Making Cakes a Family Affair

On the 25th of July the plan was to go to the next to the oldest sisters house and make cakes.  Xin Jiao calls them cakes but I think the official Chinese name for them is Bak Chang.

It consists of rice cooked in many different spices, a piece of pork and a shiitake mushroom.  The mushroom has a heavenly taste despite the spelling of the name.  That is all wrapped up into a bamboo leaf and boiled for a long time.  It has the most unique taste and I love them.

I believe this is the cake they use to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival in China.  Xin Jiao is quite the master at making them and this was primarily what she made to sell to business men on the go for breakfast years ago.

Watching everyone working together it was apparent to me that women love getting together to prepare the cakes.  The women had a wonderful day and I had a great time watching them, playing with the child in the picture and letting my butt get sore from all of that sitting.