Speaking of dim sum in Shanghai, "Wang Jia Sha", located at 805 Nanjing West Road, is self-proclaimed. The ingredients of Wangjiasha Dim Sum are fresh, well-made and affordable, and have always been well received by people from all walks of life in Shanghai. In 1992, Wu Bangguo, then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, came to inspect the store and wrote with a pen that "carry forward the characteristics and drink the world's reputation.".
Figure 1 Wangjiasha General Store, No. 805 Nanjing Road
Figure 2 Dim sum Yuanwang Jiasha
The creation of Wang Jiasha
Yao Zichu, the founder of Wang Jiasha, was originally the head of the advertising section of the "Declaration". In 1940, Japan declared all-out war on Europe and the United States and occupied the British and French Concessions in Shanghai. On December 6, 1942, the Japanese Navy took over the Declaration in the name of the "Military Control Commission" and appointed the traitor Chen Bingong as its president. Unwilling to be controlled by him, Yao Zichu clashed with him and left the "Declaration" newspaper.
After Yao Zichu left the "Declaration" agency, he took a stake in a lighting shop opened by his concubine brother Zou Shi at No. 805 Nanjing West Road. At that time, the main customer group of the lighting store was foreigners in Shanghai. At the end of the Second World War, lighting shops were in dismal business and could no longer make ends meet. Coupled with internal and external troubles, the domestic situation was turbulent, and the Zou family fled with money. Yao Zichu considered reorganizing the lighting store in order to make a living. They saw that the raw fried steamed buns and shortbreads of the "Yuanyuanxiang Snack Bar" in Meilong Town at that time were very popular with the public, so they came up with the idea of opening a dim sum shop.
On April 5, 1945, the Wong Ka Ke Dim Sum Shop was officially opened at No. 805 Nanjing West Road, the original site of the lighting store.
Picture 3 Wang Jia Sha Dim Sum Restaurant opened
The origin of the name of the store
Location is crucial for a dim sum shop, when the store was surrounded by the real estate of Far East real estate tycoon Hartung, surrounded by high-end residential buildings such as Fu Building, Deyi, Taixing, etc. Yao Zichu hoped to reflect the characteristics and explain the location of his shop when naming the dim sum shop.
"Wang Jia Kui" is a well-known district name in Shanghai, which refers to the intersection of Nanjing West Road and Shimen Road and the vicinity of the area. Jing'an Temple Road (Nanjing West Road), Kade Road (Shimen 2nd Road), Tongfu Road (Shimen 1st Road), Aiwenyi Road (Beijing West Road), etc. were surrounded by a central area, and the vicinity was the high-end office and commercial area and high-end residential area of Shanghai at that time, which was an excellent location for catering and business. In 1899, the Western powers massively expanded the public concession, and Wong Ka Tsuen was included in the concession, so that only the local residents knew the name of the place.
Figure 4 S-shaped sky bridge in Wangjiasha area
"Sha" and "厍" are harmonized in the Wu dialect, pronounced as "suo", and "厍" is the most common local name, which is synonymous with "village". Historically, Shanghai was a water town in Jiangnan, with canals and ponds. The current Shimen Road and Ruijin Road were historically a river called "Donglupu" or "Shupu", which was a tributary of the Wusong River. On the west side of Donglupu there is a small tributary called "Wangjiagang", when Wangjiagang was filled in, it became a residential area, so the east side was called "East Wangjia Lane" and the west side was called "West Wangjia Lane". Wangjiasha's first store was set up at the intersection of Shimen Road in Nanjing West Road, where there was originally a village called "Wang Jia Kui", so it was named after the place name.
In Shanghainese, the word "厍" is harmonized with "she" and "sand", and it is a cold and remote word, considering that ordinary people do not necessarily know, in order to make the name of the store not be misread, the word "厍" was changed to the word "sand", and finally named "Wangjiasha Dim Sum Shop". Since then, the name Wang Jiasha has become more and more loud. Later, because of its good location and loud store name, the original dim sum chefs of Yuanyuanxiang jumped out of the store, and Wang Jiasha became increasingly prosperous.
Fig. 5 Wang Jiasha and Wang Jiaxuan
Break through the jackpot
Fresh and brine fresh meat raw frying, tender and delicious shrimp meat wontons, crisp and delicious bean paste shortbread, crisp and loose two-sided yellow, Wang Jiasha relies on these "four famous Dan" to establish a foothold in Shanghai Beach.
In 1956, in the public-private partnership plan policy, Wang Jiasha became a joint venture. After many accidents and changes, Wang Jiasha's dim sum still maintains a high production standard and is welcomed by people from all walks of life in Shanghai.
