Compared with steamed bread, fried food in Shanghai smells like "petty bourgeoisie"

In Hu Xueyan by historical novelist Levin (Xu Ruhong), Hu Xueyan has dinner with You Wu, the boss of Cao Gang, to discuss business cooperation and practice it for his good friend Gu Yingchun. What they eat is food (big dish, western food).

At this point, Xizai has brought the "tail dish", which is the price of a table of shark's fin seats, but Una said that he hasn't had enough. "Fancai really didn't eat, it was expensive and unpalatable." Wu You smiled. "I'd rather spread a plate of fried steamed bread on my head, so I can eat better."

This description indirectly praises fried food, but it may be a bit anachronistic. It is quite possible that in the background of Hu Xueyan's story, there was no fried food in the 65438+60s. It is generally believed that fried food appeared in the 1920s.

Pan-fried is the abbreviation of' sangjimoedhou', which is interpreted as a kind of steamed stuffed bun cooked in oil in the dictionary. This definition is really a bit scratching my head for people who know frying.

Pan-fried is the most representative snack in Shanghai. Compared with frying, fried dough sticks and Tiger Claw are relatively weak, and Nanxiang steamed stuffed bun is a small moth on the stuffing. Most importantly, only in Shanghai can stir-fry be "steamed bread" instead of "steamed buns", and only in Shanghai can there be such a common "stir-fry complex".

Stir-fried dishes first appeared in teahouses, and were considered as a kind of tea food to accompany tea, but it was not what Tang Zhi (Zhou Zuoren) said in Beijing Tea Food.

The role of "snacks that are not enough to eat" and "although they are useless decorations, the more exquisite the better"

Fried oil and water are enough, and this meal is often worth it for vendors and pawns who need to carry hunger. The teahouse where the so-called frying oil was born is not the place where the elegant guests drink tea under the secluded window, but the place where the general public drink tea with the tiger stove (boiling room) where the king fights for boiling water. Beside the tiger stove, there is a stove made of tar barrels. There is a cast iron pot on the stove, and there is a long table on the pot.

A few words aside, Shanghai local cuisine now looks very tall, and the old-fashioned or private cuisine lingering in the clubhouse is actually the same as frying, reflecting that this immigrant city has always been a commercial port with ups and downs on the sea and a heavy taste. After it evolved into an international city, Paris in the East, I could not hide it by forcing me to fly.

However, Levin's writing about stomach upset usually refers to "lokwhe", which is similar to "sakyi" and "lenghok", and "Don't be too full to digest".

Pan fried hot and fresh, with a lot of heavy oil stuffing. Sprinkle sesame seeds and chopped green onion in your mouth, and the aroma is fragrant ... The feeling between lips and kisses is estimated to be comparable to the incisive feeling only when your brain is wide open to read witty articles. Before cooking, you can see the master tilting the pan (this is to avoid the pan being too dark), and the expectation in your heart can only be compared with the bad mood of waiting for your lover to appear.

Therefore, pot stickers are no longer just gifts from the grassroots, but become the favorite of all classes, men, women and children.

Even Zhang Ailing, the ancestor of the petty bourgeoisie, is a fan of fried food.

She handles things in her own order and is not bullied. A beggar once robbed her handbag in Lu Yu, but she didn't take it away for a long time. Once again, a beggar robbed a small steamed bun in her hand, half of which fell to the ground and half of which she took back.

-Hu Lancheng "This Life"

It is said that on September 30, 2008, Zhang Ailing passed away at the age of 88. Mr. Shen Hongfei, a Zen master, and Mr. Chen Zishan, an expert on Zhang Ailing, together with Lu Youming, the chef of a local private kitchen in Shanghai, designed and produced Zhang Ailing Banquet. The name of "Steamed Osmanthus fragrans" is her work "Steamed Osmanthus fragrans", which is fried raw.

Fried-dumpling at Zhang Ailing's birthday party

Gradually, with its popularity in Shencheng, in the1930s, fried food became independent and developed into an independent shop.

According to Mr. Shen Jialu's viewpoint in the book Old Taste of Shanghai, fried dumpling was not originally in Shanghai. His research found that fried dumplings were brought by immigrants.

"So, I want to give the reputation of Shanghai as the most representative food to the fried steamed bread, which shows that Shanghai is an open city and a very inclusive city."

Judging from the origin of Luochunge and Tangjia, the founder of Dahuchun fried dumpling, the birthplace of fried dumpling should be Danyang, Jiangsu. However, due to the change of the world and the transformation of the old city, it is difficult to judge whether the existing fried dumplings originated from inheritance or the return of food from other places

There are different schools of fried dough, including so-called mixed water fried dough (with frozen meat in the stuffing) and clear water fried dough (without frozen meat in the stuffing), and the difference between semi-fermented dough and fully fermented dough. The dispute between various factions is worthy of being the sword Sect of Huashan Sect on the Internet.

Early speculation should be the style of Dongtai Lane near Huangpi North Road in Huangpu District. The skin is semi-fermented, not very thin, and the filling is too thick to add soup. The whole fried food is not very big-in the later years of using food stamps, you need four fried food stamps.

Dongtai Xiang fried-dumpling

Shanghai food stamps are two taels per city.

