Pan-Fried Steamed Bun

Pan-Fried steamed buns are the local cuisine of Shanghai, and have been the favorite of the patrons ever since they first came into being around a hundred years ago. It is said that during the times of Guangxu Emperor of Qing Dynasty, a teahouse named "Luo Chun Ge" was located to the south of Laji Bridge. It mainly sold clay oven rolls and steamed bun, made improvements upon the cooking processes by putting the buns with meat stuffing into the big pan containing oil and water, enabling the bottom part of steamed buns to taste crispy and yummy.

The steamed buns were cooked thoroughly by not only being steamed by water vapor but also getting fried by oil, thus acquiring the name of "pan-fried steamed buns" and having become the favorite dim sum of both old and young people. In the 1930s, the shops selling the pan-fried steamed buns could be seen everywhere in Shanghai. One cooking shop of the pan-fried steamed buns was "Luo Chun Ge" reputable for its tasty meat juice and the other "Da Hu Chun" (started in the year of 1932) famous for its variety of no meat juice.

The authentic pan-fried steamed buns were round yet small and exquisite. with the top half soft and tasty, the bottom half crispy and oily,and the stuffing inside palatable. When one eats the buns, it would be much better to have an egg and minced green onion soup by hand to mitigate the greasy taste of the buns, achieving a much more special taste.

History is creaed bit by bit, which is also about heritage and culture. Essebced from these pan-fried steamed buns, the history revealed more than just heritage of delicious food,but a strong sense of pride and honor derived from our culture.

Nanxiang Steamed Meat Dumplings

Steamed meat dumplings are famous snacks in the southern part of the Yangtze River, with its origin from Nanxiang Town of Shanghai city. Finely made and given a great taste, the Nanxiang steamed meat dumplings are most appealing for the thin dumpling wrappers, tender and juicy meat stuffing and the delicious taste. A glance at the wrapper would reveal the bright and flowing juice inside, which serves as an extreme attraction to the patrons.

Food is an art.Ever since the ancient times, the Chinese have been skilled at making steamed dumplings, and they gave full play of this skill reflected in the making of Nanxiang steamed meat dumplings. The making of the dumplings is featured by "big stuffing inside thin wrapping,big dumplings instead of small ones" according to the following steps: first, roll the thin dumpling wrapper out of fine flour; then use lean meat as the stuffing without any monosodium glutamate but the frozen soup made by cooking pork skin with chicken soup, aiming to retain the freshness of the soup. After that, sprinkle some sesame or in some cases spring bamboo and crab meat according to different seasons. Finally, the steamed meat dumplings are made-only ten can be made out of 200 grams of flour.

Nanxiang steamed meat dumplings have been famous at home and overseas for their "thin wrapper, big stuffing and palatable taste" and therefore undoubtedly the dominant brand is Shanghai steamed meat dumplings. At present, the Nanxiang steamed meat dumplings have set up nine branches in Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and other countries, introducing the snack of old Town God's Temple to other Asian nations and the world as a whole.

Fried Bean Curd and Vermicelli Soup

Shanghai locals called rice noodles the "thread vermicelli". Fried Bean Curd and Vermicelli Soup actually refers to the fried bean curd soup with vermicelli. Just as the name has revealed, the main ingredients of this dish are fried bean curd and vermicelli, with bean curd leaf rolls added as well if traditional cooking method is adopted.

This snack was created in early 1920s, at the beginning sold at a snack stall and quickly got popular with the mass patrons for the sake of delicious taste yet low price. For decades this snack has gained great popularity and now is available in each food street of Shanghai.

The dim sums are always served with wet snacks by side for Shanghai folks, and the fried bean curd and vermicelli soup is just one kind of the wet snacks. It is said that an overseas Chinese would take a taxi to some time-honored brand shop toejoyabow of steng hot fried bean curd and vermicell soup whenever he stopped by Shanghai, because the feast would make him feel finally home.

Dried Shrimp Meat Noodles Mixed With Scallion

The Dried Shrimp Meat Noodles Mixed With Scallion restaurant, located in Shanghai old Town God's Temple gourmet square is the flagship of Shanghai pastry school of Noodles Mixed With Scallion. Why use the name "Dried Shrimp Meat"? Actually, it refers to pickled and dried shrimps, shrimps that taste salty but fresh.

The Dried Shrimp Meat Noodles Mixed With Scallion have existed for over a hundred years. As the story goes, during late Qing Dynasty, a dim sum chef named Chen Youzhi whose ancestral home was in Northern Jiangsu opened a stall by the lake in front of "Chun Feng De Yi" teahouse of Shanghai old Town God's Temple， selling his finely processed homeland snack Dried Shrimp Meat Noodles Mixed With Scallion and winning good reputation for the special taste.Some patrons who liked the noodles very much gave the noodles the nickname "Snack with scent spreading beyond the zigzag bridge". Very soon the fragrant noodles became one of the most special traditional snacks in old Town God's Temple.

In the year 1958,the stall of Chen was incorporated into the dim sum shop by the lake.Since then the business was booming,atractinga lot of patronage. Afterwards, many shops began to follow suit and spread this variety of snack to other places.

