With Dragon Boat Festival being today, I was wondering if y’all have recommendations for Zongzi (Chinese tamale) in the SF Bay Area? Particularly different regional styles?
My standard go-to is the Cantonese one at Cooking Papa. Its on their menu all year long and one of their better items I think.
Also, the vegetarian red bean paste zongzi from Sogo Tofu in San Jose is clean and delicious (also available year round). This coming from someone who in general doesn’t like sweet zongzi.
Do you like any particular ones?
Curious about other offerings around the Bay Area.
Hard to find retail zongzi, sind the demand is ultra-seasonal. I’ll only eat the Jiaxing style, which I’ve never seen for sale except occasionally from street vendors (zongzi grannies on Stockton St.selling their home-cooked wares). Otherwise I have to rely on my MIS’s, and she didn’t make them this year.
How’s jiaxing style zongzi like?
When do Zongzi grannies on Stockton St show up? Any specific spots? I never looked hard enough so I never spotted them.
Here’s a good description & photo of Jiaxing zongzi. They are characteristically brown in color because the rice is infused with soy sauce, and generally have ONLY seasoned pork as a filling. You can find them in Shanghai year-round.
The Chinatown zongzi grannies appear randomly and necessarily furtively, but generally when Stockton St. is busiest. To tell the truth, I’ve only found Jiaxing zongzi a couple of times around this time of year, but women selling Cantonese style are likely to appear any time of year.
I can’t speak first hand, but several of my Facebook friends like the joong (Cantonese style) from Sun Maxim.
This page has a list of places where you can buy zongzi, some only during the Dragonboat Festival. Use translate
