According to a special article in Auckland by the New Zealand China News Agency, four years ago, an old friend who had moved to New Zealand for many years suddenly told me that "he was going to start his own business and do my own food brand", and then involuntarily pulled me into a WeChat group called "sheep herding food group", and since then, I have begun to be bombarded by various food pictures: "the oil is pouring spicy seeds out of the pot", "ham and bacon sausages have begun to accept reservations". Poor me, I can "see but can't touch" these delicacies. Finally, I decided to fly more than 10,000 kilometers from Beijing to New Zealand, planning to taste all these delicious things.
"I grew up wandering around, the so-called nostalgia, the specific way is to present the best food in my and my family's memory, using local New Zealand ingredients, by restoring the taste of my childhood, to create good memories in memory." It won't be my own idea, but the idea of almost every traveler, every person who has left their hometown. The person who said him was called Yang Fangfang, the owner of the "sheep herding food group" and the founder of the "Shangshan" food brand, he said with a mocking tone: "Food is boundless, worth sharing, no matter how many different opinions between the United States and China, when it comes to food, Americans have to admit that Chinese food is yummy!"
Yang Fangfang is 46 years old, born in Wenzhou, and has known the author for 15 years. 15 years ago, his personal introduction has made many people bright and envious: the annual salary of one million, 20 years old began to publish the first book, 30 years old traveled to five continents nearly 60 countries, engaged in IT, education, catering, trade, distant water fisheries and other different industries, the industry span is large, people are stunned. He could speak more than a dozen languages, and I couldn't believe that a man's language skills could be so strong, and I had privately asked my native speakers about those languages, and the answer was that each one was spoken in such a way that it was impossible to tell if he was not a native. In 2008, the imitation of "the world walking a circle" ran to Fiji and concentrated on starting his "fisherman life". In 2015, the family came to New Zealand.
In 2015, the imitation that has been with "eating" for most of his life decided to create a food brand of his own - Shangshan. Using New Zealand ingredients as raw materials, it is processed using traditional Chinese craftsmanship. "New Zealand is known for its cleanliness, its ecological protection and its proximity to pollution sources, making it a much more desirable hideaway. There are a lot of good ingredients here, but I think they need more added value, to make some of the more unique products, not only to eat what they have, but also to make a career at the same time. ”
Feelings are their own Good things are everyone's
If I had to use a few words to describe imitation, the first thing that came to mind was "love to eat", "good conversation", "feelings" and "hospitality". People who know imitation know that he loves to eat and will eat. Whenever a friend comes to the house, he will definitely put up a table of "full color and taste" dinner, and the imitation will tirelessly tell the diners the source and the story behind each dish: "This is the big cuttlefish from the Atlantic", "This is the crimson shrimp from the East China Sea", "This is the home-made bacon sausage, which is specially placed in Maotai inside, and it can't be eaten outside", "This is ham chicken noodles, stewed with their own Hawkes Bay ham and old hen for an afternoon, try it fresh." At the same time, imitation will always talk about the previous experience from time to time, Wenzhou family, the days of going to school in Guangzhou, the days of working in the United States, friends he met in Russia, etc., the deepest impression is that he has a foodie father, when he was a child, every time he earned a fee, he would take him to a five-star hotel for a big meal and spend all the money. Growing up in a different environment, the food culture impact is extremely strong, he said that his taste buds and his language ability are similar, where to eat like where.
Therefore, the original intention of the imitation theory to initially decide to create the "Shangshan" brand is very simple, mainly two points: one is that they are gluttonous and want to eat delicious; Another, anyway in New Zealand such a paradise, peaceful, quiet, good mountains and good water so boring, the Chinese to make their own career, really from the culture, the common needs of human beings to think of the way, but also lazy to talk about the big truth, delicious or not delicious, a taste to know, word of mouth is better than everything, then do eat.
Speaking of why the name of the brand is called "Shangshan", the imitation introduced that the word "meal" comes from "imitation", and when I was a child, I went to Beijing with my father to eat, and I was deeply impressed. The diet that used to be provided for the emperor was called the imperial diet. Later, the imperial kitchens in the imperial palace were exiled to the people, because the dishes they made were modeled on the imperial meals of the original Qing Palace, so they were called "imitation meals". The word "Shang" has both noble, like and admiring meanings. Therefore, the word "Shang shan" expresses the original intention of the brand - "to make good ingredients to eat", which translates into English as Good Chow, which is straightforward and easy to remember.
Telling stories with food There's a "nostalgia" behind every product.
In 2015, the first product to be imitated after starting a business was the flower glue built according to the highest quality in New Zealand, perhaps stemming from his subconscious longing for his second hometown, Guangzhou. At the age of 8, Fangfang moved to Guangzhou with his father, where he stayed for about six years, saying that "food in Guangzhou" and "abalone wing belly" these high-grade dried seafood can be said to be the most indispensable part of the life of Guangzhou people. Relying on New Zealand's rich fish resources, imitation has established the first flower glue factory, and guests who have bought flower glue describe: "Use your flower glue as a dessert, there is no foul smell." Since then, high-quality dry goods such as abalone and sea cucumber have been added.
