5 Restaurants To Buy Mouth-Watering Rice Dumplings (Bak Zhang) This Dragon Boat Festival

By Maureen Ow & Sean Ng

Dragon boat Festival (also known as Dumpling Festival) falls on 30 May 2017 this year. We celebrate by enjoying delicious rice dumplings (known as Bak Chang) together with family and friends. Here are some of the best and newest flavours of the season.

Golden Peony

Hands up if you love London duck! Does the ensemble of succulent meat, glutinous rice, and X.O. sauce, sound delicious to you?

From 10 May to 30 May 2017, Golden Peony introduces three new creations of Rice Dumplings to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival. The London Duck X.O. Sauce Rice Dumpling ($18.80) features tender roast duck meat, chunks of melt-in-your-mouth braised pork belly and juicy mushrooms stuffed in soft glutinous rice. Golden Peony’s signature homemade X.O. sauce brings all the ingredients together and we promise you that the dumpling will definitely satisfy.

Also making their debut this year are two other new flavours – a healthy Wholesome Vegetarian Multigrain Rice Dumpling ($12.80) filled with mushrooms and black truffle, and a sweet Golden Pumpkin Rice Dumpling ($8.80). If you can’t forget last year’s Singapore Chilli Crab Rice Dumpling ($18.80), you will be pleased to know that they are back by popular demand! The perennial signature Traditional Hong Kong Style Rice Dumpling ($28.80) is available too. So much treasures in it!

Hai Tien Lo

Come celebrate Dragon Boat Festival with Pan Pacific Singapore Hai Tien Lo’s exquisite collection of rice dumplings available from 1 to 30 May 2017!

Launching this year is the Classic Pork Dumpling with Preserved Vegetables ($16.80/pc)! The harmony of the slight saltiness from the preserved vegetables and the deliciously tender five-spice pork belly makes this rice dumpling a delightful treat! Fancy a healthier choice? Opt for the new Fragrant Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Multi-Grain Rice ($8.80/pc) which features sticky rice cake sweetened with brown sugar that is encased within a nutritious multi-grain rice mix. Perfect for vegetarians!

Don’t forget their signature Traditional Cantonese Jumbo Rice Dumpling ($30.80/pc)! Combining an assortment of premium ingredients including dried oysters, dried scallops, Japanese mushroom, pork belly, salted egg yolk and glutinous rice, this is the perfect dumpling for sharing! Spoilt for choice? Hai Tien Lo offers the Premium Rice Dumplings Gift Set ($68.80) – consisting of all three dumplings exquisitely packaged along with a bottle of Hai Tien Lo’s Signature Homemade XO Chilli Sauce!

Enjoy these delectable rice dumplings either in Hai Tien Lo or purchase as takeaways from the restaurant! Orders can also be placed via email, online or by phone!

Imperial Treasure

What is Dragon Boat Festival without delicious sticky rice dumplings to go along with? From now till 30 May 2017, enjoy a range of exquisite rice dumplings from Imperial Treasure!

The Lotus Paste Rice Dumpling ($4) combines chewy glutinous rice with lotus seed paste filling made from premium lotus seeds. An all-time classic, the Traditional Pork Rice Dumpling ($5) is individually made by hand using top-grade pork belly.

Laden with fresh and premium ingredients, the Dried Scallop Rice Dumpling ($13.80) is the ideal gift for friends and family this festive season. A delightful treat for all meat lovers, the dumpling is packed generously with chunks of dried scallops, roast pork, roast duck, pork belly, salted egg yolk and mushroom.

All rice dumplings are available for takeaway and dine-in at selected Imperial Treasure Restaurants. Don’t miss out on the “Buy five get one free” promotion (available for take-away only) at selected outlets. While stocks last!

Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant

Award-winning Chef Brian Wong of Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel’s Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant is presenting a collection of handcrafted rice dumplings to commemorate the time-honoured traditions of Dragon Boat Festival.

Encased in sweet glutinous rice specially flown in from USA, the East-meets-West inspired Kurobuta Pork with Chestnut & Black Garlic Rice Dumpling ($18/pc, $126/6pcs) is bursting with smoky roasted chestnuts, black garlic and kidney beans, which complement the melt-in-your-mouth braised pork collar which is also flown in from USA. The popular Black Truffle with Cordyceps Flower & Pork Belly Rice Dumpling ($18/pc, $126/6pcs) brings together mouthwatering truffle-infused glutinous grains, cordyceps and succulent pork belly chunks which have been slow-cooked to perfection.

The health-conscious can opt for the nutritious vegetarian 5-Grain Rice Dumpling ($11/pc, $84/6pcs), which comprises fibre-rich grains and ingredients such as turnip, carrot, mushrooms, black fungus, vegetarian bak-kwah and braised peanuts. Chef Wong also pays homage to the revered festival with Wan Hao’s signature Cantonese-style Signature Pork & Salted Egg Rice Dumpling ($14/pc, $102/6pcs). Marinated pork belly, golden salted egg yolk, mushrooms, black beans and chestnuts are wrapped in each pyramid promising a satisfying bite one after another. Wan Hao Chinese Restaurant’s rice dumplings feature more ingredients and less glutinous rice, making these bundles of goodness more flavourful and easier to digest.

Remember to order 2-days in advance! Available from now till 4 June 2017.

Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant

This year, Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant at Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium presents 5 tantalising rice dumpling creations. Each dumpling is a harmonious blend of tastes and textures. New creations include X.O. Sauce Morel Mushroom, Kurobuta, and Sea Whelk Dumpling ($28.80) and Wild Rice, Red Bean, Truffle, and Chicken Dumpling ($18.80). Crowd favourite, Homemade Traditional Dumpling ($12.80), is a time-honoured recipe of Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant not to be missed.

I still can’t forget the Tea Leaves Duck, Fish Maw, and Abalone Dumpling ($38.80) which I had last year. Guess what, it’s back again! The juicy duck is marinated with a blend of Xiang Pian (Jasmine), Pu Er, and Chrysanthemum Teas before being wrapped together with other premium ingredients and encased in smooth glutinous rice. There’s nothing quite like biting into a hot juicy dumpling that exudes a subtle tea fragrance.

To round off the festive celebration on a sweet note, dive into the elegant Snow Lotus Seed Paste and Ginkgo Dumpling ($10.80). The molten lava lotus seed paste is quite addictive and it is completed with snow lotus seed and ginkgo. Have a taste of all five rice dumplings by opting for the assorted bundle ($88), which will be available from now till 30 May 2017.

Enjoy 20% off all à la carte rice dumplings when you order online!