Aside from enjoying the richness of the Filipino-Chinese culture that dominated this place over the centuries, I also love the friendly, warm people here and of course, a few awesome Chinese restaurants that offer a wide array of Chinese food—from Filipino palate-friendly dishes like noodle soups, bochi and wanton to some extremely exotic dishes like snake soups, soup number 5 and fried frog legs.
But did you know that there is one classic Chinese recipe I started to like since the day I discovered it?
That is Machang.
 |
| Wrapped Machang |
Curious enough about its similarity in shape to Cebu's puso, these rice-base delicacy is far more special. When I was writing my first blog post about Chinatown, I can remember that I brought some home for a taste test. I failed to write about it, though.
Since I asked the boy who's selling them before l left the store, this gives me an idea what's inside of these tightly-sealed reed leaves wrapper. He said, aside from sticky rice, I can also find some small chunks of chicken, pork and shiitake mushroom inside.
Not very known to all Filipinos, machang (pronounced mah-chung) tastes really good. I know it's subjective to say that, but its sticky and chunky texture and its slightly salty, distinct, bursting umami flavor makes me crave for more. This is also like an innovative collaboration of our Filipino adobo and the sticky rice. I am saying "it's like adobo" because machang is usually cooked with soy sauce.
Interestingly, machang is not just popular along the streets of Binondo. By conducting a short research about my favorite recipe, there are plenty of cool facts that make me cherish each time more as I take a spoonful bite.
Machang for Chinese-Filipinos is internationally known by the name, Zongzi or is simply called Zong.
Aside from pork, chicken and shiitake mushroom which are the few ingredients of the zong that I usually eat, some parts of the world have their own versions and names too. In Burma, they call it Pya Htote (not sure how to pronounce it though!). In Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, people call this recipe, Bacang or Zang. Aside from glutinous rice which is the base ingredient for making zongzi, there are also other ingredients that can be added to create more exciting flavors. Chinese sausages, mung beans, dates, sweetened red bean paste, lotus seeds and yolk of eggs to name some.
To wrap a zongzi, different kinds of leaves are often used. Leaves of bamboo, reed, banana, maize, pandan are used in some countries. Depending on the leaves, the smell of zongzi can be greatly affected.
 |
| Unwrapped Machang |
Have you ever though that our favorite Zongzi has a heart-touching story? Here it goes.
Once, there was this poet who lived in the kingdom of Chu in China as early as the beginning of 300 BC. His name is Qu Yuan.
 |
| Qu Yuan (Photo from www.tampabaydragonboats.com) |
During his time, his community was already exposed to some threats of expansionism from the neighboring kingdom, Qin. Because he withholds a strong sense of patriotism, he voluntarily served as an advocate to the king and his countrymen against unexpected attacks.
However, his attempts to promote awareness and readiness to the people failed when his kingdom has ended up falling into the hands of the enemy.
This unsuccessful event suddenly brought him to a great state of depression that resulted to his death by drowning himself in the Miluo River.
The people in his kingdom loved him so much that his loss broke their hearts. Believing that if they will throw packets of rice in the river, this will prevent the fish from eating Qu Yuan's body.
Since the Chinese usually value important people in their community which involves the tradition of commemorating the significant person's incomparable act of kindness, patriotism or wisdom; of course, Qu Yuan's contributions were never left forgotten too.
Every year since the poet's death, the Chinese community started the tradition of making different kinds of zongzi to always remember Qu Yuan. The zongzi festival is called Duan Wu or popularly known as the Dragon Boat Festival which usually falls on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunisolar Chinese calendar. The festival was celebrated on the 12th of June this year.
.jpg) |
| Dragon Boat Festival in China (Photo from www.absolutechinatours.com) |
Since then, zongzi started to get popular not just in China but in some of its surrounding countries too. But you don't need to wait for another year to come to taste zongzi again. Good new is, it's now available any time of the year!
Going back to Binondo where we refer to this recipe as machang, you can find these tetrahedral-shaped rice dumplings almost anywhere here—in Chinese restaurants, in some small stalls along the streets and in almost all Chinese delicacy shops. If you just can't get enough of munching over one piece, then you can buy as much as you want as long as you eat them in moderation within at least one to two days. Its price varies from P30 ($0.60) to P50 ($1) per piece depending on the filling or it also may depend on the store's 'commercial' value where you bought it.
Some of you might be craving for machang now. Whatever you call it, there are different ways how to cook it. You won't see me writing down a machang recipe because first thing, I am not an expert cook; and second, I didn't even try cooking it. However, let me recommend a link where you can check up on one of the machang recipes—click here!
This another-piece-of-shortcake research I made just to satisfy my insatiable curiosity, just taught me one thing: Food is not just something that we take in to feel a texture, to distinguish a taste, or just have something to fill an empty stomach. It would be worth-eating enough once we know more about its history, the details of its every ingredient or maybe how delicate the cooking process is. You might think I'm crazy to think this way, but this is more likely a mind opener—that WE just "don't live with bread alone".
using plastic twine with machang might not be good, as plastic twine is likely to react with heat.
ReplyDelete