🍽️ Zhaoqing Wrapped Zongzi

Big leaf-wrapped zongzi with pork and mung bean.

Zhaoqing Wrapped Zongzi is a traditional festive food of Zhaoqing in Guangdong. Unlike the common slender rice dumpling, it uses broad local winter leaves to wrap generous amounts of glutinous rice, skinless mung beans and marinated pork belly, tied into a plump square pillow shape. It is slow-cooked over wood fire for hours so that the fat and bean aroma slowly permeate every grain. Once unwrapped, the dumpling looks glossy and firm, with sticky soft rice, melting mung bean, rich but not greasy pork and a lingering leaf fragrance. Often made around the Spring Festival, it is a beloved gift among locals, best enjoyed warm, sliced open and paired with a cup of tea to savor its hearty, unpretentious Lingnan character.