China News Service, Shanghai, February 10th: Shanghai-style New Year’s Eve dinner, eight-treasure duck for reunion
China News Service reporter Li Jiajia
The dinner table of Shanghai-style New Year’s Eve dinner is always indispensable with the eight-treasure duck that symbolizes reunion. This famous dish in local restaurants in Shanghai is roughly equivalent to the king crab in Cantonese cuisine. Especially on festive days when families get together, the New Year is not completed until this "big dinner dish" is served. The ritual of reunion.
In the world of Chinese food, Babao duck is quite famous, and there are many celebrity anecdotes related to it. Wang Zengqi, a veteran "foodie" and a famous contemporary writer, once wrote in "Students Talk about Food": "My wife and third sister Zhang Zhaohe can cook. The glutinous rice eight-treasure duck she makes is crispy and delicious, and the skin is not broken. , the flesh does not fall apart, it is a masterpiece." Zhang Zhaohe, the wife of the literary giant Shen Congwen.
The eight-treasure duck produced at the Old Hotel in Shanghai is truly outstanding. (Photo courtesy of Yuyuan Cultural Catering Group)
China has eight major cuisines and a diverse food culture composed of them. Taking duck eating as an example can be traced back to "Essential Art of Qi Min: Raising Geese and Ducks" written by Jia Sixie of the Northern Wei Dynasty 4,000 years ago. Today, from south to north, there are Fujian ginger duck, Hangzhou sauce duck, Nanjing salted duck, Sichuan Zhangcha duck, Beijing roast duck... Each duck is cooked with unpredictable flavors according to different regions.
In Shanghai, the eight-treasure duck produced by Shanghai Old Hotel is one of the best. The number of ducks sold every year from Luo Yulin, the chef of the Yuyuan branch of the old Shanghai hotel and the fifth-generation inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, is around 8,000 if only counting dine-in meals. “Many people not only eat one, but also ask for more when leaving.” Bring one”.
It was recorded in the "Shanghai Miscellaneous Notes·Tavern" revised in 1887 that Babao duck needs to be made by removing the duck meat from the skeleton, stuffing it with stuffing and steaming it. But in Shanghai’s old restaurants, steaming with bones is the key to making it soft, glutinous and fragrant.
The Babao Duck at Shanghai Old Restaurant uses Zhejiang white-striped duck. The ratio of duck fat to duck meat is 30-70%, ensuring that it is fragrant but not greasy after being cooked. The steaming time is also very particular. It needs to be steamed with bones for 8 hours, so that the bone marrow and duck fat can be completely integrated into the glutinous rice at high temperature. The aroma is fragrant when the bowl is opened, and it tastes most delicious and soft. "This is the 1930s. Until now, it has been the most traditional and original method,” said Luo Yulin.
Of course, if you want to eat the most authentic taste of Babao duck, there is a secret secret - "overnight duck". The principle is thermal expansion and contraction. After steaming for a long time, it is naturally cooled. It is best to wait until the seasoning, glutinous rice and duck fat are fully integrated, and then it is best when it is baked again. "So we usually start steaming at 5 o'clock in the evening and sell it to customers the next day." Luo Yulin said that if it is made on-site, the taste will not be fully integrated and it will taste far less sweet.
The Babao Duck is named after the "Eight Treasures", and its status is due to the joyful meaning of reunion contained in the "Eight Treasures". But in the past, there were not as many as eight kinds of fillings inside. They were mostly red dates, lotus seeds, and ginkgo, supplemented by duck or pork, and the seasonings were not rich.
Today, the eight-treasure duck served in old Shanghai restaurants has standard specifications, namely the "four meats" - chicken breast, pork, chicken gizzards and ham, and the "four vegetables" - ginkgo, shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts and diced bamboo shoots. "In the past, the seasonings were cooking wine, soy sauce, salt and MSG. Nowadays, people are pursuing health, so we have improved on the traditional basis and used shredded scallops instead of MSG. So strictly speaking, the current 'eight treasures' should be ' Nine treasures are the most accurate." Luo Yulin said.
The Babao Duck in the old Shanghai hotel has become famous, with diners from home and abroad coming here in droves. Restaurants in Japan, Indonesia, France, Monaco and other places even invited Luo Yulin to teach him his skills.
"We will make improvements based on local eating habits abroad. For example, instead of making a whole duck, we will use a piece of skin from the duck's neck, and combine the duck skin and stuffing to make a mini version of the eight-treasure gourd duck. Each duck is only About 6 taels, one portion per person is also in line with the characteristics of the meal sharing system." Luo Yulin said, "Don't look at the 'overseas version' mini, but the sparrow is small and has all the internal organs. The only difference is that foreigners like things without bones, so we The deboning and production can be regarded as allowing our local cuisine to go abroad and flourish." (End)