Dragon Boat Festival

At lunch today, I happened to go into one of my local Chinese restaurants. As I was talking with the owner, she mentioned that it was a holiday in China. It is the Dragon Boat Festival.

I know very little about the dragonboats but racing them seems to be popular around the world. The one thing I remember hearing was that, in China, after the local races, the boats are submerged in the rivers. The boats are brought back to the surface for the next year's races. The restaurant owner was impressed with my having some knowledge of this very popular holiday in China. She went into the kitchen and brought me out a traditional dish for the day.

It was a small bamboo leaf packet. The leaf was wrapped around steamed brown rice which had been stuffed with dried scallop, shrimp, some vegetables and a few other things. The leaf was tied with white string; and for me, it was what I might think a Chinese tamale, about that size too, might be. It was tasty. I would bet that every family in China must have their own favorite stuffing for these.

It pays to learn a little bit about other cultures and to respect their customs.