Went for my medical appointment and was buying dinner at Feng Food (豐富) when I saw they have Yilan Rice Dumpling (宜兰粽) for sale. Each dumpling (250g - 260g) is filled with glutinous rice, salted egg yolk, pork belly, mushroom, dried shrimp, and conpoy (dried scallop). You can buy it frozen (S$5.20/pc) or ready-to-eat (S$5.80/pc) and even better, you get 15% off on weekdays. I bought the frozen one since I am not eating it on the day of purchase.
After 15 minutes of steaming in the wok, it is time to unwrap the Yilan Rice Dumpling (宜兰粽). As I was peeling the bamboo leaves, the ingredients inside fell out due to the many pieces of braised pork belly and mushroom stuffed inside. The rice was on the mushy side and sticking to the leaf but otherwise the taste was not too bad though it didn’t blow me away with the overall flavours. Then I remembered, in Taiwan, they pre-cooked the glutinous rice separately then wrapped with cooked filling, period. Unlike here in Singapore where we wrapped the raw rice and cooked fillings in bamboo leaves then boil them in water for like an hour and a half. During the 1.5 hours of cooking, the bamboo leaves imparted their fragrance to the rice while fat is rendered out of the pork belly and absorbed into the rice so you get the best of both worlds.
Topmost image courtesy of Feng Food Singapore.
