For the love of dumplings: Tourists Fu Xin, Cici Chan and Vicky Lee, all 27, visiting a dumpling stall in Cecil Street Market, George Town, Penang. – LIM BENG TATT/The Star
GEORGE TOWN: An increasing number of families here are opting to buy rice dumplings instead of wrapping their own for Duan Wu Jie, or Dragon Boat Festival, this year.
This saw sellers report brisk business, especially for last-minute orders and purchases.
Over at the Cecil Street market, the dumplings, popularly known as chang (in Hokkien) or zongzi, were selling out fast.
Lim Heang Eng, 88, who has had a stall at the market for over 20 years, said demand for the dumplings has increased by 400% during the festival.
“I learnt to make rice dumplings from my mother about 50 years ago, but back then, it was always for our own consumption.
“As demand for the dumplings increased, I set up a stall at the market here in 1999 to sell them.
“Today, most of my customers are regulars and I have five types of dumplings for sale,” she said when met yesterday.
Unfortunately, due to a surgery she underwent last year, Lim no longer makes the dumplings by herself.
“Due to the surgery, I haven’t got the strength to use my hands to wrap the dumplings anymore, so I passed my recipe to my friend who is now making the dumplings for me to sell.
“On normal days, I sell about 500 dumplings, but for a few days before the festival, I can sell up to 2,000 dumplings a day,” she said.
Lim said that the traditional meat dumpling remains the most popular choice among customers, albeit with a 50sen price increase from last year, from RM6.50 to RM7 each this year, due to rising costs.
Among the customers at Lim’s stall was management consultant Ho Pui Hold, 41, who bought a bag full of dumplings for his family in Tanjung Tokong.
“There are six people in my family, including my father, and we have been celebrating Duan Wu Jie every year without fail.
“Usually, my wife would wrap the dumplings, but this year, she has to look after the children.
“Nevertheless, we will not miss out on celebrating the festival in honour of our ancestors,” he said.
Housewife Lim Hooi Hoon, 42, said she would usually make her own dumplings at home but decided to skip doing so this year to focus on other activities.
“It is hard work to prepare the ingredients and wrap the dumplings, then boil them for hours.
“Both my sons, aged 19 and 21, are in college now, leaving just me and my husband at home.
“We decided to just buy the dumplings and focus more on the celebration itself this year,” she explained.
In Malaysia, one of the key highlights of Duan Wu Jie, which is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, is savouring the dumplings with family and friends.
The festival is celebrated to commemorate the poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself about 1,000 years ago to protest corrupt practices in China.
After his death, people started to throw zongzi into the sea to prevent fish from eating his remains.
