Guangli rice dumplings survive a century, taste intact
Print Edition
GUANGLI zongzi, glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves, might be the most famous local snack of Songjiang’s Sijing Town.
They started as a snack produced in the town’s Yanshou Patisserie, which was established in 1893 and run by Zhou Guangli and his wife.
For more than a century, the dumpling has maintained its popularity in Songjiang and neighboring districts of Shanghai.
In the early 1920s, branches of the shop opened in downtown areas such as Xujiahui and Nanjing Road East.
Guangli zongzi is different from the typical pyramid-shaped glutinous rice dumplings. It is rectangular and held together with straw strings instead of bamboo leaves. Each one weighs about 50 grams.
The filling is made with a combination of lean and fatty minced meat. The zongzi are neither greasy nor chewy because the lean and the fat blend to a perfect tenderness.
The dumplings cook in a soup stock enhanced by age. Fresh water is being added from time to time, but the basic stock is never changed.
Today in Shanghai, the traditional Guangli zongzi still survive. The original recipe was handed down to Wang Peihua, who runs a small bistro in Sijing, specializing in the dumplings. But she now has a rival in the nearby Zhang Xiaomei’s zongzi shop.
“They are both delicious,” a 70-year-old customer said of the two vendors. “I don’t see much difference between them. They both evoke a taste of my childhood.”
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