Every season when the rape flowers are fragrant, the old Shanghainese who pay attention to eating know that pond fish is on the market.
Pond fish has been favored by the people in Jiangnan since ancient times. "Suzhou people are particularly heavy pond fish, Shanghai people are also, when they mention pond fish, eyebrows fly and dance." Wang Zengqi, who loves to eat, also yearns for it for a long time.
Rape blossoms, it is the time when the pond fish spawns, the meat is the most delicious, at this time to eat the pond fish, as if at the right time to meet the right person, fresh on a word. Braised pond snakehead, spring shoot pond snakehead, pickle pond snakehead, etc. were once the most popular home-cooked dishes on the Table of Shanghainese. However, with the passage of time, pond fish have become increasingly rare.
In the old shanghai hotel with a history of more than 140 years, pond fish is undoubtedly one of the top brands of spring dishes. In the view of Luo Yulin, a non-hereditary heir of this gang dish in shanghai's old restaurant, tang snakehead is an ingredient that is "very delicate in flower head", "Tang snakehead fish only has about two weeks of 'best tasting period' in a year, too small or too old, it is not that taste." ”
A century-old shop, it is always the taste that retains people's hearts. For example, the traditional braised pond mackerel strictly uses more than two or two fish to cook, not to mention that the sauce ratio is the secret recipe that has been passed down for decades in the old restaurant, and the braised method is far more complicated than the aunt's mother's "left hand soy sauce bottle, right hand sugar jar". Luo Yulin said: "According to the different ingredients, braised braised can also be subdivided into several kinds of frying, sautéing, falling soup and so on, like the fresh ingredients of pond fish, the use of decoction can retain the moisture in it, but also easy to absorb the marinade, after frying and then boiling over high heat, simmering into the flavor, the heat is the key to the success or failure of this dish." ”
"To put it bluntly, this gang dish is exquisite." In addition to the braised pond fish with thick oil and red sauce and pyrotechnics, the spring "hidden menu" of the old restaurant also includes a pond fish wonton, and the "exquisite" in Luo Yulin's mouth is used to the extreme in this innovative dish inspired by knife fish wontons.
A small white porcelain cup simmered on the table, two small wontons and a few pieces of pond fish fillet soaked in the soup lay in the milky white soup, and after only one bite, it was so praised that the eyebrows fell, and after a while the plate was empty. Seeing this scene, Luo Yulin smiled and revealed the secret of this dish: "The fillets only use one or two small fish, and the technical work of picking up the bones and picking up the meat is all done by experienced teachers; the wonton filling is made of pond fish meat, shrimp and fresh meat in proportion; the soup is a broth made by boiling crucian carp and yellow eel bones for several hours." ”
Although there is an "old" word in the name of the store, in the old hotel in Shanghai, while innovating, this "exquisite" has also penetrated into the hearts of generations of chefs. Luo Yulin also has a "feeding specification manual" that has been handed down for several generations, which has strict requirements for the selection of ingredients, such as salted egg yolk watercress crisp only uses locally produced small watercress; a cabbage mushroom shrimp, the color and moisture of the cabbage have requirements, and only take young buds, often 1 pound of cabbage can only leave less than half...
Author: Zhou Yuan Wang Xiang
Editor-in-Charge: Niu Yi
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