Do you know the variety and history of Lantern Festival in Shanghai today？
Today is the Lantern Festival. Eating "Yuanxiao" on the Lantern Festival is a custom of China people. The round glutinous rice dumplings symbolize happiness and reunion, and are entrusted with people’s good wishes for the new year. Shanghai’s "Lantern Festival" is divided into northern style, Ningbo style, Soviet style, Guangdong style and so on. There are also many other varieties, such as fermented rice balls, pigeon egg rice balls, "Benbang Tangtuan" and so on. In addition, there are "dry" cooking and "dry" eating methods such as rolling sand balls and dry frying. Let’s get to know it together! See ↓
There are "wet" and "dry"
Various wrapping methods and eating methods of dumplings
"Yuanxiao" is also called Tangyuan, also known as Tangtuan. Its name is different, and there are various schools of wrapping and eating. In modern times, Shanghai was the earliest trading port in China, and people from all over the world brought different kinds of dumplings to Shanghai.
The Shanghai Archives keeps a manuscript of Lantern Festival Words "Yuanxiao" written by an old Shanghai gourmet, which was written by Ms. Shi Jingzhen, an old Shanghai businessman. In her account, the "Lantern Festival" in Shanghai is divided into northern style, Ningbo style, Soviet style, Cantonese style and so on.
"Lantern Festival Words" Lantern Festival "written by Shi Jingzhen (Shanghai Archives Collection)
The North-style "Yuanxiao" is made by rolling dried glutinous rice flour into a round ball the size of a walnut, and its stuffing is made by mixing walnut meat, melon seeds, green plums and red melons with cooked lard, sugar and flour.
The Ningbo-style Yuanxiao, commonly known as Ningbo Tangtuan, is made of soaked glutinous rice flour with lard bean paste or lard ginkgo in the middle. It is smooth, soft and sweet when cooked and has a unique flavor.
Although the dumplings we eat now are sweet and salty, the "Yuanxiao" in Shi Jingzhen’s article is all the same color "sweet mouth", which is probably her personal preference, but it also conforms to the general public’s impression of Jiangnan people.
The Northern Lantern Festival rolled in the basket. Sometimes "Yuanxiao" refers to the northern Yuanxiao, and "Tangtuan" refers to the southern Yuanxiao.
In fact, there are many other varieties of Yuanxiao in Shanghai.
For example, the glutinous rice from Jintan, which has a history of more than 100 years, is exquisite. The quality of the glutinous rice is relatively condensed, and the glutinous rice is brewed by itself, which is sweet but not sour. The glutinous rice is rich and sweet, and its taste is beautiful, which is welcomed by customers. If every long summer Festival, there will be more customers ".
Glutinous Rice Balls in Fermented Rice Wine
Another example is the pigeon egg dumplings, which were originally put in baskets by ingenious vendors and sold in various tea houses in the Chenghuang Temple in the old city. They are small and exquisite, shaped like pigeon eggs, soft, sweet and cool, and the sugar stuffing in the dumplings is full of sugar water, which does not condense after cold.
In fact, there is also a "native" "Yuanxiao" in Shanghai, which is the so-called "Benbang Tangtuan" (also known as Yuanzi and Tuanzi). Most of the "Benbang dumplings" are stuffed with vegetables and meat, and their size is bigger than that of Ningbo dumplings. Four diners who have a smaller appetite will "help the wall out". Nowadays, such dumpling shops can be found in Qibao, Xinchang and other ancient towns in the suburbs of Shanghai, and the business is also good.
Benbang dumplings (also known as dumplings and dumplings)
As for the way to eat dumplings, "they are usually cooked in boiling water. The cooked dumplings taste glutinous and firm, and a bag of sugar soup at the entrance is very sweet." However, the pigeon egg dumplings can be cooked in boiling water and cooled before eating. In the era when there is no refrigerator, a small bowl of pigeon egg dumplings is a good cold food for relieving summer heat.
Dove egg round son
In addition to these "wet" practices and eating methods, "Yuanxiao" also has "dry" cooking and "dry" eating.
The famous point of grinding sand circles is the representative of "doing". It filters out the water from the cooked dumplings, rolls on a layer of bean paste powder, and can be eaten hot or cold. It is delicious and convenient to carry, and is deeply loved by people. The bean paste powder on the sand ball. To make it, first-class red beans should be selected, washed and boiled to crisp, mashed and dried, ground into fine powder, fried in a pot until it is slightly burnt, and then taken out of the pot when the beans smell, and finally screened with a fine sieve. The prepared bean paste powder is brownish yellow, wrapped in "Yuanxiao", which is lovely and appetizing, and has the same effect as the traditional snack "donkey rolling" in northern China.
Leishayuan
Besides "grinding sand", "Yuanxiao" can also be fried dry. Shi Jingzhen recalled that when she was a child, every Lantern Festival, her mother would dry-fry dumplings cooked in boiling water. Watching my mother pour Yuanxiao into a cooked oil pan, stirring and pressing it, she was only as fat as a golden ball, which made her drool. Ask mom to beg for one to eat first, bite it down, and the sugar water is so hot that I want to cry, but I can’t bear to spit out the sweet, fragrant and oily sugar juice.
Fried dumplings
It has a long history and has its own merits.
Shanghai de tangtuan famous store
Most of the traditional Chinese dim sum snacks in old Shanghai are concentrated in the old town hall, especially in the Chenghuang Temple area. It can be said that it was also the "top flow" gathering place of Shanghai dim sum snack industry.
