Author/Gu Zheng
Unlike other traditional Shanghai snacks, shallot oil cakes don't seem to be on the table.
No long-established regular army was involved, and the most onion oil cakes on the street seemed to belong to a non-existent group called "Old Shanghai".
01
In her later years, Zhang Ailing was in a foreign country, missing the shallot oil cake in her hometown, which was her favorite breakfast with her aunt in the past.
She found a Liu Ji onion oil cake in a Chinese supermarket, indicating that vegetable oil was added to the green onion, and the orange oil-stained piece of paper was written on it: "Onion oil cake, a piece of nine cents and five".
The taste is not as good as what you eat in Shanghai, but it is also a relief from homesickness.
In the big family of onion oil cakes, Shanghai onion oil cakes have an independent name, and a certain degree of encyclopedia also lists a separate entry for it.
A shallot oil cake entry on a certain encyclopedia
Shanghai's shallot oil cake has its own unique form.
First of all, in appearance, it is distinguished from distant relatives scattered throughout the country.
Shanghai's shallot oil cake can not be too big nor too small, the diameter of about 10 cm is more appropriate; secondly, its shape must be round, the surface is golden and crisp, and the layering of the circle inside can be faintly seen.
In the past, Shanghainese liked to use the food that can be found everywhere in life to describe the "head".
In the 1950s, strange hairstyles such as "shallot oil cake" and "big bun head" were defined as "Ah Fei Tou".
In the 1980s, fashion trends emerged and people started making a fuss about their hair again. Speaking of women's hair, it is "braided into a crisp twist and plated into a scallion oil cake".
This metaphor can more or less make up the image of Shanghai shallot oil cake in everyone's brain.
The surface of the Shanghai shallot oil cake is golden and crispy, and the layering of the circle can be faintly seen.
Secondly, Shanghai's shallot oil cake has special raw materials and production processes.
Rui Xinlin visited Shanghai snacks and wrote the book "The Taste of Snacks - Searching for 200 Snack Bars in Shanghai".
He defines scallion oil cakes as follows: "The ingredients are flour, ghee, lard, and green onions; the process is to fry first and then bake, and eat a thin crispy crisp." ”
Combined with the memories of many Shanghainese, this definition is basically eight or nine inseparable.
The ingredients for scallion oil cakes are simple, mainly flour, ghee, lard and green onions.
Food columnist Yang Zhongming's usual onion oil cake when he was a child was made like this:
The shallot oil cake dough with shallots and ghee ingredients is first flattened on an iron plate with a tool, fried in oil for a while, and then baked in the hearth below.
To make shallot oil cake with ghee, put a lot of chives. Green onions should be tender and yellow, too old to do. Lard is a must, and the heat should be mastered.
Xipo's definition of shallot oil cake is: "Shanghai shallot oil cake", green onion, a large number of shallots, is an important element; oil, shallot oil, ghee is also indispensable.
In terms of cooking, he also believes that frying and baking can best bring the unique flavor of the shallot oil cake - combining the aroma of lard, ghee, salt, shallots and the caramelized aroma of flour baking - to the extreme.
The cooking method of frying first and then baking can best play the flavor of Shanghai shallot oil cake
Of course, in the case of the general direction, each person will also have some emphasis.
Rui Xinlin pays special attention to one of the processes - shooting. He felt that it was a thousand miles away from patting the shallot oil cake with his hand and pressing it with an iron tool.
"The crispiness of the scallion oil cake is actually under this 'beat'." He said.
Yang Zhongming and Xipo did not dwell on this beat, but they agreed that lard is the soul.
Once Yang Zhongming bought an "old Shanghai shallot oil cake", took a bite and found that the lard inside was scattered, and he could not find the pleasure of eating onion oil cake in the old days.
Originally, in order to save materials, the boss used pork fat to chop up instead of plate oil. Yang Zhongming was furious and felt that this had ruined the reputation of Shanghai's shallot oil cake.
When making shallot oil cakes, pork plate oil is where the soul is.
And Xipo righteously said that in the production of onion oil cake, diced lard must not be ignored - it is basically a standard of an authentic "Shanghai shallot oil cake"!
Some people also pay attention to the process between frying and roasting:
"After three or five minutes, the cake is browned, and then a heavy oil is applied to it, and then it is slightly baked in turn, and it comes out of the oven. Eat it right away, crispy, hot and fragrant. It's hard to put into words how beautiful it tastes. ”
For fans of shallot oil cake, it can be said that it took three days and three nights to pay attention to its materials and production process.
02
There are countless people in Shanghai who like onion oil cake, so when it comes to judging the "most Shanghainese" snack, it always makes the list.
However, unlike other Shanghai snacks, the scallion oil cake appears to be wild on the street, and no long-established regular army is involved.
The names are all small street shops, such as A Da, Wang Ji, Mu Shi, Tilanqiao Old Stall Head, Li Xiangyang, Gu Shougang, etc., most of which are named after the manager.
More Shanghai shallot cake shops don't have their own independent names, they seem to belong to a non-existent group called "Old Shanghai".
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All kinds of shallot oil cakes with the name of "Old Shanghai" on the streets of Shanghai
This status quo is related to the historical "cake design" of onion oil cakes.
Scallion oil cake has always been one of the most marketed snacks in Shanghai.
As early as the 1940s, after the bustling Nanjing Road shops closed at night, vendors would set up stalls on the sidewalk to sell shallot oil cakes.
