Savouring youtiao in Shanghai: Plain, with soup or pork-stuffed?

Nobody can say no to Chinese fried dough sticks, or youtiao

Youtiao sold by the kilos

Among the "Four Heavenly Kings" of a Shanghainese breakfast, youtiao

I must add to Tang's already detailed description: after cutting the dough into long strips, the cook needs to pick up two small strips and stack them together, press a small seven- or eight-inch steel rod into the middle to create a small groove, then twist it into a braid in a bed of flour with a flick of the wrist, stretch it to the appropriate length to fry, and then pinch off the ends. The cut surfaces of the two strips cannot meet, otherwise the youtiao will not puff up; this technique is called "parallel strips" (并条).

Why do I stress this point? Because it is the key to the success or failure of

I have to reiterate: northerners are hearty

Forty years ago, I was walking the streets of Qingdao with my girlfriend around four or five o'clock in the afternoon, and some elderly women were frying

We could not resist asking one of the women, who loudly replied, "We're selling them early tomorrow morning!" It seems that the people in Qingdao also buy youtiao by the kilos and do not mind eating them cold.

Shanghainese are very shrewd when buying

Youtiao

A treat during tough times

Old youtiao stuffed in cifan tastes excellent, but the cooks only serve it to regulars; most people do not have the privilege of tasting it.

When things get tough, a single youtiao can tide over the whole family. Pull the halves apart, cut them into pieces, dip them in soy sauce, and eat them with porridge.

As expressed by fellow writer Xi Po in his piece "Breakfast" (《早餐》): "If I had the luck to be sent to the food stall at the end of the alley to buy youtiao for a meal, the whole family was sure to wait for me to return and eat together. Breakfast then was definitely not as sumptuous and nutritious as it is now, but it was certainly warmer and happier."

Such is the usual shrewdness and family harmony of the Shanghainese. But under the pen of writer Liang Shiqiu, it became something to talk about. See how he describes it in his essay "Porridge" (《粥》): "Breakfast was a pot of porridge, a few colourful side dishes to share, a small piece of fermented tofu sitting by itself in the centre of a plate, a small handful of peanuts scattered sparsely over the dish, one youtiao cut into several pieces piled into a small mound on the plate, and one whole century egg swimming in the soy sauce dish. One could not say it was not sumptuous, but those accustomed to a richer diet would feel hard done by, if it wasn't considered ill-treatment."

Mr Liang must have eaten

No soup? Youtiao to the rescue

There are even tougher moments - when soup is missing from the meal. For Shanghainese, a meal is not complete without soup. This is when youtiao comes to the rescue.

Cut a strip of youtiao into pieces, toss it in the bowl, add dried shrimp, seaweed, soy sauce and chopped scallions, pour in hot water, and voilà - a bowl of soup. Drizzle in a few drops of sesame oil, and it doesn't taste half bad.

Wang lived at the school. I recall a detail in his short story Sunday, when the upstairs residents threw water from their washbasin right into the courtyard, creating a racket. "As I was packing my bags before leaving Shanghai, I found over an inch of white fuzz growing on the back of the mat on the small iron bed!" During the rainy season, this was the gift of the "mystical city" (魔都, a nickname for Shanghai from a 1924 novel by Shofu Muramatsu) to the "Shanghainese drifters".

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Wang's birth, Gaoyou city built a memorial hall, which reportedly won an international design award. Wang spent his youth in Gaoyou, then wandered through Yangzhou, Kunming, Shanghai and other places before getting married and settling in Beijing in 1950. Many of his food essays are set in Gaoyou, Kunming and Beijing, showing deep emotional attachment with the most detailed descriptions of his hometown.

In his later years, he returned to his hometown three times, leaving behind many good stories. After his passing, the people of Gaoyou put together a "Wang Zengqi feast" based on his food articles, and many eateries advertised such feasts to attract customers.

Last year in Gaoyou, I got to taste pork wrapped in cattail (蒲包肉), Wang-style tofu (汪豆腐, braised tofu dish), grass oven cake (草炉饼), fish slices with golden floss (金丝鱼片), stewed eggs in fried rice (炒米炖蛋) and braised tiger shark (红烧虎头鲨) - Wang seemed partial to tiger shark soup. Unfortunately, other famous dishes such as salted vegetable and Chinese arrowhead soup (咸菜慈菇汤), tofu in salted duck egg sauce (朱砂豆腐) and stewed radish with dried shrimp (开洋煨萝卜) were unavailable as they were not in season.

But when I went back to Gaoyou at the start of summer, at the Huifu Jinling Hotel, I finally got to eat what I was after: pork-stuffed youtiao.

Wang-style tofu and pork-stuffed youtiao

Surprisingly, amid the unassuming Wang Zengqi feast, pork-stuffed

I ate Wang-style tofu the previous year and wrote about it. The soybeans and water quality in Jiangsu's Lixiahe area are excellent, and the dried tofu used in Huaiyang cuisine - such as for boiled shredded tofu (大煮干丝) or blanched finely shredded tofu (烫干丝) - is produced there; the quality of tofu is also outstanding.

The main ingredients of Wang-style tofu are tofu and pork blood. In the cooking process, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian oils are used, and the flavour is enhanced with other ingredients such as dried shrimp, mushrooms and lard. After boiling, the dish is thickened twice to keep the tofu from breaking up or burning. Wang-style tofu is a familiar, homey dish, and when paired with freshly baked grass oven cake, it makes for an idyllic scene of laughter over food and drinks, which is worth savouring.

The word "stuffed" (搋, chuai) is a local term in Gaoyou, meaning to clear out something or dig out a hollow and then refill it with something else. The youtiao is cut into pieces an inch and a half long, stuffed with minced meat and other ingredients, and fried again in oil until it becomes crispy. It is eaten hot with tomato sauce or sweet pepper sauce, or paired with Wang-style tofu, for a combination of dry and saucy foods. However, it is a bit of a stretch to say they symbolise the sun and moon; if Wang were alive, he would surely object.

In his piece "Old-time Flavours: Cooking" (《老味道·做饭》), Wang wrote: "I came up with stuffing meat into refried youtiao; I coul

I love youtiao

Wang's friends from Gaoyou who received him on his return said that he loved to visit the market and cook. When unexpected guests came and stayed for a meal and there was nothing prepared, he would work with leftover youtiao, stuffing them with some chopped-up minced meat and pickles, frying them again in oil, and it would become a side dish that would satisfy everyone. The line about the reverberating sound of the crunch is reminiscent of Li Bai's poetic style; after all, a family feast is all about the atmosphere.

Amid the exaggerated noise of a table full of foodies chewing pork-stuffed youtiao, I seem to see a childlike smile.

Wang also used leftover youtiao to make soup. In a letter to linguist Zhu Dexi, he wrote: "Extremely smooth, like Nanjing's Chinese mallow (also somewhat like watershield)."

Under his pen, a simple homemade youtiao soy sauce soup was instantly elevated. Yes, he was always one to make the best of a bad situation!

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as "汪曾祺的油条搋肉".

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