Where to find zhongzi?

Has anyone seen anything like zhongzi (ba zhang) at any grocery stores or restaurants (suburbs is preferable)? If I can not find any, I will have to try to make them. This is a sticky rice dumpling wrapped in a leaf like bamboo or reed. They look triangular.

Shorty,

I'm assuming you already are aware that you can get these at just about any Chinese bakery on Argyle or in Chinatown. (Just mentioning this in case you don't know that the bakeries are where to look for these.)

If its got to be in the suburbs and you are north, you might want to check with Richwell Market on Dempster in Morton Grove. I have gotten the bamboo leaves there before to make these. Check ahead to see if they have premade zhongzi. If you are west, I think you could pick up some at the International Mall in Westmont.

By the way, they aren't that difficult to make, although getting the shape right takes some practice.

These cakes are traditionally consumed during the Dragon Boat Festival AKA Duan Wu which is held on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese calendar, which will fall on June 2 this year. The cakes resemble the perfumed medicine bags that are worn on that holiday to repel insects (at least so I was told).

d4v3 wrote:These cakes are traditionally consumed during the Dragon Boat Festival AKA Duan Wu which is held on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese calendar, which will fall on June 2 this year. The cakes resemble the perfumed medicine bags that are worn on that holiday to repel insects (at least so I was told).

I found zhongzi in the refrigerator section of a local Chinese grocery store (Tian Lai Asian Mart). Since I did not know if the frozen ones were any good, I decided to buy the ingredients to make Chinese sticky rice. I am not going to attempt to wrap the sticky rice in bamboo leaf this time around.