Local delicacies are a family affair when Jiading welcomes the new year
Print Edition
FOOD is a key theme of the Chinese New Year celebrations and Jiading residents were busy preparing many delicacies for the festival about a week before its arrival.
In the past, almost every household in Xuhang Town made dozens of steamed cakes, a popular snack in the town.
Older folk recalled that students and workers would always take some to enjoy throughout the day when they had a spare moment. In the mornings, townsfolk will add them to congee. They were also served as dessert or a treat for visitors along with sweet fermented rice.
Wang Baoying, 70, works with her son and daughter-in-law to make steamed cakes during the winter.
First they grind mixed polished round-grained rice and glutinous rice into rice flour; then mix the rice flour with syrup by kneading. The mixture is then dried in the air before being put into containers for steaming.
Before steaming, dates, walnut meat and raisins are added to the top of the mixture.
The process seemed simple but is dependent on Wang’s rich experience in details such as in the ratio of different rice mixtures, the humidity of the mixture and the optimum temperature for steaming. Her cakes always turn out to be soft, glutinous, scented and sweet.
Wang said her customers are mostly middle aged and older people who are still recalling the tastes of their youth at Chinese New Year.
Zhu Kaiqin is famous in Jiang-qiao Town’s Jiaxing Community for her cooking.
Her Spring Festival task was to make the Jiading Chinese New Year soup with ingredients that included eggs, pork and fish.
Zhu said residents usually choose grass carp or black carp as the major fish source. The flesh is removed from the fish and stored in refrigerator for one hour. It is then mashed before salt, sugar, oil and pepper are added.
A pot with boiling water is made ready and the mixture, formed into balls using a spoon, is added.
Spoons are also used in the making of egg dumplings, with meat added to a semi-cooked egg mixture before frying.
Zhu recalled that it was the smell of the dumplings that attracted her son and he was soon helping her out in the kitchen.
She said that one of the most pleasant aspects of the festival was having the whole family prepare the New Year dinner.
JIADING’S culinary map for the winter season
DONGMING Mutton
In winter, nothing is more comfortable than enjoying a steaming bowel of mutton. Dongming Mutton Restaurant in Jiangqiao is the most famous one for mutton in Jiading District. Its mutton processing techniques can be dated back to the late days of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Zhu Dongming, the current restaurant owner takes over his family legacy and carries on the unique techniques. In 2011, the mutton processing technique becomes municipal level intangible cultural heritage.
The most attractive cuisine there is boiled mutton, which tastes tender. Soy sourced mutton and braised entire leg of sheep are also delicious there.
Address: 730 Jingyuan Rd, Jiangqiao Town
Tel: 6911-9179
Opening hours: 5:30am-12am
Xuhang Steamed Cake
Jiading people will eat Xuhang steamed cake around the Chinese New Year. Steamed cake has an auspicious meaning of going upwards in Chinese with the similar pronunciation of zhenggao. In the past, every family will enjoy this type of cake to welcome the Chinese New Year.
This shop is located at Zhouqiao Old Street and known as “Laoxie Chongyang Cake.” The shop owner Xie Rongguang is a typical Northeast Chinese man but he loves the old pastry technique so he has successfully become the third generation of master of the Xuhang steamed cake. With his efforts, this type of pastry has been listed as the district level intangible cultural heritage since last year.
Xie’s techniques are unique: selecting rice, washing rice, soaking rice in water, cooling rice, grinding rice into rice flour and only the finest rice flour is left to make the cake. Rice dough kneading of this cake requires repeated efforts to make final product elastic and having flavors. The final steaming process also needs to be taking good care of with high fire but slow steaming.
Address: 28 Lane 66, Chengzhong Rd, Jiading Old Town
Tel: 131-6208-0083
Opening hours: 7:30am-5:30pm
New Year Cake
This New Year Cake Workshop is located at Waigang Town and this workshop is known as Shanghai Ganjingwei Vegetables and Fruits Professional Cooperative. It majorly grows kiwi fruit and in winter they produce the New Year cakes which are made of soft and chewy glutinous rice. Their New Year cakes are as good as the good old days of Chinese traditions.
They have two types of New Year cakes: corn cakes and millet cakes each at a price of 10 yuan and 14 yuan per kilogram respectively. Tourists will be able to have an experience of making the New Year cake by themselves with steps such as grinding grains, sifting grain flour, modeling the cakes and steaming the cakes.
Address: Lianqi Resident Group, Wangxin Village, Waigang Town
Tel: 6952-8682
Opening Hours: 9am-5pm
Nongdeng Strawberry
Nongdeng Strawberry Base is the most famous among such bases in the district. The strawberries produced there are regarded as the organic product by the Ministry of Agriculture in China. Strawberries here are also regarded as the specialty produces along with Malu Grape in the district. Nongdeng base has varieties such as Benihoppe and Akihime, which are big, bright-colored, normally sweet and tasting refreshing. They have been favored by consumers for a long time.
Winter is the best time for strawberry harvest and strawberry fans let’s go!
Address: Second Resident Group, Dengta Village, Jiading Industrial Zone
Tel: 5996-9617
Visitors are advised to make a reservation for strawberry picking activities.
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