Markets-wet, wild and wriggling(2)
Shanghai has a distinctive market culture, a little slice of life, but nowadays shoppers seldom wear pajamas, which used to be very popular, and most don't wear rollers in their hair anymore.
Woven shopping baskets were once necessary; they were replaced by plastic but are again becoming popular since shoppers must pay for plastic.
All vendors throw in some spring onions, typical in Shanghai cooking, to built customary loyalty.
Bargaining is typical, even though the prices are quite cheap already. Vendors may cut 10 percent of the price, and sometimes 50 percent, depending on the item for sale and the shopper's bargaining skills.
It's advised to dress simply, because prices go up when hawkers see well-dressed customers.
Many chefs including Michelin-starred celebrity chefs Alain Ducasse and Jean-Georges Vongerichten say an important source of their inspiration comes from food markets where produce is fresh and seasonal.
This week, we take a suburban market stroll in the Pudong New Area with Sam Gao, Chinese executive chef at Pudong Shangri-La Shanghai, known for his Shanghai and Huaiyang cuisine.
He shares some of his sourcing experience, introduces special local ingredients and describes how to cook them at home.
"Compared with big supermarkets, I prefer shopping at food markets since the food there are fresher and cheaper," the chef says.
At the entrance gate of the Dongchang Road Market, there's usually a large stall of green vegetables; around 80 percent are said to be locally grown to ensure freshness.
Seasonal ingredients like caotou (草头), a kind of clover blossom, and Chinese cabbage are displayed prominently. The vendor keeps spraying them with water to keep them fresh.
Chef Sam says the caotou is now very tender and fragrant. Shanghainese usually fry it with baijiu (白酒, distilled liquor) or made it into caotou quanzi (草头圈子) - caotou braised in soy sauce with pork intestine - a typical Shanghai dish.
Two kinds of Chinese cabbage are available; the greenhouse variety is large and light green in color. The cabbage grown outdoors has dark green leaves with some white spots.
"I recommend buying those grown outdoors and harvested after the first frost; they have glutinous texture and natural sweetness and can be fried simply at home," the chef says.
Shanghainese tend to add sugar when frying to bring out the cabbage flavor.
One month later in spring, the market will sell local wild greens from rural Chongming County and Qingpu District, such as malantou (马兰头) or Indian aster, and gouqi tou (枸杞头) leaves of wolfberry.
Some greens are available all year, such as jicai (荠菜) or shephard's purse, which is often made into wonton; watercress, often fried with dougan (豆干), a kind of dried tofu with a firm texture.
There's a wide range of colorful, appealing vegetables, including red tomatoes, white turnip, carrots, Chongming gold melons, purple eggplant, red cabbage and white cabbage.
Vendors often provide simple cooking suggestions on which vegetables to combine and how to prepare them.
Near the vegetable stalls, there are usually vendors selling tubors, such as potato, Chinese yam, taro, water chestnut and cigu (慈姑), the bulbus corm of the aquatic sagittaria.
Many old Shanghainese love cigu shao rou (慈姑烧肉), the corm braised with pork, in cold winter. Cigu or the corm itself doesn't contain strong flavor but has a flour-like texture, which highlights the pork's meaty flavor and helps absorb the grease, says chef Sam.
