Wang Qiyao wanted to invite Master Yan and Mao Mao’s maternal uncle to a casual dinner. The preparation started in the afternoon. A chicken, sliced off the breast and kept for stir-fry, half of the stew, half of the white chop, together with shrimps in brine, eggs and bran, counted as four cold pots. The hot dishes are sliced chicken, carp with scallions, dried celery and tofu, and scrambled eggs with razor clams.
Wang Qiyao, a character in Wang Anyi’s novel “The Long Hate Song”, is a Shanghai lady from the Shikumen. Because of her experience, she has collected her lust and is cautious, and is undoubtedly tactful and transparent in human affairs. This meal was the first family dinner when she became acquainted with Yan’s mother and had her first love affair with Mao’s maternal uncle.
Wang Qiyao was not as well-off as Mrs. Yan, the wife of a national capitalist, and she could just ask the kitchen aunt to make a duck that could not be beaten in a restaurant for a home-cooked meal. On a cold day with falling rain, a warm pot with green spinach and snow-white vermicelli was added by burning fine charcoal. For the afternoon snack, it was also a small steamed bun with soup that Aunt Niang bought back by yellow cart. When Wang Qiyao made this table, she “did not mean to overshadow Master Yan, nor did she mean to neglect her.
Seeing this table of cold pots and hot stir-fries, many Shanghainese will smile, right? Shanghai people like white chopped chicken, a grand banquet without this taste. The chicken breast meat of white chopped chicken is coarse and tasteless, and the Shanghainese call it “dumb” meat, so it is not liked. But the chicken breast batch of thin, quick stir-fry, is the best tasty, a dedicated housewife to adapt to the material. Brine shrimp – well, that’s probably the weather in May, – river shrimp when made, with seeds shrimp is not too expensive, boiled in salt water with green onions and ginger, decent and seasonal.
There are simple dishes such as egg and brine shrimp, but there must also be some carefully crafted dishes to be a “no slack”. I think it’s the baked bran with four kinds of joy, and it’s necessary to pair it with fungus, golden needle, shiitake mushroom, asparagus, white fruit and other mountain treasures to make it beautiful. However, in Wang Qiyao’s time, these were the only ingredients available for the annual festival, so it was probably difficult to get everything right. However, even though there are a few ingredients missing, the process must not be sloppy at all. The bran must be squeezed dry and torn into pieces by hand to increase the area for oil absorption and flavor. The ingredients are sautéed in oil to bring out the aroma, then ginger, spices and bran are slowly roasted over low heat to bring out the flavor. The baked bran should be salty with sweet, not dry, not wet, moist and elastic, which is a great test.
If there is an extra fire, the carp will be roasted at the same time. The carp in this dish is not too big, but smaller and tasty, and the thorns are easy to crisp up. This is probably the intention of Wang Qiyao’s economy. The carp is fried, and then a layer of green onions and a layer of fish like laying two or three layers, adding soy sauce, sugar and a little rice vinegar, it takes two or three hours to rip through. It has a strong fragrance. It is good for drinking and cooking.
Dried celery is made from local yellow-core herb celery, which is rich in celery flavor and tender without any dregs, and tastes good with dried aromatic celery, smoked celery and dried white tofu. Like the scrambled eggs with razor clams, the dish can be served in no time, as long as it is cut and prepared in advance. It is convenient for the hostess who is also the cook to join the last seat, otherwise the host will be busy in the kitchen and the guests will be upset, which is also rude and unpleasant.
Repeatedly examining the table, beautiful colors, meat and vegetables, the intensity of the mediation is appropriate, taking into account the cost of production and time to coordinate. This seems to be unhurried, but extremely intentional, really a Shanghai woman’s work.
The Long Hate Song, which was later made into a TV series, is one of the rare adaptations that is more moving than the original work. The heroine’s meaningful family dinner was presented in a three-second long shot by the director. The author has a heart, and the editor does not disappoint, which is rare. When we look more closely, the TV series eliminates the scrambled eggs with razor clams and replaces the chicken soup with egg stew with clams. This change, to remove the repetition, add the exquisite, not only know the voice, but deeper thought, connoisseur’s thought. This drama is really well shot.
Wang Qiyao’s family feast, so that Yan’s mother can see the identity of the hostess, but also let Mao Mao maternal uncle perceived the old dream of misery and helplessness, so did not hear Yao Yao calling him, handed him a bowl of wine stuffed dumplings. The rounds were rolled to the size of pearl rice, and the wine stuffing was made by themselves, without a single grain of tares.
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