Chenghuangmiao Lantern Festival
For example, the old Tongchun Dim Sum Shop and the old Songsheng Dim Sum Shop located at No.45 and No.46, Yimiao Road, Chenghuangmiao (now Yuyuan Road, Chenghuangmiao) are both famous for their fermented dumplings and dumplings. In particular, "Old Tung Chun" was founded in 1860 and moved to Chenghuang Temple around 1925. Although it is only a small shop with more than a dozen tables, its pork dumplings with sand and fresh meat dumplings are very famous in old Shanghai.
Founded in 1857, "Lao Songsheng" has a longer history. It was founded by a Chongming named Yu. I don’t know if it was made of Chongming wine. Its wine dumplings are very delicious and often attract customers to queue up to buy them. These two small shops are neighbors and deal in the same kind of food, but they don’t feel like "peers are enemies" at all, and get along well with each other.
Registration card of retail enterprise filled in by Lao Songsheng Dim Sum Store in 1963 (Shanghai Archives Collection)
The pigeon egg is the most famous restaurant in Gu Shunxing, No.98 Yimiao Road, Chenghuangmiao. "Gu Shunxing" got its name from people. According to legend, in the 1920s and 1930s, a Ningbo man named Gu Shunxing carried a food basket every day to sell homemade pigeon balls in the tea houses of Chenghuang Temple. Gu Jia’s pigeon egg dumplings can be eaten cold without lard, which is more suitable for summer consumption. Over time, they have become famous and opened stores. After liberation, the public-private partnership, perhaps because of the relatively large scale, both "Lao Tongchun" and "Lao Songsheng" reported to "Gu Shunxing" for unified economic accounting, which was also regarded as the "shoulders" of the tangtuan community in the Chenghuang Temple.
In 1963, Gu Shunxing’s restaurant filled in the retail enterprise registration card, and there was no trace of the pigeon egg in the main products (Shanghai Archives Collection).
Speaking of "Lantern Festival" in Shanghai, "Qiaojiazha" and "Meixin" are always unavoidable. Qiaojiazha is also a "century-old shop", which was founded in 1909. It was originally named as "Yongmaochang Tangtuan Store". Because it was opened at the intersection of Qiaojiazha and Ninghe in the old city, the residents nearby called it "Qiaojiazha", and later simply took "Qiaojiazha" as the font size. "Qiaojiazha" is famous for all kinds of Ningbo dumplings and sand balls. The dumplings produced by its family are diverse in variety, exquisite in materials and fine in operation, characterized by fine powder, thin skin and many fillings, and delicious in taste.
Impression of Qiaojiazha (works by Wang Zhenkun)
Meixin Dim Sum Restaurant, located at No.105, North Shaanxi Road, is another time-honored brand in Shanghai famous for dumplings. It was founded in 1943, and has never moved its store since its opening. It is also famous for its Ning-style lard dumplings and wine-brewed dumplings.
Jin Tian de mei Xin dessert shop
There is another phenomenon in the dumpling circle of old Shanghai, that is, there are many font sizes with the same name. For example, during the Anti-Japanese War, "Qiaojiazha" appeared at the intersection of Ximen Road in the old nanshi and Huaihai Road in the western area, and the latter moved to Xiangyang South Road soon. Everyone claimed to be "authentic" and also featured dim sum such as dumplings. Another example is "Qiaojiazha", formerly known as "Yongmaochang". During the Anti-Japanese War, a master named Li Yigao opened a dumpling shop with the same name on Fangbang Road in Nanshi. At the intersection of Huaihai Road and Chongqing, there is also the "Yongmaochang" dim sum shop opened by Li Fukui, which also features dumplings.
Time flies, and there are many changes in the area of Chenghuang Temple, which once gathered various kinds of dumpling shops. Until the sixties and seventies of the last century, "Gu Shunxing" and "Old Tung Chun" all enjoyed a prosperous business. Now, "Gu Shunxing" has disappeared, and the brand "Laotongchun" has entered Songyunlou, but it is no longer the dumpling but the lard residue wonton that belongs to it. After many relocations, "Lao Songsheng" has now become "Dexing Restaurant (Yuyuan Store)".
Instead, it was Ningbo Tangtuan Store on the bank of Jiuqu Bridge. In the memory of Shen Jialu, a well-known gourmet in Shanghai, it was originally another "osmanthus hall" famous for selling pigeon eggs and dumplings. The business of Ningbo Tangtuan Store is booming, and the customers are full. The "Osmanthus Hall" has merged with Songyun Building, becoming one of the few stores with pigeon eggs and dumplings for sale.
The bustling crowd in front of Ningbo Tangtuan Store in Chenghuang Temple.
Qiaojiazha, which was originally famous for dumplings, has opened many branches, but dumplings are no longer its main product. "Meixin" still sticks to the tradition silently in the original site. Although it also makes other snacks, dumplings are always the first products sold out.
Today’s Shanghainese can easily taste delicious food from all over the country and all over the world in the streets and lanes. Besides dumplings, people have more and more choices for eating. But on the Lantern Festival, it is still the dream of many people to have a bowl of warm "Yuanxiao". It contains more than an unforgettable taste when I was there …
Sweet and waxy dumplings are entrusted with people’s beautiful expectations for the new year.
Information: released by Shanghai
Editor: Chen Weiting
ShangguanNo. Author: Shanghai Jinshan