The scallion oil cake sold at the Nanjing Road stall is naturally a little more expensive than the one sold on other streets, but the price is about the same as a large meat bun.
By the early 1990s, many lanes would have a scallion oil cake stall, and its price was around 2-3 corners at that time.
"This is still a very low price in snack food, which is incomparable with cream cakes and the like." In 1993, the xinmin evening newspaper published an article that commented on the price of scallion oil cake.
In the slow increase of 5 points and 1 dime, the price of street shallot oil cakes was around 6 dimes from the end of the last century to the beginning of this century.
Entering 2011, the price of the internet celebrity onion oil cake is 2.5 yuan a piece.
Today, the general stall onion oil cake sells for 4-5 yuan.
Some time ago, there was a hot news about onion oil cakes: the most famous brand in the Shanghai onion oil cake industry, Ada onion oil cake, has raised the price this year, one to 10 yuan.
Onion oil cakes that have been on the BBC have always been queued up by countless people, and under the implementation of the policy of restricting purchases, it is necessary to queue up for two or three hours to buy a shallot oil cake.
A scallion oil cake in front of the door of the year-round queue / Fang Yaxin photo
From the rules of the market economy, it is normal for merchants to increase prices under the condition of short supply and demand – but this has aroused heated discussion.
Because in the perception of Shanghainese, a shallot oil cake sells for 10 yuan, uh... It doesn't deserve it.
Looking at the price of onion oil cakes in the long river of history, its similar brothers have always been flatbread fritters, meat steamed buns, rice cakes and the like, and it is difficult for it to cross classes.
The difficulty lies in the fact that for Shanghainese who are accustomed to it from snacks, there is already a "sense of class solidification". Everyone is very sensitive to the price of shallot oil cake, so the pricing of merchants does not go up.
The price is low, the profit is small, but the effort is very high.
Noodles, stir-fried puff pastry, chopped shallots, cakes, pan-baked... This set of processes is very labor-intensive.
Moreover, the shallot oil cake pays attention to fresh eating, which cannot greatly increase the yield in a unit time, so it can only be a small-scale transaction that consumes labor.
Since the 1980s, the market economy has replaced the planned economy, and there are opportunities for doing business everywhere. Not cost-effective.
Even the restaurants and stalls that used to sell shallot oil cakes have shifted their main business to food with high cost savings and high profits.
In 1985, there was an article in the Xinmin Evening News entitled "Early in the Change", saying that there was a double-open dim sum shop, and after the renovation, the appliqué wall cloth, hanging chandelier wall lamps, plus a cushion "train seat".
On the opening day of The Yoshi, flatbread, fritters, etc., did not know where to go, but the appearance was shrimp wontons, heavy oil raw frying, onion oil noodles and curry beef soup.
Even now, the average price of shallot oil cakes is only about 4-5 yuan.
Gradually, Shanghainese people began to wonder whether in the near future, rice barrels, soybean milk copper spoons, and iron plates for making scallion oil cakes would go into the museum to accompany rickshaws.
During that time, newspapers often appeared in the following reader's submissions:
"I don't know when it began, the scallion oil cake stall disappeared from the street and disappeared for a long time, and this cheap and high-quality popular food seems to remain in people's memory."
"The roadside stall selling authentic shallot oil cakes is almost gone. Instead, there are 'foot cloths' and hand-grabbed cakes, which are far from complex and chewy in terms of process complexity and chewiness. ”
Between the lines, full of grief.
03
Fortunately, Shanghainese love of scallion oil cakes made scallion oil cake stalls increase again in the 1990s.
"The onion oil cake stalls are almost as dense as the outer smoke baskets in the city's districts, counties and towns. Conservative estimates may have exceeded 1500. "But at that time, more than 90% of the onion oil cake stalls were operated without a license."
With the standardization and strictness of urban management, roadside unlicensed business stalls were banned, and the same problem was encountered at that time.
As a big luck, he later solved the problem of business license and place of business.
But many of the onion oil cake stalls that are not as popular as him may have been in decline for a while because they could not afford the cost of rent, or were unwilling to engage in laborious and less profitable business.
During its decline, distant relatives of shanghai shallot oil cake came to occupy the magpie's nest:
Scallion oil cake baked like a large basin in an electric stewing pan,
Taiwanese hand-grabbed scallion oil cake,
Thin, shallot oil cake that can be cut into several conical shapes,
Three shallot oil cakes for one guest in a Hong Kong-style tea restaurant...
Both appear in the dining world of Shanghai.
Shanghai shallot oil cake (right) vs. Anhui shallot oil cake (left)
Therefore, now this wave of onion oil cake shops that have risen again will be the original source, marking the words "authentic" and "old Shanghai" on their signboards to show that they are the most orthodox onion oil cake that continues the Tradition of Shanghai.
What is the real Shanghai shallot oil cake, the details that each Shanghainese pay attention to may be different.
Of course, as to whether it is really authentic or not, it is also a matter of opinion.
After all, regarding how to make shallot oil cakes, what are the details, and the shanghainese who pay attention to it can write a paper.
However, one thing is common:
Some food numbers will recommend the "authentic" Shanghai shallot oil cake, one of the recommended shallot oil cakes is characterized by thin, which can be added with an egg and brushed with sweet noodle sauce and spicy sauce.
Is it an omelette with eggs? Shanghai shallot oil cake fans will definitely be so intimidated.
－ END －
Writer: Gu Zheng / Photo: Gu Zheng /
Editor: Han Xiaoni / Brush: Liu Xian /
Namo Win: Chen is not fun/
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