Red lees duck always means the same thing in the family: everyone is home. Whenever this dish appears on the table, it\u2019s a signal of a family gathering. It\u2019s enjoyed by everyone while we catch up on life.
\nRed lees, known as hongzao in Chinese, is a product of fermenting glutinous rice with red yeast rice to make red rice wine. The bright red paste has a slight sweet, savory flavor that pairs super well with rice. It\u2019s a common well loved condiment in many Fujianese households.
\nAt every big holiday, my grandma would make this dish. It\u2019s a dish that she learned from her older sister back in China, long before our family ever imagined life in America. Now it has become almost automatic: Chinese New Year, reunions, birthdays; there\u2019s always a pot of red lees duck simmering on the stove.
\nThrough this dish, I get a glimpse into the life that my grandma left behind. When she came to the U.S. in 2015, she didn\u2019t bring much with her, but she brought her recipes and culture. Red lees duck was one of them. My grandma is the main reason why I\u2019m so in touch with my culture despite us having little to no relatives in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Red lees duck always means the same thing in the family: everyone is home. Whenever this dish appears on the table, it\u2019s a signal of a family gathering. It\u2019s enjoyed by everyone while we catch up on life. Red lees, known as hongzao in Chinese, is a product of fermenting glutinous rice with red yeast… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,9,29,24,26,4],"tags":[50,44,79],"ppma_author":[198],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alexander-manevitz","category-baruch-college","category-foodways","category-seminar-2","category-spring-2026","category-your-story","tag-food","tag-generational","tag-immigration","clear"],"authors":[{"term_id":198,"user_id":154,"is_guest":0,"slug":"nicolechen","display_name":"Nicole Chen","avatar_url":"\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b60ccd76cf5a19a82711b2c5bec697c?s=96&r=g&d=https%3A%2F%2Fopenlab.macaulay.cuny.edu%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F05%2Fcropped-mhc_openlab_icon_1.png","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions\/275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.macaulay.cuny.edu\/your-story-our-story\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}