Chapter 53 Rolling the road, eating snacks

When in love, Zhang Ailing often took Hu Lancheng to eat street food.A close reading of Zhang's articles can also reveal that snacks, especially Shanghai snacks, are an important part of Eileen Chang's gourmet life and literary career.In "Talking about eating and painting cakes to satisfy hunger", she mentioned a snack called "pancake fried dough sticks", saying that "eating pancake fried dough sticks together, due to the contrast between sweet and salty texture and thick, tough, crisp and thin texture, tastes very different from eating sesame seed cakes alone."

Now there are egg pancakes and fried dough sticks in Shanghai snacks, which is basically the same as the pancakes in Beijing alleys, except that the pancakes in Beijing generally use thin crispy sticks instead of deep-fried dough sticks. Personally, I prefer egg pancakes with fried dough sticks.Compared with fried dough sticks, although crispy, it lacks some toughness and cannot last for a long time, and the crispy feeling quickly disappears; while fried dough sticks are more resilient, can last for a long time, and are very chewy. Not only in Beijing and Shanghai, but also in Wuhan. Instead of egg pancakes, glutinous rice is used instead.I went to Wuhan to do a TV show a while ago. I came out of the hotel in the morning and went to the alley to look for breakfast. I saw a stall that put glutinous rice balls on the steamer to keep them warm. When a customer came, he grabbed a handful, made them into cakes, and stuffed them with fried dough sticks. , then wrapped in sesame seeds and sugar to eat.This reminds me of the way of eating "biscuit fried dough sticks" that Eileen Chang said.

In fact, pancakes in Beijing also have refueling sticks. Later, it is estimated that because of the operation (thin and crispy are easier to store for a long time and maintain crispness), gradually adding thin and crispy has become the mainstream. The most exciting thing about fried dough sticks wrapped in pancakes is the deep-fried dough sticks themselves, and the best fried dough sticks are the ones that soak up a lot after being deep-fried, have a crispy feel when eaten, and keep the noodles fragrant at the same time. Fried dough sticks are a rare folk delicacy that can be enjoyed all over the north and south. It has been loved by the Chinese for thousands of years.Modern nutrition lists deep-fried dough sticks as junk food, which discourages many people. I think this is very inappropriate.Fried dough sticks are the same as other delicacies, no one can eat them every day.I basically eat deep-fried dough sticks once a week, and it must be served with soy milk and kohlrabi.My way of eating is, the first one is a fried dough stick and one mouthful of soy milk, and the second one is soaked in soy milk, which is perfect for collection, and a little sugar should be put in the soy milk, so as to suppress the bean flavor of soy milk, and to let the fried dough sticks in It is more fragrant in soy milk.

I also tried eating fried dough sticks with porridge, but the fried dough sticks lost their original wonderful taste, and the porridge became greasy and unpalatable.Therefore, soy milk and fried dough sticks are a match made in heaven, and a couple is made in nature, while fried dough sticks porridge is an arranged marriage ordered by parents. From my personal food experience, fried dough sticks with red oil soup noodles are also very delicious. A bowl of hot and spicy noodles with crispy fried dough sticks is a match made in heaven after soybean milk fried dough sticks.The way to eat it is to hold a deep-fried dough stick in your hand, eat a deep-fried dough stick with a mouthful of noodles.Please note here that you must use spicy noodles, not noodles in clear soup.

I also like to use deep-fried dough sticks to stir-fry twice-cooked pork. Stir-fry the meat first, then stir-fry the fried dough sticks for a few times to keep the crispness and toughness of the deep-fried dough sticks. Finally, add garlic sprouts. It tastes delicious. There is also a "stuffed youtiao" in fried dough sticks, which Wang Zengqi also mentioned, which is to pour fat three thin pork into fried dough sticks and steam them, then thicken them, which is delicious. When she was in Hong Kong, Zhang Ailing liked to eat fried shredded radish pancakes, which are also called "shredded radish oil dumplings" in Shanghai.According to records, during the Republic of China, there was a restaurant in Shanghai called Deshunxin, which made shredded radish cakes with the best taste.The method is to use fermented flour to make batter, put it on the bottom of the iron mold, take the shredded radish that has been squeezed dry and mix well with chopped green onion, put it in the center of the batter, and then put the batter to cover it.Then put a river prawn in the center of the noodle cake, and finally fry it in a pan.When it comes out of the pan, both sides are golden, the middle shrimp is bright red, crisp and fresh, and the shredded radish inside is very fragrant.

Everyone likes this radish pancake.One spring, I went to Taiwan and went shopping for food. On Wenzhou Street, a section of Heping East Road in Taipei, I saw a long queue in front of a food stall. cake.He joined the queue without thinking, and watched the stall owner's technique while queuing. He was frying shredded radish pancakes in a pan.I bought two and ate them standing up. They were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and they were indeed very fragrant.I paid special attention to the fact that the shredded radish is freshly cut, which may be one of his tricks: freshly cut radish can keep the fragrance better.

Zhang Ailing mentioned a noodle soup in vegetable soup in the novel "Osmanthus Steamed A Xiaobeiqiu": "A pot of light green sticky, simmering, a little fat trembling on the surface..." This wonderful description is repeated. It once exposed Zhang Ailing's true nature as a senior foodie. Dried stinky tofu is one of Eileen Chang’s favorite snacks. She once described the funny situation of chasing after her to buy dried tofu: “When I heard a seller of stinky tofu coming from the door, I grabbed a bowl and ran down the sixth floor. Followed up the stairs, and found the whereabouts of the dried stinky tofu in a far street, and after buying it, take the elevator up.”

I have been to Zhang Ailing's former residence at No. 195 Changde Road, Shanghai. It is indeed a small building with six floors. There are still residents in the building, including the one where Zhang Ailing once lived. Private residence, do not enter."Visitors can only wander downstairs, look up and imagine, then take a photo and leave reluctantly. Standing downstairs, I looked around the sixth floor, imagining Zhang Ailing holding a bowl to buy dried stinky tofu, and I wanted to eat dried tofu, but the hawker selling stinky tofu was nowhere to be seen.