Machang, Machang, Machang...

seasoned sticky rice filled with pork belly, chestnuts, shiitake,
Chinese sausage, and crispy-fried shallots and garlic

After posting the semi-authentic recipe for Machang 3 ½ years ago, I never visited my page again until I was told of the plagiarist. I admit the shaping is wrong and maybe the procedure is too which I pointed out on the first sentence. Machang suddenly became a mini obssession for me. I searched for a Filipino recipe online, still no luck, but recipes for Chinese sticky rice dimsum called zongzi are aplenty. And there are several shapes, seasonings, and fillings, including desserts, depending on the region and country; Malaysia has its own Nyonya Chang; take note of the name. Well, if there are many versions, then I guess I can create my own seasonings, shape it the traditional way, cook and wrap them in banana leaves just like the ones in Binondo, Manila. I love this machang; they came pretty close in flavor and texture to the ones I had in the Philippines.

Machang
recipe adapted from here

2 cups glutinous rice, soaked in water overnight and drained
1 tablespoon light olive oil
12 fresh shiitake, sliced into 4 pieces
1 pound roast pork belly, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon 5-spice powder
2 tablespoons crispy fried shallots
2 tablespoons crispy fried shaved garlic
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
4 Chinese sausages, cut into ¼-inch slices
1 100gm packet roasted chestnuts, whole or halved
5-inch wide banana leaves
kitchen twine cut into 24-inch lengths

• In a large pan or wok, heat oil and saute mushrooms. Add pork belly and saute for 1 minute. Add soy sauce, sugar, and 5 spice powder. Cook for 2 minutes, add the sesame seed oil. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pork and mushrooms into a large bowl; leave the liquid in the pan.
  
• To the pork belly, mix in the shallots, garlic, chestnuts, and sausages, set aside.
  
• Add the rice to the pan and stir cook until rice is partially cooked.
  
• Take 2 leaves and overlap the soft sides by 4 inches. Make a cone with the leaves and support the bottom with your palm. Spoon 2 tablespoons of rice, tamp gently, then add the meat mixture; top with more rice, tamp to even the top. Fold the upper leaf down, bring together and fold, or trim excess if preferred. Tie with strings. Steam in rapidly boiling water for 1 hour.

Or watch this video from the same site on how to fill and shape machang/zongzi

Another Day, Another Blog Thief *Sigh*

I was alerted by a long-time reader that there is another blog thief who stole parts of one of my posts, Machang.

Simply Marilyn's Machang was published on September 2010, almost four years after I posted mine on January 2007. I can tell she is capable of thinking and writing on her own and she did a good job of using pandan leaves to substitute for banana leaves.

I can't understand why she had to lift paragraphs and phrases from my post. Again this blog thief just like the first one didn't acknowledge my blog nor the author of the recipe I adapted it from, Martin Yan. Is it a disease among Filipino food bloggers? Or are they just shameless people who want to impress their friends with their culinary ability?

And she has the temerity to ignore the Copyright notice on all texts and photos indicated at the bottom of all my posts when she has the same Copyright sign on her blog. Isn't that incredible? Practice what you preach, you shameless plagiarist! I wonder how many more of my posts are on her blog. I will reluctantly check her other posts, then. I had left a comment on her post asking for acknowledgment both to me and Martin Yan, or removal of her post.

Update: April 10, 2011

Marilyn finally responds on her blog comment

Oggie! Sorry for this late reply, i was so busy with my culinary classes. why are you angry at this posts? I f you are a fan of Martin Yan,then it works the same with me too. We got different versions of trying it out, if you can only read my Phil. version of it which makes it so different from yours. You have to admit that. and please stop pestering my buss. page because of this . My business page has nothing to do with this. you just have to act professionally. you are talking about plagi…I don’t know that we got the same cookbooks.Mine was long time cookbooks from my late mom. This is the first time that i discovered we have same Martin’s Yan recipe. What thought are you talking about? this is Martins. if you can read my own version of explanation indicated on the first part. I was about to update it for sources in it, thus delayed a little while. I don’t like this either. i don’t want us both to do the same of Martin’s, i will only remove this if you ‘ll remove your posts, about my name indicated in your website., cause i can also do the same with you. I will remove my posts not because of about plagi,..it is for the reason of –i don’t want us to have the same recipe. I can make my own kind, im a chinese anyway

My response
First of all, Marilyn, I haven’t been pestering your business page, wherever that is. That is not my style. Read my post comment saying I have already gotten over your plagiarism. However, I got an email late last night informing me that he/she has been leaving comments on your facebook pages just to tick you off. If you are so concerned about professionalism, you should examine yourself. You obviously are in denial of your theft. Overseaspinoycooking commented on my post that you lifted several of his posts also and passed as your own, and that he asked you to remove them. Professionalism? You have got to be kidding me! You won’t recognize the word if it hits you on the face.

