, chestnuts, shallots, purple onions, braised pork juice, glutinous rice.

Upon opening the bamboo leaves, the rich aroma of beef liver mushrooms greets you. Chef Kao Kang-hui uses French beef liver mushrooms, some of which are deep-fried and mixed into the glutinous rice, while others are diced and wrapped inside. They are paired with a whole South African live abalone, along with chestnuts, apricot mushrooms, fried shallot crisps, and salted egg yolks, resulting in a uniquely delicious flavor.

【Lily Flowing-Sand Purple Rice Dumpling】
Ingredients: Lily bulbs, lotus seeds, coconut milk, mung bean paste, longan, goji berries, purple rice, glutinous rice, sugar.

This sweet dumpling emphasizes health and natural ingredients, combining purple rice, lily bulbs, lotus seeds, long-grain glutinous rice, mung bean paste, and longan as wellness components—sweet yet not greasy. The dumpling uses round glutinous rice with higher sweetness along with long-grain glutinous rice. The filling blends coconut milk and mung bean paste to create a flowing-sand texture, paired with abundant natural ingredients such as longan, lily bulbs, and lotus seeds. The overall flavor emits a subtle aroma of ingredients and a natural sweetness.

【Private Reserve Cured Cherry Duck Dumpling】
Ingredients: Cherry duck leg, dried cured sausage, liver sausage, salted egg yolk, mushrooms, chestnuts, dried shrimp, Yilan scallions, glutinous rice.

Carefully selected premium cherry duck from Yilan is marinated with aged Shaoxing wine, cinnamon, sand ginger, and a mix of Chinese and Western spices. It is then steam-roasted for three hours using a Western-style fat-sealing method to preserve the tender and springy texture of the duck meat. Paired with traditionally made liver sausage and cured sausage to deliver classic Cantonese flavors, the fresh and fragrant duck fat along with essences released from the liver sausage and cured meat are blended into the glutinous rice, allowing it to fully absorb the essence of the seasonings. It is further enhanced by stir-frying dried shrimp, chestnuts, peanuts, and apricot mushrooms for added flavor.