At the beginning, I heard the name of "Xinghualou", which was two Xinghualou mooncakes that I bought when I came to Shanghai to play during the Mid-Autumn Festival two years ago. Soufflé coconut soufflé, rose bean paste. The first bite is amazing, oily, smooth, and sweet, showing off the proportion of skin filling. I didn't expect an old Shanghai store to make Cantonese mooncakes so authentic.
Later, I learned that this time-honored brand in Shanghai, which began in the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, was a dessert shop opened by Cantonese people at the beginning. I have always loved Cantonese dim sum, sugar water, and Cantonese cuisine, and the grass of Xinghualou is deeply planted. It's just that I regret my lack of action, and I have been in Shanghai for so long, but I didn't remember it until I was caught fire by a certain TV series.
In the hustle and bustle of the lobby, Shanghainese and Mandarin come and go, and the sweet fragrance of dim sum brushes through the restless crowd. The clerk looked calm and had seen the wind and waves, his eyes were calm and steady, but his movements were faster. Boxes of Dingsheng cakes lie on the top of the counter in a high-profile manner, just clearly visible from the outside of the door, like a façade posture to accept the baptism of customers' eyes.
Although it is for Cantonese dim sum, it is inevitable to follow the trend - Dingsheng cake.
The shape is unpleasant, why do you want to make two squares, there is a kind of beauty that OCD can't understand······
I took it home and steamed it before eating, unexpectedly, I thought it would be like a muffin cake with a slight japonica rice sponge, but in fact, it is basically the taste of pure glutinous rice dumplings, glutinous and chewy.
The cake body is slightly sweet, with a light glutinous rice aroma. The bean paste filling provides the main sweetness and flavor, but the amount of filling is very small, which does not show the advantages of Xinghualou bean paste. The whole is really not delicious, it's just a sense of ritual. (16 yuan for a small 4, basically no cost performance)
What really amazed me was the plain-looking bean paste bun.
This is the level that Xinghualou should have! The bean paste filling is oily and smooth, but the entrance is soft and non-sticky, and the mellow red bean fragrance contains an elegant rose sweet fragrance. And the most amazing thing is actually the dough! There is a unique fat and glutinous texture similar to the fermentation of old noodles and extra chewiness, which brings out the full aroma of the dough, which is not something that ordinary industrial yeast powder can achieve.
There is no shortage of sugar, but it is more charming than the straightforward sweetness such as white magnolia and green poplar estate, and it complements the flour aroma, which is wonderful!
Black pastry buns are also worth talking about.
The dough is the same as the bean paste bun, and it is delicious to make white steamed buns and eat empty. The black crisp stuffing is really shocking, so big and solid, no wonder it is heavy in your hand.
It tastes like a combination of black sesame powder + powdered sugar + lard, and the domineering and warm lard fragrance sweeps the entire mouth with a rich black sesame aroma, which is dizzying! The taste is the frosted texture of black sesame powder, which is not as smooth as the dumpling filling, but it is also comfortable and palatable, which highlights the presence of black sesame seeds.
As a Northeast person, I rarely eat dim sum made of lard since I was a child, so I am a little uncomfortable, and with the high sweetness, it is indeed easy to get tired after eating a few more bites. But such a real and fragrant stunner, I can't dislike it!
The chicken bun is also said to be a feature of Xinghualou, which should be derived from the "chicken ball bun" in some traditional teahouses in Guangdong.
Pork mixed with chicken pieces, as well as a little mushroom cubes, seasoned salty and fresh, slightly sweet, with a distinct white pepper aroma. The taste is rich, the taste is plain and delicious, and it is more refreshing and agile than ordinary pork buns, so I like it.
The dough is also really delicious, the pine is sweet and sweet, and the combination with the refreshing filling is quite harmonious.
The vegetable buns are much inferior, mainly because the taste of the dough is different from the previous buns, which is ordinary white noodles. The overall sweetness is also too high, sweeter than a white magnolia, and closer to a snack than a steamed bun that can be used as a staple food.
If these buns are still the unique characteristics of Shanghai and Guangdong in Xinghualou, then the fried dim sum that I tried later is the key to the continuity of Xinghualou's Cantonese bloodline.
Let's start with one of my favorite Cantonese dim sum, fried taro horns, or according to the nickname "honeycomb taro horn" given by Cantonese people.
At first, I was pleasantly surprised to see this item on the menu, after all, this dim sum is technically difficult, and it is becoming more and more rare even in Guangzhou, and it can only be eaten in some antique-level teahouses.
The appearance can be seen with the effect of a beehive, although there is less ethereal, but it is also crispy and soft, and it dissolves in the mouth. The internal configuration is basically restored, the taro paste is delicate and smooth, wrapped in dried shrimp, lean meat, pickles, etc.
But unfortunately it is still visible to the naked eye. The method is a bit lazy, the taro paste is wrapped in a separate coat and fried, instead of relying on the proper proportion of taro fusion and the precise oil temperature to directly fry the honeycomb, and the puff pastry and taro paste are obviously separated. The texture of taro paste is not light and smooth enough, and the variety is mediocre, so I don't taste the fragrance and sweetness of Lipu taro.
But after all, 6 yuan is such a big one, not compared with the teahouses in Guangdong, it is a delicious dim sum, and it is enough to satisfy your daily cravings.
The traditional method is to add glutinous rice flour to the outer skin of the noodles, wrap the stuffing made of dried shrimp, shiitake mushrooms, and sand kudzu and then fry it.
This version of Xinghualou is also slightly perfunctory. The fishy smell of dried shrimp in the filling is not well handled, and there are too many dried radish pickles to the point that the proportion is unbalanced, and the overall salty and fishy flavor is not so friendly.
But the advantage is that it is freshly made, crispy on the outside and glutinous on the inside, and there is no room for bad taste.
What's even more surprising is that there is also a relatively unpopular Hakka snack - radish rice dumplings.
The shredded radish filling is very fragrant, and the spicy and choking taste of the radish itself is quite clean, leaving only the soft sweetness. The ham cubes are flavored with dried shrimp and minced meat, and if you can have some crushed peanuts, it will be perfect.
The skin is mainly glutinous rice and japonica rice, the taste is sticky and chewy, and the fried oil is fragrant.
The egg tart is even more surprising, I haven't eaten such a Cantonese egg tart for a long time!
The streets of Shanghai are basically the world of Portuguese egg tarts, with the high content of cream and sugar to create a rich milky caramel aroma, giving people a direct and rapid impact on the taste buds at first. In contrast, it is naturally difficult to stand out for a Cantonese egg tart that uses only eggs and a little milk and takes a pure style.
But I just like it, I like the feather-like crispy and soft skin, and the core that is full of crystal and tender eggs. At the moment of entrance, it is like being in the old Xiguan in the light rain in early summer, in front of the street cake shop with warm lights under the quaint arcade, wearing shorts and sandals and watching the shopkeeper bring out a full iron plate and trembling golden egg tarts, and the warm aroma wafts across the street.
Although I have eaten in Guangzhou for four years, I have tasted these somewhat regrettable "except that Wushan is not a cloud". But in Shanghai, in this kind of scenic spot and the golden area of the city center, you can still eat such a traditional Cantonese dim sum full of fireworks, which is quite moving.
It's just that Dingsheng cake won't be bought again.