Shanghai Snacks(1)
Shanghai snacks, which can be traced back to the Southern Song Dynasty, are renowned for their unique flavors. A wide selection of Shanghai snacks comprises dozens of pastries, buns, stuffed dumplings and rice and cakes, which are light, fresh, and tasty, and have long been popular among locals and visitors.
You Dun Zi
“You dun zi” is made from a kind of fried batter. You put the batter into a round spoon, add chopped scallion pieces and salty radish strips, and then fry the batter in hot oil. It is a kind of fried food that tastes delicious and crispy.
Hot Pot A Hot Choice for Winter
In cold weather, there’s nothing like hot pot – nourishing, fun, convivial and imaginative. Almost no skill is required. Just dip the colorful array of meats, seafood, vegetables and bean curd into the boiling water. It smells delicious. Noodles are commonly cooked in the nutritious soup at the end of the meal.
Eating hot pot or huoguo (literally “fire pot”) is convivial activity, enjoyed by friends and families drawn together by a delicious, healthful meal.
In a hot pot restaurant, gas-fueled or electric pots are provided, usually one per table, occasionally one small one per person.
Order your meats, seafood and vegetables raw. Dip them in the boiling soup to cook, then dip in various sauces. What’s left is a nourishing soup. Drink that too.
Hot pot restaurants may offer special-tasting soup stock (tangdi) and sauces, but the main courses are nearly all the same – an assortment of raw food. So the secret is freshness.
It is said that hot pot originated in what is now the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (mutton, of course) and then became an integral part of north China cuisine.
Sichuan Province in the southwest is famous for its spicy chili hot pot. Cantonese light shacha hot pot is popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Drunken chicken
Just as the fatted cow was slaughtered for the proverbial prodigal son, the chicken is often chased down, killed and cooked for an honored guest or a special occasion in China. And this happens everywhere – be it town or country.
Sometimes, there are interesting tales behind the way the bird is cooked – like the legendary beggar’s chicken. The story goes that a vagrant stole a stray chicken and was about to make away with his ill-gotten meal-to-be when the owner came chasing after.
Drunken chicken, originated from southern China, is now a popular dish nationwide. Photos by Pauline D Loh
The intelligent beggar scooped up some mud, slathered it over the bird, threw it into a convenient fire, and parked himself nearby looking like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. The owner couldn’t find his stolen chicken and soon gave up the chase.
When the coast was finally clear, the clever beggar broke through the mud, now baked hard, and discovered a perfectly roasted chicken. For his wits, if not his morals, the nameless vagabond had the dish named after him.
More often than not, the dish also came about because of particular regional resources, or lack thereof, as in the case of the salt-baked chicken, the signature dish of the Hakkas.
The Hakkas, or kejiaren (”guest people”), were an itinerant people famous as a hardy community able to labor hard and long, and respected for their work ethics.
Many of their dishes reflect that itinerant nature, and the origin of salt-baked chicken is no different, by all accounts.
As they shifted from place to place, they often used salt to preserve their food supplies. One day, it is said, a hungry Hakka decided to throw a whole salt-wrapped chicken into the oven. It turned out so tasty that more people soon copied the method.
Another way of preserving meat was to marinate it in wine, and in this, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang chefs were the masters.
Little wonder, as this region is home to some of China’s most famous wines, the huang jiu or yellow wine known as huadiao or shaoxing jiu.
There is an interesting tradition here. When a daughter is born, an urn of the best wine is be set aside and cellared until the girl grows up and gets married. At her wedding feast, the wine is served. This is the famous Virgin Red, or Nu’er hong.
But what if the baby is a boy? That same vat is still set aside and broken into when the boy grows up and attains the highest academic honors – thus justifying the name of Zhuangyuan hong, or Scholar Red.
Huangjiu, incidentally, is not distilled and has a lower alcohol content, unlike erguotou, the double-distilled fire-water that is such a favorite with the old gentlemen of Beijing.
Drunken chicken uses quality huangjiu, which imparts its particular fragrance to the meat without pickling it. Often, a few Sichuan peppercorns and a bouquet of scallions and ginger are added as flavoring.
Best eaten chilled, drunken chicken often completes the cycle by ending up as the perfect dish for a drinking session, whether it’s a toast to the scholar, or to the bride.
You eat less fat, caffeine, cheese – is salt next?
You never consume trans fats, have reduced caffeine, and rarely eat cheese. What’s next to banish from the menu? Salt, if consumer trend tracker Mintel is right.
Mintel has released its predictions for consumer packaged goods in 2010, saying next year’s new products will tend to recreate the familiar, sticking to the current trends of health, wellness, convenience and sustainability.
But Mintel predicted several core trends will impact new product development, with sodium reduction poised to be the next big health push after slowly getting a higher profile on supermarket shelves.
Between 2005 and 2008, the number of food production introductions containing a low, no, or reduced sodium claim rose 115 percent, according to Mintel, as studies linked sodium to hypertension, osteoporosis, kidney damage and stomach cancer.
Recent research found 52 percent of Americans are monitoring the amount of sodium in their diets and in Britain 35 percent of consumers now consider low salt content when buying food.
David Jago, director of trends and innovation at Mintel, said consumers have been relatively slow to add sodium to their dietary black lists but the trend is finally set to take hold.
“The key difference is that sodium reduction is being pushed by food companies and health organizations, not by consumers. This could mean slow adoption of the ‘less salt’ mantra by shoppers, even as the food industry moves ahead,” said Jago in a statement.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this year studies showed most Americans ate 3,436 mg of sodium a day whereas dietary guidelines recommended adults consume less than 2,300 mg a day or about one teaspoon of salt.
As well as the focus on sodium next year, Mintel forecast more companies will print information about calories on packaging, use more boutique style packaging to make buying the mundane seem more enjoyable, and use color code packaging.
Mintel also forecast that high quality private labels will thrive next year as consumers who turned to private labels during the recession stick with their new purchases and the definition of “local” goods will be expanded.
As for new flavors next year, Mintel predicted that cardamon, sweet potato, hibiscus, cupuacu, rose water and latin spices would find a place in U.S. kitchens.
Can’t get sugar? Try sweets in your tea
A laborer carries over a dozen pots of mixed black tea to sell to shop-keepers through a market in Peshawar, located in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province on April 23, 2009.[Agencies]
As Pakistanis face an acute shortage of sugar, some families have found an easily available alternative to sweeten their tea: instead of a spoonful of sugar, they dissolve sweets in their tea.
Shaikh Kashif, an embroiderer for a boutique in Karachi, said his favorite was a Cadbury Eclair.
“We can’t live without tea so we had to do something,” said Kashif, 27, from his small workshop in an upmarket city neighborhood.
“It just costs a rupee (1.2 U.S. cents) per candy and is easier to get these days than sugar,” he said.
Pakistan is facing a shortage of more than 1 million metric tons of sugar largely because of a poor crop of sugarcane.
Supplies have been particularly scarce since last month when surging prices led to a Supreme Court order to millers to sell sugar at 40 rupees/kg (48 U.S. cents), compared with the then-market price of about 46 rupees/kg.
Government attempts to implement the court decision have led to confusion, sparking even higher market prices. Authorities are trying to get cheap supplies out to shoppers but sugar has almost disappeared at main retail markets in Karachi.
Where it is available, it sells for as much as 70 rupees a kg.
That’s not a problem for Kashif who said the sweets he put in his tea gave it a chocolaty taste.
“Some in my family didn’t like that so they’re using a local candy which melts easily when you put it in a hot cup of tea,” he said. “We had to think of something to replace sugar and it’s worked for us.”
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