Please elaborate on their differences.

CANTONESE

The glutinous rice is soaked for six hours. After removing the water, it's seasoned with ginger powder, salt, sugar and fragrant oil. It's then layered with meat, sundried scallop, lotus seed, mushrooms and salted egg yolk before it's wrapped in lotus and bamboo leaves. To cook it, it's slow-boiled for about five hours, depending on the size. The shape is like a palm-sized block.

HOKKIEN

Hokkien rice dumplings are darker in colour because it's stir-fried with five-spice powder, along with shrimp, shallots and garlic, until its colour turns dark and emits a fragrant smell. The meat is marinated with seasoning wine and half-cooked with dark soya sauce. The rest of the filling includes salted egg yolk, mushroom and chestnut. For the wrap, there are a few layers of leaves, beginning with a first layer of lotus leaf followed by bamboo leaf, then the rice and the ingredients. It's then covered with another two bamboo leaves and one lotus leaf, and wrapped into the shape of a large block.

TEOCHEW

The one main ingredient that sets it apart from the rest is the red bean paste, which gives it that sweetness. The meat is usually a three-layer pork belly and the rice is whiter than the others. The glutinous rice is soaked for six hours before being mixed with the other ingredients and wrapped with bamboo leaves. 

NONYA

Nonya rice dumpling stands out for the tinge of blue on the rice, courtesy of butterfly pea. The taste is aromatic and sweet too. One of the key ingredients is coriander powder. There are two sets of glutinous rice during preparation. One set is soaked in water with seasoning for six hours. Another set is soaked with butterfly pea colouring. The meat is cooked with coriander powder, gula Melaka (palm sugar) and black pepper. The leaf is wrapped into a cone shape which is first filled with the blue rice, then a layer of the filling, and finally the white rice. 

KEE CHANG

This is one of the more traditional dumplings. The rice is cooked in lye water, an alkaline solution that turns the rice brown. It can come with or without filling. The flavour is oily and salty, and usually in smaller bite sizes. You eat it with kaya or granulated sugar. 

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What do you think of the modernisation of rice dumplings with the inclusion of such ingredients as truffle and durian?

I personally am not a big fan of this. For instance, durian has a very strong taste and it will overwhelm the original taste of the rice dumpling.

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