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Zongzi-Making Champions!

5/28/2014

9 Comments

 
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What a fun Thursday morning we've had here in China! We got a call late last night telling us: 'good news! You don't have lessons tomorrow. BUT, you are going to a zongzi making contest and please be ready at 7:30am'. Hmm, our usual lessons would start at half nine, was this really good news??

Yes, it turns out it was. We took part in the annual zongzi making championships, where a local zongzi champ and a foreigner get partnered up and it's a 'zongzi off' to see whose sweet little packages the judges like the best. For those unaccustomed with zongzi, they are: "an essential food of the Dragon Boat Festival. In early times, it was only glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed or other plant leaves and tied with coloured thread, but now the filings are more diversified, including jujube and bean paste, fresh meat, and ham and egg yolk". Luckily they kept it fairly 'simple' for us I guess, as we stuck to just two fillings: rice and a small dried fruit (zongzi) or two in the centre.

It was a pretty intense competition, and those zongzi are fiddley little buggers to tie up with string! Especially when there's a camera or 10 in your face, capturing your awkward and fumbley attempts. We can't have done too badly though, as me and the lovely zongzi champ who I was lucky enough to be partnered with (team 12 pictured above) came in first place! This was quite a shock to me, as I was pretty sure mine were fairly inferior, sub-standard zongzi, but there you go. Woohoo! So, as Husband pointed out, I am now the 6th Zongzi Foreign Champion for Yiwu (our city here in China) so I'm quite stoked about that. Husband did awesomely too (better than me, I thought), so I'm surprised he didn't get first, second or third place himself. However, we both got some excellent certificates, a cash prize each (one for taking part and one for winning first place), and some tasty lunch, along with a great morning of bizarre zongzi making fun with some wonderful, warm, friendly people.

Here are some pictures of the event to give you a better idea:


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Ok, and onto the running bit: This morning (early early early morning due to our change in schedule - yes, I managed to switch my workout to a 4:30am start in honour of said zongzi event) I was down at the track completing my speed session for week. This was: 1.6km warm-up, then 4x 3.22km at threshold pace with 3 minute rests in between, and ending with 1.6km cool-down. I changed this slightly: instead of the 3 minute rests I carried on running but at a much slower/easy pace for three minutes, and only did a couple of laps of the last set, as I was worried about making our trip in time. All good though. A great, sweaty morning workout, and due to the obscenely early time of the day (which was actually really nice and peaceful, and only slightly unbearably humid and heavy) I had the whole track to myself. Win.




Ever eat zongzi? Have you ever taken part in a food contest? Either making food or eating food?




9 Comments
Amy link
5/28/2014 08:40:49 pm

Of course! I loved those last minute change of plan phone calls! I am super impressed you managed to get a (kickass!) workout in before you went! I always wondered how zongzi were made. How did yours turn out? My dumplings always turn out bad-I just don't have the coordination skills!

Reply
Lou link
5/29/2014 10:53:20 am

I know, right? Everything is always last minute here. Hmm, I thought mine weren't too good - I'd be going awesomely and then I'd go to tie them and a cameraman would zoom in on my not at all great tying skills and I'd lose it completely and would then fumble around for a long while. But, I guess they turned out better than I thought. :)
We've made dumpings with a friend before, but we're yet to make our own (we keep saying we will though - we'd love to put some chilli or other exciting surprise ingredients in them). Hmm, we've been saying we're going to make them for the last year and a half! Better get onto that soon hey... :)

Reply
Kristina link
5/29/2014 01:26:05 am

Mmm those sound delicious!

You look great in your chef's hat and apron! You're a total pro at zongzi making!

Were they filming for anything special? Will we see you on TV?! :)

Reply
Lou link
5/29/2014 10:55:05 am

Haha, thanks Kristina! I wanted to keep the apron and hat hey, sadly they weren't souvenirs :(

I think they were from a local TV channel, so if you've got any Chinese TV channels, keep an eye out! Oh, I think we'll be in the paper too.

:)

Reply
Kim link
5/29/2014 05:01:21 am

I've never heard of zongzi but that sounds like a fun contest - congrats on winning!!!

Reply
Lou link
5/29/2014 10:55:47 am

Kim, it was lots of fun for sure! Thanks!! :)

Reply
dawn @ running the dawn link
5/29/2014 08:48:17 am

i can't believe you didn't get more forewarning than that! you'd think they'd let you know at least a full day, if not week, in advance...

way to go with the flow and have such a great time. and to WIN! that's so awesome!

Reply
Lou link
5/29/2014 10:57:44 am

Yeah, it's a typical thiong here in China, we've come to realise. Everything is last minute! It used to stress me out and annoy me, but then wehn you realise that everything is pretty much unplanned until the last minute (within reason), it is very freeing and you kind of have to go with the flow and not worry about it. Thanks Dawn, I was pretty surprised to have won! :)

Reply
Lou link
5/29/2014 10:58:49 am

Arrghhh, so many typos this morning! Sorry....

*thing* not thiong
*when* not wehn

Need more sleep maybe... :)




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