Updated: The proprietor, standing to the left, rolled up with his wares during the annual Dragon Boat Festival.
Since I'd first seen him, a day earlier, he'd made out a larger, clearer menu for his zongzi ($1.50 each). These leaf-wrapped bindles of glutinous rice, with various fillings, are a traditional food for this festival. The character for "pork," in the first menu item, I recognized at once, but the other handwritten entries were more troublesome, especially as other customers closed in. Ultimately I trusted in the wisdom of the crowd and bought a second, popular dumpling — I believe it was number four — which proved to be shot through with corn kernels and mung beans.
Perhaps some Eating In Translation reader would take a crack at translating the rest of the menu. The rest of us will be grateful, even though we'll need to wait a year till the festival rolls around again.
Mobile zongzi vendor
Main St., Flushing, Queens
The leaf usually used for zongzi (Mandarin name) is bamboo, while the filling inside the sticky rice varies by region. This morning, to celebrate Dragon Boat festival, we had some savory Cantonese varieties (the pinyin is probably joong): one was filled with pork and peanuts, the other pork, duck egg yolk and mung beans. In cross section, the pork filling looked remarkably like a tamale!
Posted by: eddy | June 23, 2012 at 12:32 PM
From left to right translation -
meat (probably pork), red bean (whole beans),peanuts, jojobe, mung bean, mashed red beans, fava beans, white rice.
Posted by: kim | June 25, 2012 at 08:49 AM