Dry Beans-Wuxiangdou

The Shanghai Spiced Dry Beans were first developed by Guo's Xinglong's Spiced Bean Shop, which were also known as the "Town God's Temple Creamed Spiced Beans". It was said that decades ago, a outlander from another province named Zhang Acheng who fled from famine made his way to Shanghai and set up a stall in the Town God's Temple to sell spiced beans. Though the business went all right, the fly in the ointment was that the beans were slightly half-cooked in addition to his poor service.

At the same time, a person named Guo Yingzhou who came from Jiangsu started his own spiced bean business after he witnessed the hot sales of spiced beans at the Town God's Temple, with the intention to compete against Zhang's business. Guo took another innovative approach by selecting the quality broad beans native to Jiading County and adding to the beans fennel, tangerine peel, cinnamon, sugar, fragrance, etc, so as to make the beans no longer half-cooked but instead crispy yet aitte sof and salty and slightly sweet. The beans cooked in such a new way smell slightly like the cream, thus eaning itself the namereamed Spiced Beans".

Afterwards, Gu Yingho started a spiced bean shop "Guo's Xinglong" inside the old Town God's Temple and sold the self-made creamed spiced beans only. Once upon the start of the business, the sales were exceptionally good and therefore the reputation spread far and wide, attracting customers from all sides to patronize. Before long the "Guo's Xinglong"spiced beans became the household indigenous cuisine of Shanghai with universal appraisal.

Leishayuan Rice Balls

The Leishayuan Rice Balls have been known for seven decades until now. As the story goes, at the end of Qing Dynasty, there was an old lady Mrs. Lei living in No.3 Decorated Archway of Shanghai City, who started a shop selling sweet soup rice balls. One day, she came up with an idea to have more patrons bring the boiled rice balls back home such to expand her business: she wetted the boiled rice balls in the fried red bean flour so that the external surface of the rice balls would be covered in the red bean flour. In this way, the rice balls could be taken away, edible whether they were cold or hot.As this new variety of food was first created by Mrs. Lei, the rice balls were called "Leishayuan"rice balls.

When Mrs. Lei passed away, "Leishayuan" became the famous dim sum of Yongchangmao Rice Ball. After several twists and turns, the name of "Yongchangmao Rice Ball Shop" has been changed into "Qiaojiashan Restaurant", and "Leishayuan" became the famous food of the Restaurant.Afterwards, the Restaurant began to mass produce the Leishayuan rice balls by improving on the process-making the red bean flour into dry flour, sieved with screen of seventeen meshes in order to make the red bean flour fine and smooth, draining the water away from the boiled rice balls and shaking the balls in the plate until the balls turn purple red, by the time when the balls would become fresh and glutinous. They were very tasty.

Later, the Qiaojiashan Restaurant changed the rice ball to the name "Leishayuan", or shaken rice balls as the Chinese name means. The food then became one of the most famous traditional snacks.

Sparerib Rice Cakes

Sparerib rice cake, a kind of moderately priced local cuisine indigenous to Shanghaiese, has come into being ever since 60 years ago. Now, two shops at Shanghai are best-known for making the Sparerib rice cakes, one being "Small Changzhou" while the other "Xian De Lai".

"Small Changzhou" uses the Sparerib of pigs coming from Changzhou and Wuxi as the raw material. The ribs are first pickled with soybean sauce, then quickly boiled in the pot containing mixture of oil, sugar, minced green onion, ginger and cooking wine, and finally well prepared when the Sparerib appear red violet. The well-cooked Sparerib smell pleasant and taste splendid. At the same time, cook the quality Song River rice thoroughly and subject the rice to a repetition of hammer blow in a stone mortar until the rice is fully grinded. Then make the rice into rice cakes of standard size, each rolling inside a piece of boiled sparerib before boiling the cakes in the pot containing soybean sauce and oil. When the cooking of rice cakes finishes finally, take the cakes out of the pot and spread the spiced powder onto them so that the taste of pickled Sparerib and soft rice cakes would blend to a particularly fabulous taste.

The "Xian De Lai" Sparerib rice cake adopts another approach for cooking: Firstly, mix the flour, water chestnut starch and eggs together, wrap on surface of the Sparerib and quickly boiled the cakes in oil. The "Xian De Lai" Sparerib rice cakes appear golden yellow and taste tender, and the surface is crispy and palatable while the meat is tasty and juicy. After that, add sweet fermented flour sauce and hot pepper sauce to the Song River rice. Therefore, a delicious dish is ready.

Five Spiced Wheat Gluten

Five Spiced Wheat Gluten is the signature dish of Shanghai Godly Vegetarian Restaurant. At the beginning, the Five Spiced Wheat Gluten was found not only in Godly but also in many ordinary diners. Nevertheless, the average diners cooked the dish with ready-made gluten made from bean products by adding simple seasoning sauces. In this way, the gluten made was soft and glutinous, but less tasty, thus hard to get reputable.

In order to make the taste of gluten better, the Godly set up its own workshop in 1933 to make cooked gluten and steamed gluten, making a head start against other competitors in terms of raw material. Additionally, the process and methods adopted to cook steamed gluten have been improved as well, and many seasoning sauces added just made the gluten more tasty, creating the everlasting popular vegetarian flavor "Five Spiced Wheat Gluten".

Better delicious taste with appropriate sweetness and of proper salty flavor can be achieved by frying the gluten until it is tough and crispy, adding some seasoning, ridding of the original sour in the bean products and incorporating spiced flavor.