Dragon Boat Festival Food

The Dragon Boat Festival has a great and rich diet tradition. Let’s explore some of the delicacies, including zongzi, enjoyed across China during the festival.

What Food do people eat in the Dragon Boat Festival?

Zongzi

It is highly traditional in China to eat zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival. Several days before Duanwu, every household makes and eats zongzi, with their interesting shapes and tempting tastes. The shapes of zongzi are varied, such as a long strip with four corners or a pyramid. Bamboo leaves impart their unique aroma and flavor to the glutinous rice. Read further details on Zongzi

Eggs Steamed with Tea/ Salted Duck Eggs

Tea eggs are made by boiling eggs hard, cracking the shells, and adding tea and spices. They're cooked with zongzi. People usually eat tea eggs after zongzi.

In some Chinese places, people have salted duck eggs with zongzi. These eggs stay in salty water 30 - 60 days. Good ones have a mildly salty white and an oily, orange yolk.

Dagao – Glutinous Rice Cakes

Glutinous rice cakes are delicious. The Korean ethnic group in Yanbian, Jilin make them. They are traditional Korean food , people eat it when they get married and during festivals as it symbolizes happiness and well-being. They cook sticky rice with mugwort. Then, they smash the cooked mixture to make cakes. These cakes have a pretty color and taste good and are a little bit chewy.

Fried Eel Slices

Eel is one of the most representative dishes in Wuhan cuisine. The Dragon Boat Festival is the season to eat eel. People usually fry them in oil with ginger and garlic. It is tender in taste, rich in aroma and full of nutrients.

Jiandui – Fried Cakes

In eastern China’s Fujian Province, during the Duanwu Festival, every family eats Jiandui which are fried cakes made from mixed paste of flour and sweet potato powder.

Pancakes

In Wenzhou, which is in the east of China, people make pancakes. They use white flour and cook on a flat pan. Inside, they put green bean sprouts, leek and small pieces of meat. They also add mushrooms to the thin pastry. When you roll it up, each bite tastes different.

What drinks are most symbolic of the Dragon Boat Festival?

Realgar Wine 雄黄酒/雄黃酒 xióng huáng jiǔ

Realgar wine is made by infusin into baijiu or huangjiu. Realgar's main components are arsenic sulfide and mercury, which are toxic. It was used as an antidote and insecticide in ancient times, believed to repel snakes, scorpions, and other creatures.

An old poem says: "唯有儿时不可忘 wéi yǒu ér shí bú kě wàng，持艾簪蒲额头王 chí ài zān pú é tóu wáng。" This means that on this special day, children would carry mugwort, wear acorns calamus, and have a "王" character written on their foreheads with realgar wine to ward off evil and prevent disease.

There's an old saying that drinking realgar wine could keep all diseases away. The realgar wine that people drink usually has a little realgar mixed with alcohol， and they believe that it can fight against some germs.

In the story of the White Snake, the snake pretended to be human and married a man called Xu Xian，but she showed her true form after drinking realgar wine from her husband Xu Xian on the Dragon Boat Festival. Therefore， people thought that realgar could keep bad things and sicknesses away.

Cinnabar Wine 朱砂酒/硃砂酒 zhū shā jiǔ

Like realgar cinnabar is a toxic mineral with some medicinal value. Ancient Chinese believed cinnabar was also a substance of war and added it to cinnabar wine. However it was gradually replaced for various reasons during the Qing Dynasty and is now seldom consumed.

Huangjiu 黄酒/黃酒 huáng jiǔ

As both the realgar and cinnabar are toxic, in infusing wine, only a small amount of them can be added; otherwise, it will be poisonous. And because many are incapable of estimating the exact amount, Huangjiu has been a popular substitute during the Dragon Boat Festival. People always use either realgar or cinnabar wine to draw a "" character on children's foreheads or arms, keep the evil spirits away; meanwhile, the wine can be used to clean and disinfect the courtyard, keeping snakes and insects away.

Acorus Calamus Wine 菖蒲酒 chāng pú jiǔ

Changhua wine (菖华酒/菖華酒 chāng huá jiǔ) was made by soaking the fresh roots of acorus calamus in bailie. Sometimes, acorus calamus was used as the chief medicinal ingredient, added with ginger, apricots, and perilla to make a medicinal wine after being soaked in bailie or huangjiu. The book "Zunsheng Bafang" written by Gao Lian in the Ming Dynasty described in detail the preparation and its usages of acorns calamus wine.

