Jung

Jung is the Chinese (Cantonese) translation.

This sticky rice bundle stuffed with a myriad of different ingredients (some or all of but not limited to these): pork, Chinese sausage, duck egg, shiitake mushroom, mung bean, dried shrimp.It is wrapped in softened (soaked) bamboo leaves and bounded tightly and tied to hold in all ingredients before cooking. Initially it is boiled for several hours, then can be frozen and then reheated by boiling or steaming (my preference) before eating.

Preparing and making jung involves much effort, patience, and organization. Jung is mainly eaten during the winter season. After steaming, cut the string and carefully lift open the leaves (caution! hot steam), to enjoy a warm and savory all-in-one meal.
Optional: chestnuts. Roast or boil, then peel the skin and chop to smaller pieces to combine with the other ingredients. Chestnuts have a mild nutty flavor. They are soft and dry when cooked.


Optional: dried scallops. Soak until soft, then peel apart into slivers. A little goes a long way in flavor with dried scallops.


Glutinous or sticky rice is short-grained. Once cooked, it is literally sticky and the grains stick together like glue. (Photo shows the uncooked rice.)


Mung beans are small yellow or green colored beans. The beans are cooked before stuffing into the jung, to ensure that it will be cooked thoroughly. The mung bean layer sits adjacent to the glutinous rice before other ingredients are stuffed inside the jung.

Dried shrimp has a very deep shrimp flavor. You don't need much since its flavor is stronger than most of the other ingredients. It needs to be soaked before cooking. Soaking will make it soft and more plump than the dried version.



Chinese roasted pork is a popular type of meat used to stuff jung. Some use chicken. The roasted pork adds immense meaty flavor.


Two or three long bamboo leaves are used to wrap jung. The wrapping style and stuffing ingredients will depend on the region, or from personal preference of how jung preparers were taught to wrap jung. You may notice that the jung in Chinese grocery stores or restaurants will differ slightly from each other.



A sample jung half-way devoured. This is a different type of jung than the ones shown above. This "Shanghai jung" is slightly larger and more triangularly wrapped. Its ingredients are similar to any other jung.