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Old school Shanghai breakfast
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TO truly understand what a city is made of, try to taste it.
In Shanghai, a good day starts with a good breakfast, and most Shanghainese will pick one of the “Si Da Jin Gang,” literally “Four Devarajas” in English. The name describes the four gods in Buddhism that guard temples, and, just like they are a constant there, the Si Da Jing Gang are staple dishes in Shanghainese breakfast culture. Walk around the streets and lanes of Shanghai in the early morning and you will find locals bent over a plate of dabing (big breadcake), youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks), doujiang (soybean milk) and cifan (glutinous rice).
Different from the rich morning tea sets popular among the Guangdong people or the filling breakfast set with baked pancake and steamed cornbread that’s widely popular in the north of China, a Shanghai-style home-made breakfast is traditionally quite plain. A pot of porridge made of leftover rice from the previous night’s supper accompanied with pickled vegetables in soysauce is a quick breakfast for ordinary morning in many households.
The rise of the “four devarajas” in the city started more than 100 years ago when breakfast stalls became common around the small lanes and alleyways of the city’s lilongs.
These stalls were usually called “dabing tan” (big breadcake stalls), though they usually sold other types of breakfast as well. As opposed to today’s “grab-and-go” breakfasts, the Shanghainese back then enjoyed the first meal of the day by taking the time to sit down at these little gathering spots. Most had small tables and benches outdoors where the customers could sit and exchange the day’s latest news.
The stalls are not only popular among the nearby residents, but also travelers who happened to pass by, and stalls at travel hubs like bus or train stations saw their businesses flourish quickly.
A typical Shanghai-style glutinous rice ball is usually filled with dried meat floss and a folded deep-fried dough stick, spread with both salt and sugar to enrich the flavor. Folded breadcakes with a deep-fried dough stick in between are also popular. However, in some people’s view, folding the deep-fried dough sticks is a recklessly waste. As Shanghai writer Eileen Chang put it at the time, “eating youtiao is to eat the air within the sticks.”
Back then, being able to roam the streets with a complete pack of all four devarajas on a Sunday morning would have filled children with pride. In most cases, however, the little ones were just sent out to buy one of them and take it back home to supplement the home-made breakfast.
With their long tradition, the names of four Devarajas are also used to describe more than just the breakfast.
“Lao youtiao,” literally old deep-fried dough sticks, is often used in Shanghai dialects to describe a person who is smooth-tongued, drifting along and turning a deaf ear to criticisms. “Dabing lian,” literally big breadcake face, is often used to mock a person with a big, round face. “Cifan gao,” literally glutinous rice cake, is used to complain about an ill-tempered person who quickly annoys others.
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