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This article was submitted by Jared Lo, a student at East L.A. College where he was studying physical therapy. He is the grandson of Hoy and Jean Wong. His interests including dance, motorcycles and baking.

“Jared!  It’s that time of year! Come over and help PoPo!”

My PoPo is Jean Wong, who is married to Hoy Y. Wong. She had called me to help her make “joong,” so I knew it was almost time for the Dragon Boat Festival. 

Her preparatory work is literally a ritual, and I don’t get to see everything because I honestly think she safeguards her recipe.  She is the type of cook that uses “a pinch of this and that,” and then giggles.  So, I, along with my brother Brandon, mom (Janis Wong-Lo), and all my aunts (Fernis, Yennis, Karnis and Elenis Wong) would scribble down her verbal instructions (annually), hoping we don’t miss a step so that we can piece together THE PoPo Wong Joong recipe.

By the time I got to her house, the bamboo leaves had been soaked overnight and each scrubbed clean by PoPo.  Along the counter are bowls of various ingredients: sliced sauteed pork belly, mung beans, sauteed peanuts, hydrated and cleaned large, dried shrimp, sliced Chinese sausage (lop cherung), preserved duck, salted egg yolks that have been halved, and a gigantic bowl of glutinous sticky rice grains.  

I grab my ball of cotton string and two bamboo leaves, placing one staggered over the other with one inch apart, making sure the shiny smooth side is topside.  Now, I fold them in half with the shiny side up and then I fold one inch along the bottom edge of the fold I just made.  I’ve created a pocket that is to sit in the cup of my hand.  And right on cue, without fail, came the retelling of the tale of Qu Yuan as I struggle to keep the pocket in place while trying to fill it with the ingredients.

“Jared, do you know why we make joong?  Let me tell you.  A long, long time ago, minister and poet Qu Yuan, a member of state of Chu royal house, worked for King Huai as a high official. When the king decided to ally with the state of Qin, which was more powerful, Qu Yuan opposed this. He was slandered and accused of treason, then was banished. In his exile, he wrote a lot of poetry of his love and concern for Chu and its people. When the great state of Qin captured Chu’s capital Ying, Qu Yuan, was in dispaired and committed suicide. He drowned himself in the Miluo River.  Poor guy! His admirers raced out in their boats to save him.  And this was the beginning of the dragon boat races. Unfortunately, his body could not be found, so the local people dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so the fish would eat the rice balls instead of eating his body.  Imagine that! And so, this is why we make joong every year to commemorate him.”

Focusing on my joong, I place a spoon of rice and spread it in the bottom of my bamboo leaf pocket. Then a spoon of mung bean on top. Then I place two slices of “lop cheurng,” two slices of preserved duck, two slices of pork belly, and a few peanuts. I omit ingredients I don’t care for – it’s personalized. On top of these ingredients, I scatter a spoon of mung bean and on top of that, two spoons of rice. Then I fold both sides inwards towards the filling. Then, I fold the extra leaves down towards the bottom of the joong – making sure to press everything together. And then my least enjoyable part – tying it all together. I start by holding the string down near one of the edges with about six inches of string dangling, then I make several loops around the joong widthwise, and then make a double cross with the dangling six-inch string…WHOA!  How did my string get tangled?

“Jared, what happened?  You need to wrap the cotton string around the joong tighter.  Look at how I do mine,” PoPo commanded.

She is so swift in tying all the joong. I can’t keep up! A few hours later, we have a whole pot full of customized joongs for every member of the family. The unfortunate thing about this whole process was that it would take three-plus-hours to boil this to doneness before consumption. Patience is not my virtue. I have attached our family recipe if you would like to attempt this.  Good luck!

THE PoPo Wong Joong Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 lb glutinous / sticky rice 
• 1 lb pork belly
• 80 bamboo leaves (2-3 per joong)
• 1 lb peeled, split mung beans
• 12 oz peanuts
• 2 oz large dried shrimp
• 2 pieces Chinese sausage
• 10 pieces salted egg yolk
• 2 pieces of preserved duck (lap ngak)
• roll of cotton string

Pork Belly Marinade

• 1 tsp salt
• 0.50 tsp five spice powder
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp chicken bouillon
• 1 tsp Shaoxing cooking wine

Rice Flavoring

• 2 – 2.5 tbsp salt
• 4 tbsp neutral oil (peanut, vegetable, or olive)
• 1 tsp borax salt

Mung Bean Flavoring

• 1 tsp salt

Step 1 – Planning your time

• Day before morning of production:
  • Prepare the pork belly and let it marinate overnight.
  • Soak, boil, and wash the bamboo leaves, then let the leaves sit in water overnight as well. 
• Production day morning:
  • Wash, soak, cut, and flavor the rest of our ingredients. 
• Production day afternoon:
  • Assemble and wrap our joong with bamboo leaves. 
  • Boil for 3 hours.

