DUMPLING or better known as ‘bak chang’ is a well-known traditional favourite among the Chinese community.
Traditionally made from glutinous rice, dumpling is usually mixed with ingredients inside it such as pork belly, roast pork, salted egg, mung beans, mushrooms, chestnut, Chinese sausage, dried shrimp and many others.
It usually receives a huge demand each time the Dumpling Festival (Duan Wu Jie) is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month annually.
The festival is to commemorate court official and Chinese poet Qu Yuan who stood up to the corrupt Chu government in China more than 1,000 years ago. Unfortunately, the patriotic statesman was wrongfully accused of treason.
Later upon hearing that the government was defeated by the Qin Kingdom, in despair he drowned himself in a river.
Legend has it that the people who came to know about the tragedy threw rice dumplings into the river to prevent fishes from eating his remains while fishermen rowed out to try to save him, beating their oars on the water to frighten away the fishes or scare the evil spirits away.
As most dumplings sold in the market and restaurants are non-halal, the Malay community could not partake of them.
But that did not stop a former Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) councillor Mohd Shaipol Ismail, 37, from coming out with a Malay version of the dumpling by using halal ingredients only.
“My own version uses chicken rendang as the main filling for the dumpling.
“For me, the dumpling is almost the same as ketupat, a glutinous rice wrapped in a triangular shape using fan palm leaves while dumpling is wrapped in bamboo leaves.
“The main difference here is the filling; we don’t need any filling for ketupat but for dumpling, we can customise it by putting in a variety of fillings. So, that is the difference.
“Apart from using chicken rendang, I also use other ingredients like beef curry, duck meat and beans to make it tastier.
“So basically, I will use my own creativity to make a home-made dumpling. It looks exactly the same as the Chinese dumplings except for the ingredients,” Mohd Shaipol said in an interview with Buletin Mutiara at his house in Penaga recently.
Mohd Shaipol, who started to learn how to make dumplings when he was a local councillor with Seberang Perai Municipal Council (now known as Seberang Perai City Council) between 2012 and 2018, said he attended many non-Muslim festivals organised by the Chinese community.
“I still remember the dumpling festival in Kepala Batas that I was involved in organising it.
“And I learned how to make dumplings from the traders there. Believe it or not, I managed to make it on the first try and since then, I have developed an interest in dumpling making. I kept practising it every day with different ingredients.
“For me as a Muslim, it is not wrong to make a dumpling as long as we use only the halal ingredients,” he added.
Mohd Shaipol also revealed that he has been invited by state executive councillor Chong Eng to demonstrate his Malay version of dumpling making for the recent Dumpling Festival.
“The event was supposed to be held at Kampung Baru in Bukit Mertajam on June 28 but it has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I accept that offer with an open heart. This will be my first demonstration in public and I think it is a good platform for me to promote dumpling making among the Malay community.
“I want to change their perception that dumplings are for only the Chinese community. They can also be eaten by the Malay community as long as they are made with halal ingredients. So, I want to change that kind of mentality,” he added.
Mohd Shaipol said for now, he has no plan to commercialise his dumplings but did not rule out that possibility in the future.
Story by Riadz Akmal
Pix by Ahmad Adil Muhamad