Queues already forming for festival mooncakes
With the clock ticking down to the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time for family reunions in China, there's a festive atmosphere on Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall with the aroma of mooncakes lingering in the air.
At the 98-year-old Sunya Cantonese Restaurant on the pedestrian mall, the fragrance of xianrou yuebing, or mooncakes with pork filling, attracts residents and tourists.
The classic seasonal delicacy features a rich ground pork filling and a flaky outer pastry.
The traditional while unique zao (a fermented flavor) technique makes an intoxicating combination with pork stuffing for the first time based on the restaurant's innovative recipe.
The recipe originated from the Shanghai-style xiangzao (a fermented flavor) technique developed by the Tong Tai Xiang Restaurant established in 1907 in the city, which occupied an important position in local dishes, second only to "thick oil and heavy red sauce." The xiangzao products launched by Tong Tai Xiang in the 1980s soon became a local hit.
"We select the leftover of yellow wine brewing, which has a mellow fragrance after fermentation, and then mix it with 10-year yellow wine and more than 10 kinds of spices in certain proportions, seal it for 24 hours, and after the second fermentation, the fragrance of the materials blends with the fragrance of the wine," said Sunya's executive chef Huang Renkang.
"The fermented water is then poured into a specially made bag with extremely fine weaving, and slowly filtered, resulting in clear and fragrant liquid with an amber color. We then add salt and sugar for seasoning to enrich the taste of the fermented juice."
"The unique wine fragrance is long-lasting and perfectly integrated into the filling," said Liu Yating, a tourist from neighboring Zhejiang Province who had been attracted by the queues. "While the texture of the filling is delicate, creating a balanced and rich taste experience offered a real delight."
To attract young people, the restaurant has launched a Hello Kitty 50th Anniversary mooncake gift box and a Gundam mooncake gift box.
It also includes some fashionable flavors for young people, incorporating elements such as cheese and matcha into the mooncakes.
There is also a barbecued pork stuffing featuring layers of nuts combined with the unique salty fragrance of barbecued pork and oyster sauce, resulting in a meaty texture with a mix of both sweet and salty flavors, as well as salted egg yolk and meat floss, and shredded coconut flavors.
Outdated impressions of mooncakes are being overturned this year.
The time-honored Shen Da Cheng Restaurant has launched a suancaiyu, a spicy fish dish cooked with sour pickled cabbage and chili, as well as a bacon cheese flavor, appealing to young people. Suancaiyu is one of the most popular Chinese dishes enjoyed across the country.
Wang Bao He, another time-honored restaurant in the city known for its hairy crab cuisine, has introduced famous stir-fried Chinese dishes auch as fish-flavored shredded pork and steamed pork with preserved vegetables into mooncakes.
This year's Mid-Autumn Festival is on September 17.