Step 2 – Prepare pork belly

• Cut the pork belly (1 lb) into roughly 1-inch pieces.
• In a bowl, add salt (1 tsp), five spice powder, light soy sauce (1 tbsp), chicken bouillon (1 tsp), and Shaoxing cooking wine (1 tsp).  Mix together.
• Place the meat into the bowl and mix everything with a spoon for about 2 minutes.
• Marinate the pork and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or leave overnight.

Step 3 – Prepare bamboo leaves

How to do it:

• Soften the leaves by soaking them in cold water in a big basin for 30-60 minutes.
  • You can make sure they’re all submerged by filling a small bowl with water and resting it on top of the pile of leaves. This way, the bowl will press down on the leaves and sink them into the water.
• Using a wok or big pot, boil them for 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Make sure the leaves are fully submerged in cold water.
    • DO NOT pre-boil water as the drastic shift in temperature leads to more cracking.
  • Cover with a lid.
  • Start out at high heat. When the wok / pot comes to a boil, set it to medium heat.
• Wash each side of each leaf with a clean sponge.

If you’re planning on marinating the pork belly overnight and finishing cooking the next day, then place the leaves in a bucket or big bowl of water so they stay moist overnight. 

Step 4 – Prepare the filling.

A few hours before you’re ready to start wrapping and cooking, you’ll wash, soak, chop, and flavor the remaining ingredients.

• Wash and soak
  • Wash the rice, mung beans (1 lb), peanuts (12 oz), and dried shrimp (2 oz) by filling the bowl with water, massaging and mixing it, and draining the water.
    • Repeat this cycle 2-3 times per ingredient.
  • Soak each ingredient in water for 30 minutes.
  • After 30 minutes is up, thoroughly drain each of the ingredients with a colander, and set them aside.
  • Notes
    • DO NOT soak the ingredients for too long – especially for the rice and mung beans, since they will expand and get softer the longer we soak them.
• Chop ingredients
  • Cut the Chinese sausages and preserved duck (2 pieces each) diagonally into half inch slices, dried shrimp in half if it is too large, and our salted egg yolks in half.
• Flavor the rice and mung beans
  • To the rice, add salt (2-2.5 tbsp), borax (1 tsp), and neutral oil (4 tbsp). Stir it well, mixing everything together for 60-90 seconds.
  • To the mung beans, we’ll just add salt, and mix together for 60-90 seconds.

Step 5 – Assemble the joong

Create the bamboo pocket:

• Arrange 2 leaves
  • Pair a big leaf with a small leaf
  • Lay them with the rounded ends in the same directions and the pointy ends at the opposite end.
  • Lay them shiny side up (one side is rough, one side is shiny/smooth)
  • Stagger the leaves about 1 inch apart.
• Fold them in half, shiny side up.
• Make another fold about 1 inch along the bottom edge of the fold you just made.
  • This forms the corner of your pocket.

If there are cracks along the center of a particular leaf, throw it away (that’s why we boiled so many extra), or you can cover it up with a second leaf.

Fill the pocket

Fill the bamboo pocket with the ingredients in this order:

• 2 tablespoons of rice
• 1 tablespoon of mung bean
• And this is where I personalize it with all or some of the following:
  • 1 piece of pork belly
  • 1 piece of Chinese sausage
  • 1 piece of sliced egg yolk
  • 2 pieces of dried shrimp
  • 1 piece of preserved duck
• 1 tablespoon of mung bean
• 2 tablespoons of rice

Each time you add the rice and mung beans, spread it evenly across the pocket.

Enclose the joong

Fold both sides inwards towards the filling. Then, fold the extra leaves down towards the bottom of the joong.

Tie it together

Using the cotton cooking twine, start by holding the string down with your finger on the leaf, with about 6 inches of string dangling (we’ll use this in the middle to create a knot.)

Make several loops around the joong width-wise, and then make a double cross with the 6-inch string that was dangling. We’ll use this cross to transition – to creating a loop length-wise. Then, double knot the string.

Cut the excess string and cut any excess leaf that you don’t want.

Step 6 – Boil for 3 hours

Finally, fill up a big pot with our joong, and fill it with cold water.

Make sure all the joong are fully submerged and cover the pot.

Set the stove to high heat. Once it’s boiling, lower it to medium heat, and let it cook for 3 hours.

Cooking tip:

The water level will probably drop while it is cooking due to evaporation. Set a timer for every 30 minutes to check that the joong are fully submerged.  Add boiled water if necessary.  

Trust me, this sounds like a lot of work – but it’s well worth your time. Enjoy!