Cute Pop-Up Chinatown Hawker Stall Sells Cantonese-Style Bak Chang Just For Dragon Boat Festival
You can buy freshly-steamed bak chang and savour it on the spot too.
These rice dumplings were traditionally made to commemorate Chinese poet Qu Yuan, who was said to have thrown himself into a river to protest against bureaucratic corruption. To prevent his body from being scavenged by wildlife, his supporters tossed dumplings into the water as a food substitute.
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Pop-up bak chang stall
Despite its grim origins, eating bak chang has endured as a tradition due to the fact that it makes for a darn tasty snack. In the leadup to Dragon Boat Festival, rice dumplings are widely available in Singapore. Options range from funky flavours from luxury hotels’ Chinese restaurants, to humble hawker stalls offering old-school bak changs.
One such hawker stall is called Lao Fu Zi, which is also the name of the classic Chinese comic Old Master Q. What is unusual is that it doesn’t operate year-round, and is instead a pop-up just for duan wu jie till Jun 9.
The stall used to be the popular chicken rice stall Yuan Lang Soy Sauce Chicken Master, which specialised in kampong chicken rice.
Traditional dumpling flavours
Lao Fu Zi offers around 10 dumpling flavours, including ki chang ($1.80 each, yellow lye water dumplings that are typically eaten with plain sugar), Nonya chang ($5.50), bak chang with salted egg yolk ($6), Hokkien-style chao mi zong ($5.50 each, stir-fried glutinous rice with pork wrapped as a dumpling), and a “Cantonese-style, extra ingredients” green bean dumpling ($7.80) stuffed with pork belly, mushroom, roasted chestnut, dried shrimps and salted egg yolk.The menu tags displayed at the stall are in Chinese, but no worries if you can’t read ’em — there is also a handy list with English translations for the various ingredients in the bak chang.
Dine-in available
According to netizen Mario Ong, who posted about Lao Fu Zi on Facebook group Hawkers Recommendations, customers can buy their bak changs for takeaway or enjoy it on the spot. The stall will steam the dumplings for immediate consumption and serve ’em on disposable plates.
Mario, who ordered the “Cantonese salted dumpling”, commented that it was “lukewarm when I received it. The meat in it is quite savoury and the filling is good, but I find the dumpling a bit too sticky to my liking and lastly it costs $6.80”.
Lao Fu Zi is at #02-41 Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre, 46 Smith St, S058956.
Photos: Mario Ong
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