When the old Shanghainese were young, Luo Chunge, Dahuchun, Wang Sha and Qiao Jiazha were all in this style-Luo Chunge was the business of marketing wizard Huang Chujiu. Among his various business ideas, the idea of "loving Luo and nourishing brain juice" has long vanished, but the introduction of fried pork into Luochunge has inadvertently become a major event in history.

The era of Luochunge is a key time node for fried-dumpling to enter the room, and fried-dumpling has indeed completed the return of the king from teahouse to stall to high-end teahouse in Luoxiangge. Dahuchun, later founded in 1932, appeared on the opposite side and made a ring. Both sides are good at winning and competing, which brings a win-win situation to each other and even contributes to the popularity of fried food in Shanghai.

As for Xiao Yang, who has a large number of fans at present, he is a new school or a reformist, taking the road of full fermentation with water.

Xiao Yang's fried-dumpling is big and stuffed. In my opinion, when it first appeared, it was the pot stickers attacked by many non-brand fillings at that time, which did not pay attention to taste and technology. Compared with these fried dishes, Xiao Yang's gorgeous appearance really gave customers a stunning feeling at that time, and its first store happened to be on Wujiang Road next to Shanghai TV Station. The TV station staff marveled and promoted it vigorously, and became a famous snack in Shanghai for a time.

The author worked there at that time, and I still remember the first time to eat four fried dishes according to the old concept of four fried dishes and one fried dish and two fried dishes. When I saw Xiao Yang's Sixteen Big Bombs, I suddenly felt a sense of collapse when Ding Xie met Zhanbo Fang's last blow on "Great Miracle Day" (big era).

Objectively speaking, of course, it cannot be denied that Xiao Yang's fried dumpling is a new and brilliant food. Now Xiao Yang's fried dumpling is the most popular and has entered the international market, which is by no means a blessing. But Shanghainese, especially some old-school Shanghainese, stick to the harsh and conservative position of gourmets and basically don't recognize it.

Yangde fried dumplings

Some time-honored brands stick to the classic genre style and taste of the old school, but they think that they can't compare with Xiao Yang in the model innovation and development of modern fast food industry such as chain operation, central kitchen and unified distribution. This may also be a paradox between traditional and modern business models.

It is said that there are also masters who have worked in Dahuchun for more than 30 years and insist on adjusting the dough formula according to the weather.

Generally, the weather fluctuates 3-5 degrees Celsius, and the proportion will change. Only the old mage knows this trick.

—— Fu Zongxian, General Manager of Dahuchun Brand

But it seems that it is not the taste and feeling in memory.

Let's talk about the past As far as I can remember, when I was in middle school and after the small exam, I ate the spring cauldron fried raw, and the figures I got were potato chips of various colors. One color is a pot, which is actually orderly in simple chaos. The waiter is not very good sometimes, because he is very busy, and he makes a hullabaloo about to the customers. The chef's white work clothes are greasy and dirty.

However, the bombing at that time was a real bombing!

Well, I admit I'm a little old, but, as the old man in Tang Zhi said:

Although it sounds like an old man, I am quite superstitious about the tradition of romantic enjoyment.

Food always carries feelings and memories. As long as it is not as sensational as "Tip of the Tongue 2", it is always of great significance for everyone to give added value to their favorite food.

Just like the braised pork cooked by grandma, the fermented eggs made by mom, and the bedtime cake group secretly given by dad,

No exceptions!

Footnote to the title: A Brief History of Fried Dumplings is a fictional book, which comes from episode 17 of the hit TV series ipartment 4. This is one of a series of books that Hu Yifei claims to bring to Sanya. The original line is

Of course, I won't just bring this. I also brought its sequel, the second A Brief History of Space and the third A Brief History of the World, and I also sent a set of books to the outside world, A Brief History of Frying.

Footnote 2: The phonetic notation of Shanghai dialect in this paper adopts the Pinyin Scheme of Shanghai Dialect adopted by the first Shanghai Dialect International Symposium in June 2006.

References:

1. Levin, The Complete Biography of Hu Xueyan, Beijing, China Friendship Publishing Company, 1995.

2. Levin, Hu Xueyan, Red Top Merchant, Nanjing, Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, 20 14.

3. Qian Nairong, Shanghai Dialect Dictionary, Shanghai, Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, 2008.

4. Zhou Zuoren, Tea in Beijing, selected from Books on Rainy Days, Changsha, Yuelu Bookstore, 1987.

5. Hu Lancheng, This Life, Beijing, China Social Sciences Press, 2003.

6. Shen Jialu, Old Taste of Shanghai (Revised Edition), Shanghai, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 20 12.

7. Master Zhou, Chun watches the weather to adjust the dough formula, Morning News, 20 12, 17.

8. Tomato and Egg Soup (Dong), "Rare Oriental Taixiang", Evening News, 2065438+April 27, 2002.

9. Fried Steamed Bread, Wikipedia, http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Fried Steamed Bread.

10. ipartment 4, directed by Kevin·Z, written by Wang Yuan, starring Loura and Michael Chen, produced by Shanghai Film (Group) Company, 20 13.

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Source | First from the fifteen-character community Qinling

Author | Qin Ling