After the production line of dried seafood was completed, the imitation of meat lovers started the idea of New Zealand beef. New Zealand is known to be a well-known producer of beef, and its grass-fed beef is absolutely of the highest quality than grain-fed beef elsewhere. The imitation father-in-law is a Burmese overseas Chinese who grew up in Yunnan. The two hit it off and decided to use local spices to import beef from Some of New Zealand's best pastures to create a unique Shangri-La flavor of "dried beef". At the same time, they have improved the production process of traditional Yunnan beef jerky, choosing to use large pieces of beef directly pressed, each kilogram of fresh steak can only produce 300 grams of dried meat, although this greatly increases the production cost, but there is no added any preservatives, carefully configured spices, to the greatest extent to present the unique aroma of this beef jerky.
However, dried beef as a snack can not meet the daily needs of the imitation family that loves meat. Wenzhou people have always had the habit of making bacon and sausages, so the imitation began to learn the father's formula to do bacon sausages, influenced by the foodie father, although the old man is not able to win the amount of wine, every winter to make the wax flavor, the production process must add expensive Moutai wine.
Later, imitation and remembered the ham made by his father, imitating his father when he was young and used to work in Jinhua, and the most famous one there was "Jinhua ham", the old man had a sharp mouth, and his hands-on ability was extremely strong. The two also did it together when they were in the United States, which became an important part of his memory.
Therefore, imitation decided to use New Zealand's local high-quality pork to create New Zealand's "Jinhua ham" - "Hawke's Bay" ham. "To eat well, we must wait, bacon sausages we absolutely do not engage in quick drying, but strictly control the temperature, in the five degrees Celsius cold room to simulate the winter climate, nearly two weeks of slow dehydration to complete." Hams are not quick, and each leg takes at least eight months. Therefore, only three batches are done every year, Mid-Autumn Festival, Christmas, lunar Spring Festival, according to the predetermined quota, often in short supply. Saying that, he triumphantly asked me to watch the buyer show sent by customers on my mobile phone. He said: "Since the immigrants, the Scots have brought the way of life of cattle and sheep, Chinese brought our culture, which is what the world will look like in the future." ”
Grandma's Recipes Grandpa's Scales Use good ingredients to create a fine sauce
The beginning of the "Shang Shan" sauce series seems to be somewhat accidental. XO sauce, is recognized as the top sauce of all sauces, is respected in all Chinese areas, imitation is also very popular. However, many of the world's XO sauces generally use not real abalone, but extracted essences. Therefore, the imitation mother-in-law usually buys abalone herself and makes it herself at home. Once, after imitating a friend who opened a restaurant in Auckland, he was full of praise, saying that if this product was made, it would definitely sell well. This greatly encouraged imitation, so it was decided to use New Zealand's local black gold abalone as raw material, adding the best dried scallops and dried shrimp to create this product. It took two full years from the initial start of testing in 2016 to the official launch of the market in May 2018. "We have 20% of the net meat of black gold abalone in our XO sauce, which you can't eat in other products. And it does not contain preservatives, because the shelf life is one year, so it must be placed in the laboratory for at least half a year to be tested. Imitation said, and then picked up the rice cake next to him and dipped it in XO sauce to beckon us to eat it.
Imitation said: "I grew up listening to my mother tell the story of my grandparents' family. Grandpa was once the second generation of Wenzhou's well-known sauce garden "Zhan Qianchun", after the victory of the War of Resistance, Grandpa's soy sauce that was made in the past has been exported and famous overseas, at that time, people are faithful, not only the sauce garden uses its own surname to name, the soy sauce produced is also directly crowned with the name of 'Yulin Oil', and grandpa's name is Yulin. You see this scale is what they used to weigh beans, it has a history of 100 years. "Grandpa and Grandma are kind in heart and innocent all their lives, and I put this century-old scale here to remind myself that everyone has a scale in their hearts, justice and innocence, which is the biggest spiritual legacy left to us by Grandpa and Grandma." Therefore, in 2017, the imitation first began the first attempt at head pumping production in Guangdong, and began to mentally consider the localization in New Zealand. Head pumping is cantonese saying, that is, the first soy sauce. They chose the traditional method of drying in the ancient method, made the first batch of head pumps, shipped to New Zealand, and also received more and more people's love. Fangfang said that he was already planning to introduce the head pumping production line to New Zealand. Last year, on march 12th birthday, Fangfang led the establishment of the "New Zealand Soybean Company" with a group of friends. On December 18, Imitation bought a winery in Gisborne, the world's first city to see the sunshine, and planned to convert it into a soy sauce factory, integrating planting, brewing, sales and sightseeing, so that the "Shang shan" head pump can be put into production in New Zealand as soon as possible, using the local excellent New Zealand land, air and water quality to create a unique New Zealand ecological soy sauce.
In 2019, new members were added to shang shan's mom menu. Considering that New Zealanders are relatively not receptive to spicy flavors, the imitation mother-in-law Zuo Mama, who is also the chief seasoner of Shangshan Company, has improved the traditional Chinese "oil spicy" recipe. "Our oil spicy seeds pay more attention to the coordination and collocation between different aromas, more than a dozen spices, each spice needs a different temperature to release its aroma, this really makes our production process a lot more troublesome, but want to eat delicious, how can you be afraid of trouble." 」 Imitation said with a smile.
"Tie the pot stove to your legs, you can eat it anywhere", this is a phrase my dad often said, at the end of the interview, Imitation added: "I have a lot of delicious secret recipes here, if you want to eat it, be patient." (Text: Song Jie)
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