Chinese dish supports Philippine bakery through pandemic

MANILA — Wilson Lee Flores, a Philippine bakery owner, never thought his longing for the taste of “Mama’s Zongzi” could become a way of earning a livelihood amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past 18 months, the pandemic has hit the Philippine catering industry hard. Lee’s bakery, a time-honored brand established in 1939 in Quezon City in Metro Manila, was no exception.

“Business was not good following a series of lockdown measures against the pandemic. One day, for no reason, I missed the taste of ‘Ma Zhang’, namely zongzi or glutinous rice dumplings with a seasoned meat stuffing (pronounced) in Minnan (southern Fujian province) dialect, made by my mother in my childhood,” Lee, 54, told Xinhua. His ancestors came from Jinjiang, a city in East China’s Fujian province.

Zongzi, usually pyramid-shaped traditional Chinese delicacy wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, is a special food derived from the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. This year, it was celebrated on June 14.

For Lee, recalling and reproducing his mother’s recipe for zongzi

was like completing a gastronomic jigsaw puzzle. Having spent months testing ingredients and methods, he finally wrapped up delicacies and specialties — such as glutinous rice, seasoned streaky pork or chicken, mushrooms, dried shrimp and salted egg yolks — into green leaves, selling them as “wrapped paella” during the pandemic.

“It has become a unique bestseller in my bakery, increasing our sales dramatically,” Lee said. “Some politicians, movie stars and food writers in the Philippines would come and buy zongzi, posting the pictures on social media, which really helped our entire bakery business.”

Mark Nilo Odiaman, a regular customer of Lee’s bakery, has become a big fan of zongzi,

describing the snack with its distinct flavor as “economical and easy-to-carry”.

“It costs 140 pesos (roughly $3) per piece, and there is so much stuffing inside that it could be an equivalent to a lunch or dinner for me.”

Intriguingly, Lee added a touch of Chinese legend to his products. A slice of paper is wrapped around each of his zongzi, with a brief introduction of Qu Yuan, a famous Chinese ancient statesman and poet.

“I know Dragon Boat Festival has been observed to commemorate Qu Yuan, who drowned himself for finding no way to make his small hinterland kingdom better. I shared this story with my customers in this way and they love it,” Lee said.

From boom to gloom, Renato Balida’s suman business, the Philippine version of zongzi, experienced the same trajectory as Lee’s during the pandemic.

Suman, cylinder-shaped sticky rice dumpling with coconut milk wrapped in banana leaves, is a tasty snack for traditional Philippine weddings, parties and festivals.

Balida, 58, inherited the craftsmanship of making suman from his mother. He has been producing it with his wife, Jessica, for 35 years in the coastal Mabini city, Batangas province, south of Manila.

“Our suman, at 10 pesos per piece, sold well in the market before the pandemic. Philippine overseas workers who return from abroad would also bring our

suman to Italy, the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Singapore,” Balida said.

However, the pandemic took a toll on Balida’s suman business, with a plunge in the number of foreign tourists and overseas workers due to tighter border control measures.

Balida’s eldest daughter, Regine, who is in her 20s and graduated from Westmead International School in Batangas City, spared no effort to help her family expand the domestic market with a new flavored suman.

“We still sell hundreds of suman

every day. We are also exploring ways to sell it online,” Regine said. “There are bound to be ups and downs in business. I want to make it better.”