Smoked Duck Or Durian Bak Chang? Where To Buy Rice Dumplings For Dragon Boat Festival 2026

Sticking to tradition

To realise that traditional is best when it comes to seasonal eating is to come of age. Why hedge your calories on some faddish flavour when you know the good old Nyonya or Hokkien zhang that you eat year after year is unimpeachably good. To that end, Joo Chiat Kim Choo has set up about 30 pop-up stores across the island, from which you can pick up your stash of Nyonya rice dumplings (from $7 for a mini dumpling).

Soup Restaurant has brought back its Traditional Hokkien Dumpling with Braised Pork and Salted Egg ($13.90), while Thye Moh Chan expresses its heritage in a Teochew Salted Egg Bak Zhang ($7.20) stuffed with marinated pork belly, shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts and dried prawns.

Different, but not too different

For the adventurous of palate, there is always a host of non-traditional flavours that sometimes hit the spot. Man Fu Yuan’s Black Gold Garlic with Smoked Duck and Wild Rice dumpling ($24.80) was popular enough last year that it’s back for a sophomore run.

Chilli Crab dumplings ($26) also make a comeback at Madame Fan, while Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant introduced a new White Pepper Crab with Scallop and Brazilian Mushroom rice dumpling ($25) this year.

TungLok Group has a new Mala Trio Treasures dumpling (from $8.20) filled with pork belly, chestnut, peanut and red bean.

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore offers a Premium Miso Pork Rice dumpling ($22) filled with miso-marinated pork belly, conpoy, kelp, green beans, black mushrooms and salted egg yolk.

Another dumpling debut that promises deep umami is Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant’s new Sha Cha Chicken ($28), which comes with conpoy, chestnuts, dried shrimps and shiitake mushrooms. It’s available alongside the restaurant’s popular Teochew Beef Rice dumpling ($42) filled with braised short ribs, mushrooms, barley, preserved winter melons and salted egg.

If size matters

It’s not your imagination. Rice dumplings are getting bigger by the year. If you’re embracing the spirit of sharing, it may be worth reaching for a jumbo dumpling, which offers a higher filling-to-rice ratio while accommodating larger morsels of premium ingredients. Peach Blossoms’ Premium XO Cantonese Rice dumpling ($69.80), for one, is stuffed with everything from abalone and Kurobuta pork belly with fermented bean curd to dried oysters, smoked duck, roasted pork, Hong Kong sausage and XO sauce. Dine at the restaurant and you can enjoy the Blazing Pig Trotter rice dumpling ($139, about 1 kg), which comes encased in a clay shell that’s broken tableside with the restaurant’s signature flourish.

Only a tad smaller, at 600g, Wah Lok’s Truffle Abalone and Conpoy dumpling ($32.80) comes with generous chunks of abalone and Japanese conpoy, along with roasted duck, pork belly, mushrooms and salted egg yolk, laced with a touch of truffle oil.

Presented as a rectangular pillow, Crystal Jade’s Jumbo-sized Hong Kong-style Jinhua Ham and Conpoy rice dumpling ($24.80) is wrapped first in reed leaves, then again in a large lotus leaf for amplified fragrance, which might just be why it’s a hit year after year.

Meatless marvels

Even if you’re eschewing meat, you can still tuck into a Nyonya zhang thanks to Shangri-La Singapore’s Vegan Blue Pea Nonya Rice Dumpling with Impossible Meat and Chestnuts ($25.80).

Meanwhile, Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant’s new Vegetarian Millet rice dumpling ($24) is packed with a nourishing mix of black-eyed beans, black fungus, cashews, salted egg and a medley of morel, golden oyster, oyster and king oyster mushrooms.

At Yan Ting, the Vegetarian Glutinous Rice Dumpling ($20.80) comes with mock chicken, preserved vegetables, black moss, mushrooms and chestnuts, while The Fullerton Singapore’s Truffle and Trio Mushroom Five-Grain Rice Dumpling ($20) is a satisfying parcel stuffed with king oyster, matsutake and black mushrooms, chestnuts, plant-based meat and truffle paste.

Sweet delights

For a sweet teatime treat, or dessert to end your dumpling odyssey, reach for a Sweet Purple Potato rice dumpling (part of Feng Shui Inn’s Festive Dumpling Set, $128), accented with osmanthus and the floral sweetness of jujube.

New to Yi by Jereme Leung’s line-up this year is the Quinoa Kee Chang with Raffles Signature Kaya ($30 for a set of five dumplings and a 200g jar of kaya), which sees traditional alkaline water rice dumplings flecked with quinoa for texture and lightness. Dipped in or smeared with a lick of kaya, it is an immensely satisfying treat.

Fans of orh nee will love Hai Tien Lo’s Teochew Rice Dumpling ($15) filled with yam paste, coconut cream, sweet corn, chestnuts and gingko nuts.

And finally, for the ultimate sweet indulgence, look to Goodwood Park Hotel’s ever-popular Steamed Kee Zhang with D24 Durian Dip (from $11 for three) that’s simple yet undeniably satisfying.

Source: CNA

The original version of this story first appeared in CNA Lifestyle.

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