May I remind you
These are directly lifted from my blog post Machang without Martin Yan's name.
“I know, this is not authentic machang, The rice is a bit soggy, the seasoning was not thoroughly absorbed by the rice and maybe was washed away by the boiling method. The thing is, the machang was still good, regardless. So I searched in all my Chinese cookbooks for something similar, found one.. His recipe has too many ingredients and the rice bundles are wrapped in lotus leaves”

And these are directly lifted from Machang For Real
“It’s like our native suman, except that it is prepared with pork and chicken filling. It’s more like Chinese adobo in taste.”

You added some of your words, but I have my doubts and now suspect you lifted them also from a book or other blogs, who knows; and I don’t really care. I’ve done my job in exposing your kind, yes the plagiarist kind, to the the food blogging community. I am not interested in your business as long as my blog posts don’t appear in any of yours word for word, thought for thought. As I said on my previous comment, I work hard to write a good description of my experiences with regard to a particular recipe and I NEVER forget to acknowledge the book, author, or blog that inspired me to cook and blog about the food. You have no “right” to be upset because you are the offending party, not me nor overseaspinoycooking. You stole from us and we have every right to be angry at you.

She wrote a follow-up comment

i will remove the posts of Martin Yan procedure and i will do completely a different thing. , just gonna change the whole of it. Did you ever think about the pics. that i have posted?, that was an effort..gonna update it the different way following my own version. you can have Martin. and please, remove about what you have written about my name-if not, i will do the same too. If you are entittled to Martin’s ? why others can’t? it was a reference recipes for everyone. i hope this is clear to you..

My response
Marilyn, do you have a reading comprehension problem. I NEVER said you cannot use Martin Yan’s recipe. You simply removed his name from my original paragraph and I wonder why. You should remove this post entirely or re-write it USING YOUR OWN WORDS AND EXPERIENCES. Is that so hard to understand? Sheesh. And what do you mean “I WILL DO THE SAME TOO”. How so? I didn’t do any thieving, you did!

Why couldn't she just admit her mistake, apologize, re-write her post, and move on. I already did.

A warning to future thieves: Do not lift paragraphs, photos, or entire copyrighted blog posts from this blog; otherwise, your blog and name will appea permanently on BLOG THIEVES HALL OF SHAME.

Machang

I know this is not authentic machang, I don't know its ingredients nor how to cook them. All I remember is it is pyramidal in shape, a little bit sweetish and brown in color. One online site describes them as glutinous rice with mushrooms, pork fat and chestnuts seasoned with soy sauce, sugar and sesame seed oil, wrapped in banana leaves, tied with strings at the top and submerged in boiling water and cooked for 30 minutes. I made a batch yesterday according to that description and was not satisfied with the result. The rice is a bit soggy, the seasoning was not thoroughly absorbed by the rice and maybe was washed away by the boiling method. The photo is on the right. The thing is, the machang was still good, regardless. So I searched in all my Chinese cookbooks for something similar, found one in Martin Yan's cookbook. His recipe has too many ingredients and the rice bundles are wrapped in lotus leaves. Since I prefer the essence of banana leaves and the simplicity of our machang, I adapted Martin Yan's method with the ingredients I used yesterday and the result is very very good.

Filipino Chinese-Style Rice Bundles
2 cups Japanese rice
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
4 Chinese sausages, sliced
12 dried mushrooms, softened in warm water and julienned
1 100gm packet roasted chestnuts, broken into chunks
1 small can diced water chestnuts
banana leaves cut into 3 x 7 inch pieces

• Wash rice well, drain and set aside for 30 minutes, add 2 cups water and boil/steam for 25 to 30 minutes. In a large wok, fry the sausages until brown, drain well, remove the rendered fat and return to the wok, add all the ingredients, cook for 1 minute, then add the cooked rice, separating the grains and making sure the meat, mushrooms, chestnuts and the seasoning are evenly distributed. Spoon rice in a small cup, tamp a little bit. Put 2 pieces of banana leaves on a large platter, lay one across the other, invert the cup on the middle and tap until the rice comes out in one piece. Enclose the rice with the first piece of banana leaf then pull the second towards the middle, gather and pinch, tie with twine or thin strips of banana leaf, making sure the rice is not visible and completely covered. Steam in rapidly boiling water for 30 minutes.

An updated and better recipe is here.