"In Shanghai, if you haven't tasted Sister Wang's craftsmanship, it may be difficult to claim to be a top gourmet." "A Bite of China" commented on Sister Wang's cooking. Every time Cai Lan lands in Shanghai, he usually goes to the Ahsan Restaurant near the airport for a meal, and in his mind, Lao Jishi and Ahsan Restaurant are located in the top two of Shanghai's local cuisine. Later, Shen Hongfei took him to taste Sister Wang's private dishes, and he smiled and praised Sister Wang's lard for using it well.
After being broadcast by the media, Sister Wang's reputation is no longer limited to the gourmet circle, and more and more people yearn for her food. However, food websites and group buying websites do not have its information, and they all rely on the recommendation of acquaintances to eat. Even with such popularity, it is still hot, and the position that can be booked is basically a few months later, Andy Lau has called several times, but they all ended in failure. The diners consciously maintained a tacit understanding of word of mouth, and Sister Wang's private dishes have been mysteriously hidden in a corner of the city.
Shanghai is located in an important commercial port, gathering people from all over the world, and the food is inclusive, and gradually there is a distinction between "local cuisine" and "Shanghai cuisine". Sister Wang's cooking of vegetable oil is thick, the sauce is red, and a large amount of white sugar is added, the material is ruthless, and it can be grasped properly, in the Shanghai proverb, it is to burn out the "killing roots" of this dish.
Sister Wang is a native of Shanghai, her cooking skills are mostly influenced by her parents, and when she was a child, she lived in Shanghai Shikumen, and her neighbors shared a stove, they came from all over the country, and they had their own ways of cooking. She has her own way of handling ingredients, as well as details that are not too noticed.
The dishes of this gang are one is thick oil, and the other is red sauce, both of which Sister Wang has unique experience. She boiled lard only to choose a thick pork belly plate oil, soaked it with water, added a small amount of green onions, after boiling, let the lard leach out naturally, instead of directly drying out the oil, such oil is more fragrant and healthier, and the umami that hangs out is the authentic taste of the old Shanghai local cuisine, and there are not many restaurants that do it well. As for the red sauce, Shanghainese people usually use soy sauce to color, after the juice is harvested, the color is full, the texture is thick, Sister Wang makes smoked fish, hairtail fish, circles (Shanghainese people call the large intestine circles) and other dishes are used properly, the sugar is set late, not only locks in the sweetness, but also the meat quality will not become firewood. As for the braised pork, the favorite home-cooked dish of Shanghainese, Sister Wang found another way, using red rice instead of soy sauce to color, the meat is soft and glutinous, inhaling rice fragrance, fat but not greasy, and has a unique flavor. This red rice sauce meat is Sister Wang's proud work, and it is said that movie star Mei Ting often comes to Sister Wang's house for dinner for this dish. Sister Wang's unique cooking methods abound, such as drunken crab, eight-treasure rice, mixed double bamboo shoots, silver mustard greens, red stewed shrimp, fried pomfret, dry fried hairtail, etc., are all good dishes. Of course, she has no professional training, she is all on her own, and there are restrictions on cooking in the home kitchen, and the dishes are not necessarily better than those of high-end hotels.
Sister Wang can cook a lot of home-cooked dishes, all of which are the flavors that Shanghainese people ate when they were children, such as braised fish head soup, rotten shredded meat, noodles and crabs, etc., these dishes are not difficult to make, but they can't be sold at a good price, and they are extinct in restaurants. Therefore, old Shanghainese love to come to her house for dinner, and most of them have a nostalgic mood.
From buying vegetables, you can see Sister Wang's love and dedication to cooking. She insists on purchasing by herself every day, but the selection is very harsh, and after getting acquainted with the vendors in the vegetable market, she can always let them take out the good goods at the bottom of the box. Because the ingredients are not fixed, after the guests make a reservation, Sister Wang will serve the dishes according to the budget, if the guests really want to eat the dishes, she will also try to meet them, in order to find the ingredients that meet the requirements, often spend most of the day running a few vegetable farms. When customers come to eat, they are assured of the quality of the ingredients.
After Sister Wang became famous, it also attracted criticism. Many posts on the Internet rumored that Sister Wang deceived the guests, and the dishes were not made by her, in fact, Sister Wang's own kitchen is transparent glass, and guests can clearly see that she is busy in the back kitchen when they eat; And the cook in the screenshot on the Internet is actually the chef invited by Sister Wang to make the cut.
On the Internet, some diners left messages that they had eaten Sister Wang's dishes in well-known restaurants, and that was because after Sister Wang became popular, several restaurants such as Mingdu City, Jiangsu Road and Lujiazui asked her to take the spoon, and the meal standard quickly rose from 2,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan a table, but in the end she failed to retain Sister Wang. Perhaps the price has been raised too high, Sister Wang has little experience in handling high-end ingredients, people feel that the cost performance is too low, and it is difficult to retain repeat customers. She still insists on cooking, but the veil of mystery has never been revealed, so if you can book a table, take the opportunity to eat it.
The Ahsan Hotel mentioned in the first paragraph was originally a relatively outstanding private restaurant for civilians, and he has been in charge for decades. It's a pity that Chef Ahsan has passed away at the end of 2017, and now it seems that his family is taking over the restaurant.