As ancient Chinese believed, acorns calamus had the same function as mugwort in warding off evil spirits and disasters. So acorns calamus wine was popular among the common people during the Dragon Boat Festival. In addition, people would usually hang acorns calamus and mugwort leaves on both sides of their doors, which was a blessing for their families to be safe and healthy.

Note: Drinking alcohol must be in moderation, that is, appropriate quantity. Alcohol cannot be given to children and teenagers.

Herb Roots Soup 药根汤/藥根湯 yào gēn tāng

In Yunnan, people are good at adding Chinese herbs to their food. Even normal families cook with these herbs to be healthy. During the Dragon Boat Festival, people in Yunnan like to eat Herb Roots Soup.

In Pu'er, Yunnan, there are markets with lots of herbs. Every family makes Herb Roots Soup. They mix more than ten herbs with meat and chicken to make a tasty and good-for-you soup.

Note: Need to cook the soup with an understanding of pharmacology, to avoid poisoning.

What are the popular beverage choices for the modern celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival?

Traditional refreshing drinks for the Dragon Boat Festival may not be perfect. In the process of people enriching their lives, they start to like different drinks. Young people love the newest and coolest refreshing drink more. This shows that with the influence of modern ideas, people's preferences change. Below are some popular drinks and their recipes.

Fruit Tea

Dragon Boat Festival, make a sour-sweet tea of fruit tea using ripe fruits. Tea makes you less greasy, better skin.

• Ingredients: apples, oranges, watermelon, lemon, lime, oolong tea, rock sugar
• Method: Add all ingredients to the water and boil together.

Honey Hawthorn Drink

Drinking hawthorn cha during the festival is great for people with reduced appetite due to temperature changes.

• Ingredients: Dried hawthorn, Honey, Goji berries (Chinese wolfberry)
• Method: Place an appropriate amount of hawthorn and goji berries in a cup. Pour in boiling water. Add honey when the water temperature drops to a warm level that doesn't scald the mouth.

Green Tea

At the Dragon Boat Festival, while sitting around the table with your family, brew a cup of green tea to give a nature theme. Continue reading about Types of Chinese Tea.

• Ingredients: Green tea
• Simmer with 85°C warm water.

Rose Flower Tea

The rose flower tea helps your tummy and it is liked by many people as a drink in the time of festivity.

• Ingredients: Rose flowers
• Method: Add 2-3 flowers to a cup and simmer for 3 minutes.

Barley Tea

Barley tea helps with digestion during the festival when eating glutinous rice zongzi.

• Ingredients: Fried barley
• Method: Add barley to a cup, pour in boiling water and brew for 10 to 20 minutes. Optionally, add rock sugar water.

Homemade Lemon Iced Tea

Lemon iced tea helps with appetite, hydration, and relieving heat during the festival. It contains a lot of absorbable vitamin C, which can promote blood circulation.

• Ingredients: Lemon slices, Black tea, Honey, Ice cubes
• Method: After the water boils, add black tea and boil for five minutes. Remove the tea leaves and let it cool down. Then, place it in the freezer for quick cooling until it reaches freezing point, and move it to the refrigerator. Crush the lemon to extract its juice and filter the lemon juice. Add the lemon juice and honey to the chilled black tea, stir well, and finally add lemon slices and ice cubes.

Various homemade carbonated waters (such as homemade lychee lemon sparkling water)

Before and after the festival, lychees are ripe in lychee season. Lychee fruit flesh is sweet and juicy. In addition to direct consumption, it is used to make lychee fruit drinks. Drinking a glass of sparkling water on a hot day is also extremely pleasant.

• Ingredients: Fresh lychee, Sprite, lemon slices
• Method: Freeze the lychee slightly, put the lychee and lemon in the cup, add chilled Sprite, and stir.

Discover more about Chinese Beverages.

• Dragon Boat Festival Facts, History and Traditions
• Dragon Boat Festival Food
• What is Zongzi?
• Dragon Boat
• Dragon Boat Festival Poems