Bah-Tzang Event

The Mysterious Bah-Tzang Deconstructed

By: Tinna Chung 鍾羽婷

Ever wonder just how a Bah-Tzang comes together to become that satchel full of tastiness? Well, many curious minds gathered together on August 30th to find out. We all met at Wan-Chen Lo's house down in Irvine to learn how to make Bah-Tzang from scratch. Mrs. Lo has been making bah-tzang from scratch for many years now. She generously opened up her home and basically gave all of us a free cooking lesson.

Taiwanese women of all ages came to learn just what goes into a Bah-Tzang and how to wrap it. As Mrs. Lo explained what she used for the filling and how long to cook each ingredient, you can almost hear 10-15 women furiously take mental notes in hopes that they can re-create it later in their own homes. Then once the introduction to ingredients was over, she quickly led us all to her dining room table where everything needed to construct a bah-tzang was copiously laid out for everyone to dive into. We all stared in awe as Mrs. Lo demonstrated to us how to wrap the leaves just so and stuff the rice and fillings, before tying the parcels up with string. Her deft hands were so quick and precise, we had to ask her to show us over and over again because only a few of us were able to duplicate what we saw. I personally had trouble with every bah-tzang I attempted to make. Mrs. Lo had to give me personal attention with every bah-tzang since my wrapping was sub-par. Still, even with my amateur bah-tzangs in tow, I had a lot of fun learning how to make this traditional taiwanese dish. It was great to giggle along with everyone else as we all struggled to get the folding of the leaves correct and figure out together the best balance of sticky rice, meat, mushrooms and chestnuts.

After we had all the bah-tzangs wrapped up, we put them into a steamer and gathered for a feast. Needless to say, the bah-tzangs were delicious! As we munched on our bah-tzangs we had the time to introduce ourselves formally to each other. Joann also took the opportunity to speak more on what NATWA II is about and what our goals were. As the event closed on a peaceful food coma induced note, we were all able to take a couple more bah-tzangs home with us to enjoy!