Dish-tasteful

A traditional dish called zongzi is served during China’s Dragon Boat Festival, which falls in June. It is a rice dumpling with a delicious filling, wrapped in bamboo leaves before being cooked to add aroma and flavor.

Zongzi is believed to have originated in China as far back as 2,200 years ago, based on a relic of the dish found by anthropologists and paleontologists in eastern China’s Anhui province, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

More recognizable evidence dates back to the Song dynasty (960 to 1279), about 1,000 years ago, according to SCMP.

As to why zongzi is associated with the Dragon Boat Festival, legend has it that a poet named Qu appeared in spirit to fishermen after his death by suicide and famously instructed them how to cook zongzi to ward off dragons.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong is hosting Sweden’s Disgusting Food Museum at GATE33 Gallery in Kai Tak from 29 September to 26 November.

Daring foodies can taste any of the more than 80 unusual and polarizing foods from 35 countries that are exhibited there.

As the exhibit’s name suggests, the showcased foods are disgusting. There is Sweden’s sheep’s milk cheese replete with live larvae, Peruvian frog juice, Mongolian sheep eyeball juice, Rocky Mountain oysters, or deep-fried bull testicles.

Exhibitors expect some guests’ stomachs to turn inside out during taste tests, so vomit bags are provided.