In the late 1980s, under the impact of foreign brands such as KFC and McDonald's, wangjiasha's traditional dim sum business fell into crisis. Wang Jiasha's management began to look for a breakthrough in the development of the enterprise. The company's management found that Jiangsu and Zhejiang people like to eat shrimp and crabs, and they wanted to turn the shrimp and crab dinner into a table snack. Shrimp wontons have been Wang Jiasha's famous snacks before, and Wang Jiasha has begun to try to develop crab powder cages and crab powder soup balls, and soon, these new products are all on the beach.
In order to show the freshness of the ingredients to the diners, General Manager Wang Jiasha asked the staff to dismantle crab powder and peel shrimp in the diners every day, attracting diners to stop and watch. A reporter from the Xinmin Evening News published the photo in the newspaper, and Wang Jiasha once again became the focus of public attention. Crab powder soup dumplings this new product rescued Wang Jiasha at that time, taking advantage of the victory to pursue, Wang Jiasha launched, crab powder spring rolls, crab powder buns, crab powder noodles, have also been well received by the market.
Figure 6 Wang Jia Sha DangTang dismantling crab powder
Seek further development
Based on Shanghai dim sum, Wang Jiasha has formed eight series of small steamed buns, raw fried steamed buns, wontons, noodles, cake balls, and soup balls. Among them, ten products, such as crab powder small cage, crab powder soup balls, muffins, eight treasure rice, jujube buns, radish shredded shortbread, radish shredded buns, crab powder pot stickers, jujube soup balls, chicken and shrimp meat raw frying, etc., won the title of "Chinese Famous Roll Call Snack".
In 2001, Wangjiasha restructured and established Shanghai Wangjiasha Catering Co., Ltd., which has successively merged Shanghai's well-known dim sum brands such as Huxi Zhuangyuanlou, Youlian sheng pan, and red sweetheart. In the late 2000s, Wang Jiasha continued to expand his business, renovated the Nanjing West Road main store, and opened 8 direct chain stores in Shanghai, and opened 5 branches in Hong Kong in 2002 to enter the Hong Kong catering market. In 2003, Japanese television came to the store to shoot their handmade masterpiece, which was broadcast in the morning news in Tokyo. In the same year, Wang Jiasha opened a branch to Yokohama, Japan.
On December 31, 2005, the renovated Wangjiasha Nanjing Road store was grandly opened. The first floor is a snack supermarket-style takeaway area, mainly engaged in Wang Jiasha's special dim sum. The second and third floors provide guests with casual snacks, while the fourth floor is a private room area.
Figure 7 Wangjiasha main store on the third floor
Ingredient control
In order to ensure the fresh supply of ingredients and stable prices, Wang Jiasha built an agricultural product processing base in Haimen, not only growing vegetables himself, but also exclusively purchasing and underwriting the "Haimen Da Hong Pao Red Beans" that have obtained international geographical indications, which are specially used for Wangjia Shadou sha series cake balls and snacks.
Qingtuan is a popular seasonal cake dumpling loved by Shanghainese and is also one of Wang Jiasha's famous products. Wang Jiasha wrapped an entire mountain in Zhoushan, Ningbo, and bought all the wild wormwood on the mountain, which was specially used to make wormwood green dough.
Fig. 8 Wang Jiasha picks fresh mugwort leaves for the production of green dough
In order to improve efficiency, Wang Jiasha has now built a central kitchen in Songjiang, Shanghai, for the production of basic fillings and so on. It is then uniformly distributed to each store.
Featured spot
Crab flour is fried raw
It is a traditional dim sum on which Wang Jia Sha is famous, and it is a very popular dim sum in Shanghai, Wang Jia Sha is fried in mixed water with pork jelly, and it is delicious and fresh.
Yellow on both sides
It is Wang Jiasha's signature fried noodles, and has also become synonymous with Shanghai fried noodles. The noodles are fried until golden brown on both sides, and then the shrimp and other ingredients are used as toppings, hence the name, also "called shrimp yellow on both sides". Wang Jiasha's "Yellow On Both Sides of Shredded Meat" was awarded the "Shanghai Specialty Noodles" by the Shanghai Food Association.
Crab powder cage
The filling of the crab flour cage is mixed with fresh crab flour and pork in a certain proportion with seasonings. The blanks are made of selected flour and water in a certain proportion, and then rolled out with a rolling stick to make a round, slightly thicker in the middle and slightly thinner around the small cage skin. In the packaging process, it is required that the folding stripes are clear, the filling core is not biased, and the cage must be boiled with water, and the mature does not leak the bottom. There are certain requirements for the size of the crab powder cage, the weight of the pi and the filling.
In recent years, Wang Jiasha has also excavated traditional Jiangnan dim sum such as tiger's paws, plum blossom cakes, and oil piers that are on the verge of being lost, and has also sold traditional dim sum varieties such as improved rice cake dumplings, Laba porridge, osmanthus sugar porridge, fragrant shortbread, and green dumplings in season.
In 2007, Wang Jiasha's dim sum making skills were included in the "First Batch of Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage List in Shanghai".
Figure 9 Wang Jiasha's dim sum making skills were included in the "Shanghai First Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage List"