Chinese New Year Eve Family Dinner in Shanghai

Our good friend Arufa was in Shanghai for Chinese New Year.  He sent me pictures of his New Year Eve dinner.  It was a feast of traditional Shanghai home cooking.  All together there were twelve dishes of fish, meat, vegetables and dumplings prepared with various cooking techniques.  They were served family style, which meant all dishes, both cold and hot, were placed on the dinner table at the same time, to be eaten in no particular order, though it was usual to eat the hot dishes, especially seafood, before they got cold.

清蒸大閘蟹 Steamed hairy crabs – Hairy crabs, an expensive delicacy and a favorite of Chinese and Japanese, come from Yangcheng Lake adjacent to Suzhou, about 100 kilometers east of Shanghai.  Japanese calls them “Shanghai crabs”.

海蜇 Jellyfish – A cold dish of crunchy jellyfish with a dipping sauce of dark soy sauce and crushed garlic.

紅燒圏子 “Hong shao” rings of pig intestines – “Hong shao”, sometimes also called “red-cooked”, is braising with soy sauce and sugar.  The finished dish takes on a red-brown color.  The pig intestines are called “rings” because of the shape of the cut pieces.

老筍 Braised “old” bamboo shoot – “Old” here refers to the lower part of bamboo shoot, as opposed to the young tender tip.  

燒蝦仁冬筍 Stir-fried river shrimps and diced bamboo shoot.

紅燒鴨子 “Hong shao” whole duck.

炸鷄翅 Deep-fried chicken wing.

Three dishes clockwise from top:   

- 紅燒帶魚 “Hong shao” beltfish – Beltfish (帶魚, 牙帯), long and narrow, is cut into pieces and braised.  The fish is known to Japanese as tachiuo (太刀魚). 
- 芹菜拌腐竹 Chinese celery and dried soy sheet (yuba) – Chinese celery has very narrow stalks.  It is more intense in aroma and flavor than the western variety.  The dried yuba was rehydrated and stir-fried with celery, and cooled down to be a cold dish.  It was seasoned with light soy sauce and sesame oil.
- 芹菜炒木魚 Stir-fried Chinese celery and squid.  

油爆蝦 “You bao” river shrimps, and餃子 homemade dumplings in the back – The key is to use fresh local river shrimps which are superb in taste and texture.  The cooking technique was “Yao bao 油爆“, rapid stir-frying in a large amount of oil at very high temperature, in this case with ginger and green scallion.  The dish was served hot at this family dinner, though it could be served either hot or cold.  The dumplings were filled with pork and chopped celery.  They were cooked two ways: boiled in water and pan fried (a.k.a. pot stickers). 

Arufa and his family gathered around the table for the feast, chatting and eating, enjoying the reunion at the festive time.  After dinner, married members gave the children “red packets” which they put under their pillows for good luck.  It was a wonderful way to bid goodbye to the old year and usher in the new one.

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Shanghaiese like their river shrimps.  Besides the afore-mentioned “you bao”, two popular preparations are “plain stir-fried (清炒蝦仁)”, and “stir-fried with tips of longjing tea (龍井蝦仁)”.

龍井蝦仁 River shrimp with longjing tea leaves at Jin Xuan (金軒), The Ritz-Carlton Shanghai, Pudong (courtesy of Arufa).

清炒蝦仁 “plain stir-fried” river shrimp at Yi Long Court (逸龍閣), The Peninsula Shanghai (courtesy of Arufa).

As restaurant food goes, both dishes are plain looking, but don’t be fooled by the appearance.  They are incredibly delicious.  River shrimps are small, about the same size as rock shrimps from the Gulf of Mexico when shelled, each piece just big enough for one bite or two.  The small size makes them perfect for stir-frying, resulting in a crispy firm texture.  A plain stir fry is the perfect way to bring out the umami or the “savory sweet” flavor of the shrimps.  Stir-fry with longjing tea leaves adds a delicate fragrance without distracting the natural flavor of the shrimps.  These dishes are best in the area around Shanghai and environ.  It is impossible to find river shrimps of the same quality outside that area.