Tonkatsu is a collective fascination of generations of Shanghainese, and few Shanghainese xiaoyuan say that the three words of "tonkatsu" are unchanged and cheerful. In Shanghainese homes, housewives will make pork chops, which is a sign of civilization. A Shanghai housewife who can't make pork chops is as awkward as entering a foreign firm but not speaking English.
Compared with the bloody steak, the taste and ripeness of the pork chop are more acceptable to the Chinese people. Shanghai super love pork chops, there is a well-known dim sum called "rib rice cake", but also fried pork chops and rice cake dipped in sweet noodle sauce to eat, but can not see the slightest Western style and more and more difficult to eat.
Taste of home
When she was a child, she watched her parents make pork chops, after the big row was bought, she first had to be knifed, and she spared no effort to beat the big row with the back of the knife, making sure to make it lose all its internal strength, scales all over the body, and the muscles and flesh were broken, and when it was finally completed, a large row had been twice as large as before. Then sizing, eggs, cooking wine, salt, starch, etc. are stirred to soak each pork chop. Another important step in this sticky pork chop is the bread flour. Bread flour particles are coarser, in order to prevent shedding, it is best to hammer again and again, so that the bread flour is evenly and firmly integrated with the pork chops. Then fry in a frying pan, watch the oil churn, drain and put on a plate.
In fact, it is not difficult to make Shanghainese pork chops, and even sloppy people can eat such a meal: the porcelain bowl on the side is filled with red borscht, and the pork chops are awkwardly picked up with bamboo chopsticks. Cramped, rudimentary, rough, that's also fashionable in Shanghai.
After the opening of Shanghai in 1843, Western food gradually became popular in Shanghai, and the meat of Chinese was mainly pork. To this end, Western restaurants such as the De da Xi Restaurant in Shanghai, which is famous for serving German dishes, have launched a Haipai Western main dish called "Viennese Pork Chop" fried with bread crumbs, which is the predecessor of Shanghai-style pork chops, and since then this dish has been so popular in Shanghai that many housewives will cook this dish. In the 1950s and 1970s, when supplies were scarce, Shanghainese would also use soda biscuits and roll them out to replace bread flour, which also had a different flavor.
Shanghai specialty pork cutlet
Tonkatsu is also common in Japanese restaurants, which the Japanese learned from French cuisine after the Meiji Restoration. Originally, the fried meat was very thin, but it is said that a chef used tempura technique to finally fry a thick steak. But Japanese tonkatsu is usually served in thin strips, drizzled with a special sauce for tonkatsu (sometimes replaced by tomato juice), and served with shredded cabbage, pickled radish, miso soup... And a slice of fresh lemon! That kind of taste is quite different from Shanghai toné pork chops.
This is not only because Shanghai's pork cutlets are not cut into thin strips of dry and hard old firewood, but also because the sauce determines the taste of foreign food! Tonkatsu with black pepper powder and fresh spicy powder is not indispensable, but I don't know when the pork chops are paired with spicy soy sauce. Shanghai's pork chops are also more Shanghainese because of the spicy soy sauce, which is a masterpiece.
A perfect match for tonkotsu
Whether it is at home, or in the Haipai Western Restaurant, or even in small shops and roadside stalls, there is always a mysterious bottle of Taikang Yellow Brand Spicy Soy Sauce and Pork Cutlet. When I was a child, I always thought it was strange why "spicy" soy sauce was not very spicy, but slightly sour and had a special flavor. Later, I learned that it was another foreign spice that had nothing to do with "chili oil" or "soy sauce". This spicy soy sauce is also available in Guangzhou, Hong Kong and other places, such as mangosteen beef balls dipped in large pieces. But in Shanghai, in addition to the spicy soy sauce with the pork chops, it can also be dipped in fried stinky tofu, spring rolls, dumplings... With its incorruptible body, he has the opportunity to show his skills all year round.
Spicy soy sauce, also known as creak sauce, British black vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, was invented by the British who had lived in India in Worcestershire, England. In 1838, the inventors combined their surnames and registered the "lea & perrins" brand. At the end of the 19th century, "Li Pailin Juice" entered the Chinese market. This spicy soy sauce from Shanghai was originally a domestic product copied from the Merlin factory in the 1930s. In 1960, it was produced by Shanghai Taikang Food Factory. In 1990, the "Taikang Yellow Card" and "Taikang Blue Card" were issued, the yellow card was a special grade, and the blue card was a first-class product. Buying spicy soy sauce in Shanghai today, everyone is still habitually buying "Taikang Yellow Card". Spicy soy sauce is more suitable for beef in other regions, only in Shanghai, which promised it to pork chops. I'm afraid that when we eat pork chops, we desperately pour black and spicy soy sauce on the pork chops, and foreigners will be confused.
Pork cutlets from the dark culinary world
There are always pork cutlets sold on the side of the road, stacked thick stacks of white, and bathed in an oil pot with oil mounds and stinky tofu. In fact, some roadside stalls sell "pork chops" are not pork chops at all, nor with bones, but an ordinary piece of tenderloin meat is hammered thin, evenly smeared with bread flour, the area is vast, the thickness is negligible, like a side of the veil, stacked up small enough to pass through the eye of the needle. However, this tenderloin expanded version of the pork chops is thin and dry, too old to swallow. The tonkatsu still needs a certain thickness, the bread flour frying layer is just to lock in the gravy moisture and not leak out, bite open the tender and tender juicy inside is the best product. This is much better than home-made pork chops and those made in established Western cafes.
Known as the king of dark cuisine, Tongchuan Road talks about aunt tonkatsu, every night around 6 o'clock out of the stall, the storefront is very simple, but the door is always crowded, those who come to admire the name, queue for 1 or 2 hours, just for the 10 yuan a piece of pork chops, a bite down, that is the taste of the mother.
For many Shanghainese, eating Western food is not only the mood, but the afterglow of old-school life and the original taste of the hometown that cannot be endlessly tasted.
Pork cutlets in a Deutschelles restaurant
At present, many "old-fashioned" Western food clubs have a strong state-owned atmosphere, and their service is not as good as many emerging French restaurants and Italian restaurants, but this still cannot change the feelings of Shanghainese people for "Haipai Western food". In the Western food of Shanghainese, the most classic is a guest soup, a guest salad, and this piece of Shanghai pork cutlet.
Shanghainese eat Western food
Eating is not only the mood, but the afterglow of old-school life
Yes, compared to those high-grade steaks with blood, the pork chops are a little better, but it is the favorite of Shanghainese, affordable and delicious, and it does not lose the foreign pie. In the train carriages of the old-fashioned state-owned Western restaurants in the past, everything was frugal and polite, and young men and women drank a cup of coffee to split their emotions, and ate two pieces of pork chops to pad their stomachs, which was a real and romantic dating meal.