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9 great places for sticky rice dumplings in Hong Kong as 2025 Dragon Boat Festival nears
These hotels and restaurants are offering a variety of creative savoury and sweet ‘zongzi’ ahead of the 2025 Dragon Boat Festival on May 31
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Each year, paddlers gather at waterways around Hong Kong to race to the sound of beating drums for the annual Dragon Boat Festival. Also called the Tuen Ng Festival, it is observed on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, this year on May 31.
The festival is a time to indulge in zongzi – pyramid-shaped, bamboo-leaf-wrapped glutinous rice dumplings that can be steamed or boiled, with fillings sweet and savoury.
Legend has it that 2,000 years ago, Chinese poet and patriot Qu Yuan drowned himself in protest against the imperial government, much to the horror of local villagers. To stop the fish from eating his body, they threw sticky rice dumplings into the water. Today, zongzi are synonymous with the Dragon Boat Festival.
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In Hong Kong, the most common zongzi are Cantonese-style sticky rice dumplings with traditional fillings such as marinated pork belly, dried scallop and salted egg yolk. Sweet options include red bean and tangerine peel.
This year, some restaurants have given the traditional treat a Southeast Asian twist with fillings such as kaya – a sweet coconut-based jam from Malaysia and Indonesia – and rendang, a dish made with meat, usually beef, stewed in coconut milk and spices that is popular in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Where to get your zongzi fix in Hong Kong
1. Kowloon Shangri-La
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