Xincheng Pork Rice Dumplings 忻城肉粽

Xincheng Pork Rice Dumplings (忻城肉粽) are zongzi from Xincheng (忻城) county in Laibin (来宾), Guangxi: glutinous rice, mung beans and pork belly wrapped in zongzi leaves, made as triangular parcels at the county's zongzi-wrapping contest.

How it is made

Xincheng's contestants wrap in this order: fold the leaf, add rice, lay in the meat, add more rice, close the parcel tightly and tie it with string. The fillings are glistening glutinous rice, round mung beans and streaky pork belly with both fat and lean, all inside fragrant zongzi leaves.

A well-made parcel does not leak, is tightly wrapped and regular in shape, and matches the others in size. Those are the standards Xincheng's zongzi-wrapping contest uses to decide which parcels count.

Where it comes from

Xincheng greets the Dragon Boat Festival (端午节) with a public zongzi-wrapping contest. The 2021 contest was held on 11 June at the county's central culture square, organised by the Xincheng culture, radio, television and tourism bureau together with the county's rural credit cooperative, and more than 100 people entered its heats and final.

Each contestant had five minutes to wrap triangular zongzi, judged on number, speed, quality and appearance. Some entrants were taking part for the first time, while others had come back for several contests in a row. The first prize went to Luo Guilan (罗桂兰) of Xinxu (新圩) township.