[Explanation] Coinciding with the traditional Chinese festival Dragon Boat Festival, eating zongzi is a major food custom on this day.
Eating meat dumplings on the Dragon Boat Festival is a major feature of southern Fujian.
In the early morning of June 3, in a meat dumpling shop that has become an old local brand in Quanzhou, Fujian, the owner Wu Fuchun was busy with his family and more than ten employees.
At a time when many well-known local meat dumpling shops have already entered the assembly line to make meat dumplings, Wu Fuchun's family still insists on making meat dumplings in the most traditional manual way.
[Concurrent] Wu Fuchun, head of the old store of Wu's water pills
My grandfather and the others were fishing, and then they started to make these fish balls. Later, if there were more fish, we would make zongzi with seafood and abalone, and it was passed down slowly.
The earliest time in my mind was that my mother and the others started making zongzi and eating them at home.
Later, the neighbors all thought that the dumplings were very good, and then slowly people came to buy them.
At the earliest, I remember using a pressure cooker to press, but later, a team slowly started to make a lot of it.
[Explanation] As a famous hometown of overseas Chinese, Quanzhou's traditional snack, roasted meat dumplings, is famous at home and abroad.
After many overseas Chinese leave their hometowns, the most unforgettable taste of their hometown is the incense of the Dragon Boat Festival.
[Concurrent] Wu Fuchun, head of the old store of Wu's water pills
Because our traditional fresh meat dumplings are for these overseas Chinese, many of us Hokkien are overseas, and they miss the taste of our hometown.
We have done it in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Macau. If there is an epidemic this year, it will be relatively impossible to send, and the freight will not be able to deliver.
[Explanation] In the past, every year around the Dragon Boat Festival, every household in southern Fujian soaked glutinous rice, washed zongzi leaves, and wrapped zongzi to worship the ancestors of the gods.
In an era of material scarcity, meat dumplings with rich fillings are both a respect for ancestors and an expectation for a better life.
[Concurrent] Wu Fuchun, head of the old store of Wu's water pills
Eating zongzi now is (will) recall that when I was poor, it was not so easy to eat a zongzi.
Then when I eat this zongzi now, the taste still recalls the past, just thinking, I am very happy when I eat this kind of zongzi (mood).
[Explanation] Now that living conditions have improved, roasted meat dumplings have long ceased to be a festive food eaten on the Dragon Boat Festival, and have become a famous southern Fujian snack that can be seen everywhere throughout the year.
In recent years, the return and revival of traditional customs have also made more and more young people fall in love with this "ancient taste".
[Concurrent] Wu Fuchun, head of the old store of Wu's water pills
It is our older generation, and my mother is still operating them, so we all continue these traditions and do it, and this year, there are still some changes.
There are also some sweets such as bean paste, which have been improved a little this year.
We will update some new products in the future.
Ke Ning Wu Guanbiao reported from Quanzhou, Fujian
Responsible editor: [Liu Xian]