An Ky Banh Chung, an eatery in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 11 known for its traditional Chinese glutinous rice cake zongzi, has doubled its workforce this week to prepare for the upcoming Duanwu Festival – an annual festival known for dragon boat racing, realgar wine, and zongzi.

Tran Cam Thao and her family, the owners of An Ky Banh Chung, are busy preparing for the festival in the exact same way they have been doing for the past 25 years: ramping up the production of zongzi.

Zongzi, or bánh bá trạng in Vietnamese, is a staple for Duanwu Festival (Double Fifth Festival), which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. 

This year, that falls on June 3 of the Gregorian calendar.

Each ethnic group of Chinese living in Vietnam has their own version of zongzi, but generally the savory dish is made from glutinous rice stuffed with different combinations of pork, mushrooms, and salted eggs. 

The stuffed rice is later wrapped in bamboo and banana leaves.

Located at 170/23 on Tue Tinh Street in District 11, An Ky Banh Chung has seen a flood of customers stocking up on zongzi during the past few days. 

For most of the year, An Ky Banh Chuong employs five staffers, all of whom are family or neighbors, to make banh chung (square glutinous rice cakes), but ahead of Duanwu, the workforce has been double to meet the demand for zongzi.

According to Thao, her shop processes 70kg of glutinous rice to make zongzi each day.

“We start wrapping zongzi at six in the morning, but the glutinous rice and fillings are prepared in advance,” she said.

“The glutinous rice we use is soaked in water and then seasoned. Our pork is marinated with five-spice powder and other spices.

“Some other ingredients we use are salted eggs, mushrooms, and peanuts.”

Thao’s shop sells two types of zongzi. One is a 600g version stuffed with two salted eggs that fetches VND75,000 (US$3.23) apiece. The other is a 500gversion with just one salted egg, selling for VND65,000 ($2.80).

The larger version must be boiled for eight hours, while the smaller one needs only six. 

“I have been buying zongzi here for ten years because it tastes good and fetches a great price,” Hue Nghi, a District 11 resident who pre-ordered zongzi for her family ahead of Duanwu.  

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!