• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Devour.Asia

Devour.Asia

Connie Veneracion explores Asian food, history and culture

  • Tea
  • Kitchen Tales
    • Pantry Staples
    • Kitchen Tools
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Food Trivia
  • Food Tales
  • Travel Tales
  • Search

  • All Recipes
    • Chinese
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Taiwanese
    • Thai
    • Vietnamese
    • Asian Fusion
    • Instant Noodles (Ramen)
  • Tea
  • Kitchen Tales
    • Pantry Staples
    • Kitchen Tools
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Food Trivia
  • Food Tales
  • Travel Tales
  • Pop Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
  • All Recipes
  • Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Taiwanese
  • Thai
  • Vietnamese
  • Fusion
You are here: Home / Food Tales / It’s Machang in the Philippines. In China, is it Lo mai gai or Zongzi?

It’s Machang in the Philippines. In China, is it Lo mai gai or Zongzi?

It’s sticky rice filled with chicken (or pork) and black mushrooms, sometimes with peanuts or chestnuts or both, wrapped in leaf then steamed.

It's Machang in the Philippines. In China, is it Lo mai gai or Zongzi?

In the Philippines, it is known as machang and it is often listed under the dimsum items in Chinese restaurant menus. That the dish is Chinese in origin, there is no doubt. But is it lo mai gai or zongzi?

Lo mai gai is wrapped in lotus leaf and shaped as a rectangle. Zongzi is wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and shaped like a pyramid or a cone. Both are filled with chicken or pork and other savory ingredients.

In the Philippines, machang is either rectangular or triangular. The leaf wrapper does not always look the same.

I think that both lo mai gai and zongzi are sold as machang in the Philippines. That’s why they are sometimes rectangular and, at other times, triangular. That is also why the consistency and color of the sticky rice, and the flavors, vary so much.

How lo mai gai became machang is a mystery to me but I’m guessing that whoever introduced the dish in the Philippines came from either of two towns named Machang in China (one is a town of Qing County in eastern Hebei province while the other is a town of Quanjiao County in eastern Anhui province.

Or, a Filipino first experienced the leaf-wrapped sticky dish in Machang, China, (or, maybe, in the Machang area of Kelantan, Malaysia), did not know what it was called or couldn’t pronounce its name, replicated the dish in the Philippines and decided to simply call it machang.

I wish I knew the correct answer. As that wicked lawyer, Manfred Powell (played by Iain Glen), said in 2003’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, “My ignorance amuses me.” Ha!

P. S. Thank you, Sam, for taking and editing the photos.

Inside my Asian kitchen

Fresh edamame

How To Cook Fresh Edamame (Fresh Soy Beans in Pods)

Herbed spiced butter

How to Make Herbed and Spiced Butter

Chinese chives and garlic scapes on a bamboo chopping board

Garlic Chives and Garlic Scapes: Know the Difference

Asian food tales

Mochi and ice cream. Kaoh. Nara, Japan

Dear Mochi, I Love You So Much I’ve Already Made Plans to Go Back to Japan

Boracay in September

Feasting in Boracay

Alex Veneracion's banh tet

In Vietnam, Banh Tet is a Lunar New Year Tradition

Explore Asia

In Japan, Ordering Food Using Automatic Ticket Machines

In Japan, Ordering Food Using Automatic Ticket Machines

View from airplane window

PAL Flight from Manila to Hanoi Not Permitted to Cross China’s Airspace?

Living room, Green View Serviced Apartments, Saigon

In Saigon: Lunch with Elvis After Moving to Green View Serviced Apartments

April 18, 2012 : Food Tales, Local Dining
Previous Post: « Fresh edamame How To Cook Fresh Edamame (Fresh Soy Beans in Pods)
Next Post: Miso Soup with Bangus (Milkfish) Fillets and Malunggay (Moringa) Leaves Miso Soup with Bangus (Milkfish) Fillets and Malunggay (Moringa) Leaves Recipe »

Sidebar

Asian Pop Tales

Liu Yifei as Mulan | Image credit: Disney

Mulan

Scene from “The Lunchbox” Image credit: Sony Pictures Classics

“The Lunchbox”: When a 100-year-old Lunch Delivery System Goes Wrong

Dumplings and Eleanor's emerald and diamond ring in Crazy Rich Asians | Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

“Crazy Rich Asians” Sequel: Is it When or If?

  • About
  • Privacy & Usage
  • Full Archive

Everything © Connie Veneracion. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.