Chinese restaurants at hotels only offer bak chang during this time of the year. And this simple and traditional rice dumpling is usually beautifully packaged for sophisticated tastes. For the good old traditional bak chang, Makansutra will still recommend the great hawkers who offer bak chang all year round.

For the traditional Hokkien bak chang, no one (except those made by mum at home) hawker makes them like Hiong Kee and Hoo Kee. Don't be misled by their names--they are not relatives but competitors. And both clinched a 3-chopsticks rating of "die, die must try", if not you'll regret!

Hiong Kee 's rice is lightly fried with a dark sauce and the smell of mushroom greets you when you unwrap the leaves. Priced at $1.70 with one big mushroom, salted egg, pork and chestnuts, it's worth every cent for every bite. They are located at #02-38, Hong Lim Market & Food Centre.

Hoo Kee is selling at #01-41, Amoy Street Food Centre. Priced at $2 with salted egg and $1.50 without, this bak chang is overwhelmed with the tasty filling of tender pork, egg yolk and chestnuts. The egg yolk is always of superior quality. If the stallholder cannot find good egg yolks, he'll rather not sell his bak chang with egg yolks for the day or even the entire week. Talk about quality! Nancy simply loves the chestnuts because they're "so, so sweet!" But if you're thinking of ordering for the 18th of June, you can give up the idea because it seems that they have already stopped taking orders for that day.

Verdict:

Pine Court's Hong Kong Glutinous Rice Dumpling and Xin Cuisine's Lotus Paste and Ginkgo Nut Dumpling are solid 3-chopsticks, "die die must try" bak chang. For good, old fashioned and unadulterated pure Hokkien bak chang--Hiong Kee and Hoo Kee both receive the star rating of 3-chopsticks!