For extra luck, make some joong (Cantonese) or jongzi (Mandarin), which is usually prepared during the festival. Edgy Lee’s Life is Good blog features a video of her mother and aunt preparing the traditional dish (minus salting duck eggs two months earlier), made from sticky rice, bits of meat and nuts, wrapped in bamboo leaves and boiled for hours.

Lee says joong is “reminiscent of laulau but it’s made with pork belly, lup cheung, black-eyed peas, other goodies and somewhere in the midst of these ingredients is a salted duck egg. Two duck eggs, actually, my mother is proud to announce.”
To see how it’s made, visit www.news.pacificnetwork.tv/LifeIsGood/.