Shanghai New Year Custom： the Oral Flavor of New Year’s Eve Dinner

Original: Yuan Nianqi Shanghainese AB noodles.

Gu Lu, a Qing Dynasty man, wrote in Qing Jia Lu: "On New Year’s Eve, every family holds a banquet, and the old and the young gather together in a salty way, which is called’ New Year’s Eve’, commonly known as’ family fun’."

Wash your hands before the New Year’s Eve. After washing, you should not eat it on the table by yourself, but "celebrate the New Year" first, that is, worship your ancestors. The dish of New Year’s Eve is to respect our ancestors first. Set up a table to light candles, drink water, don’t forget to dig wells, and remember the kindness of ancestors.

Caption: New Year’s Eve, ancestor worship first.

At the start of the New Year’s Eve dinner, the ancestor worship activities commemorated the ancestors, but prayed for the ancestors to bless future generations with wealth and happiness. A Shanghai Zhuzhi poem wrote: "All doors and windows are closed together, and bowls, cups and chopsticks are placed neatly. When the ingots are burned, they will be delivered, and the descendants will prosper and have copper coins. "

At the New Year’s Eve dinner, not only does the ancestor worship contain the complex of winning the favor, but the Shanghai people’s New Year’s Eve dinner is also a big party to win the favor. On the occasion of saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year, express your endless good wishes for the new year.

Caption: New Year’s Eve dinner is a big gathering to win favor.

When my grandfather was alive, he was in charge of the family reunion dinner. He is good at crispy duck, sweet and sour yellow croaker, oily meat and eight-treasure rice, and several other dishes are "prescribed actions" that are firm every year. There must be meat and eggs in meat dishes, bean sprouts, collapsed vegetables, day lily fungus, etc. in vegetables, there must be meat wrapped in louvers, egg dumplings and vermicelli in soup.

Generally speaking, cooking these dishes has a point. It can really be said: the implication is in the dish, and the mouth color is in the mouth. This table of dishes mainly shows the two themes of "Yuanbao" and "Ruyi".

Caption: Egg dumplings are gold ingots.

"Yuanbao" series-"Jin Yuanbao" is egg dumplings, and "Yuanbao meat" is boiled eggs with meat.

Caption: Braised meat with venetian blinds-"Ruyi Juan".

"Ruyi" series-"Ruyi Juan" is meat wrapped in venetian blinds, and "Ruyi dish" is soybean sprouts, and it is also a "Ruyi eight-treasure dish" including soybean sprouts, oil tofu, day lily, fungus, mushrooms, shredded noodles, dried radish and winter vegetables.

Caption: Ruyi Babao dish.

In addition, there are thread powder called "silver bars", "collapsed and long" collapsed vegetables, and "fried rice cakes that are high every year". In particular, "Ruyi Babao Cuisine" should be eaten not only on New Year’s Eve, but also on the first day of the lunar new year.

Other dishes of Shanghainese’s New Year’s Eve dinner also include "Family Portrait", "Dragon and Phoenix Dried Silk" and "Hongxi Milk Rotten Meat".

Caption: Family photo.

On the internet, there are also recipes for New Year’s Eve dinner. For example: "five blessings"-pork belly, grass shrimp, squid, sea cucumber and ham are the main products.

"Three Yang Kai Tai"-pork tripe, squid and chicken leg play the leading role.

"More than every year"-Braised carp

"lucky strike"-Stewed tofu with silver carp head.

I always feel that these dishes are a little far north. Shanghai people don’t touch carp very much, and they think it’s rustic. The belly and squid are generally independent of each other, and the belly is cut in white, while the squid holds a certain vegetable.

After the reform and opening up, people who have infiltrated the market economy have a more prominent and strong yearning for getting rich. Poverty is no longer a glory, it is fair and square to look at money, and everyone is bent on a well-off life. People in festivals, in particular, no longer keep the idea of getting rich deep in their hearts, but wantonly publicize this banner with the help of oral colors.

Caption: Ask for a favor at the New Year’s Eve dinner.

According to a sociologist’s point of view, festivals are time and space outside the daily time and space, and the life of festivals is different in time and space. Therefore, festival activities are not only different from daily activities, but also have more profound significance. In this particular time and space, people express their wishes and feelings through symbolic material and spiritual ways, which is an affectionate expression of yearning for poetic habitation. At our New Year’s Eve dinner, the same is true.

Yuan Nianqi. In 1978, he was admitted to the university from the farm and obtained a bachelor’s degree in law. In 1983, he was admitted to Shanghai TV Station, senior editor (professional and technical level II) and winner of Shanghai Yangtze River Taofen Award. Member of Shanghai Writers Association. He won the first prize in the annual competition of national newspaper supplements, and was selected as the best prose in China and China News Yearbook edited by Wang Meng. He is the author of Shanghai Brand Life, Shanghai Threshold, Shanghai Marriage, Shanghai B Noodles and Snacks for Food.

Original title: "Shanghai New Year Customs II: The Oral Color of New Year’s Eve"

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