What kind of morning tea lifestyle do you prefer? There are more and more good places for Mo Du to drink morning tea! Cantonese and Soviet style Shanghai | Morning Tea | Soviet style
In my impression, the traditional breakfast of Shanghai people is inseparable from the "Four Great Kings". With the development of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta, in the past one or two years, more and more Yangzhou and Taizhou morning tea shops have opened in Shanghai. Many local "time-honored brands" in Shanghai have reopened or adhered to the morning tea period of 7 or 8 o'clock, and the existing brand Cantonese restaurants have provided the population in Shanghai with a richer morning tea experience.
As a traditional social and dietary custom in China, morning tea is related to the dietary habits of a place and also reflects the historical development and cultural identity of a city. The reporter recently visited morning tea shops with different flavors in Shanghai to observe and experience the morning tea lifestyle in Shanghai. Cantonese people tend to refer to eating morning tea as "sighing tea", where "sighing" means enjoying it. What is the flavor of "sighing" when drinking morning tea in Shanghai?
Eating but lacking leisure
At 8:00 am on weekends, the "Yechun Tea House" located at the Old West Gate has lined up to call. More than a dozen round tables in the store are almost full, and each table is filled with authentic Yangzhou breakfast: hot dried silk, crab roe soup dumplings, jade barbecue
The Yechun Tea House located in the Old West Gate starts calling on weekends around 8 o'clock. Photo by Peng Wei
Yechun Tea Society is a renowned century old Yangzhou morning tea shop that opened a branch in Shanghai more than three years ago. After sitting down, the reporter ordered a portion of crab roe boiled dry silk and three diced buns, and the waiter immediately brought a small pot of green tea. Just as the reporter was eagerly anticipating an early arrival, Ms. Yang from the neighboring table said, "It's not urgent, let's have some tea first."
Ms. Yang is a regular customer of this store. Her ancestral home is in Yangzhou and she is from New Shanghai. She said that since childhood, she has been eating morning tea with her elders in Yangzhou and can eat from 7 to 11 o'clock. Local morning tea shops in Yangzhou are all accompanied by a group of friends or a large family, and the Dim sum on the table are piled up in mountains. But when she came to Shanghai to eat Yangzhou morning tea, she found that the "taste" was somewhat different. "I see some people who come to eat morning tea come and go in a hurry. In their eyes, morning tea shops are like breakfast shops. This is related to the relatively fast pace of work and life in Shanghai.".
Boiled crab roe with dried shreds. Photo by Peng Wei
The diners who come to Yechun to drink tea are mainly middle-aged and elderly people, family groups, and a few young couples. Due to the large number of people during holidays, the speed of dining in the store is somewhat slow. Interestingly, elderly people are not in a hurry and often chat while eating tea; Middle aged people, young couples, and other diners occasionally urge waiters to serve tea, and most of the waiting time is spent playing with their phones, eliminating the leisure of drinking morning tea.
The reporter noticed that from 8am to 10am, the turnover rate in the store is relatively high, and there are not many customers who can eat breakfast tea for more than an hour and a half. The fastest ones leave in 30 to 40 minutes, but some elderly people can sit for more than 2 hours. The working days are relatively quiet, but there are still occasional diners coming.
Crab roe soup dumplings. Photo by Peng Wei
Compared to Yangzhou morning tea, the popularity of Taizhou morning tea is slightly inferior, and even some Shanghai people are unaware of it. One year ago, the first Shanghai branch of "Taizhou Morning Tea" opened on Sichuan North Road, near the Taizhou Guild Hall.
Compared with Yangzhou pastries, Taizhou morning tea pastries are larger, and the most famous ones are hot dried silk, fish soup noodles, fish soup Wonton, etc. Many diners also recommended Yangcao Baozi to reporters, which is a flavor that cannot be found in other shops in Shanghai. "It is Caotou Baozi, which has a light vanilla aroma and a strong taste.".
Taizhou Morning Tea Shop is located in the business district of Sichuan North Road. Photo by Peng Wei
The taste of hot dried silk is softer than that of Yangzhou, and the crab roe soup dumplings are larger than those of Yechun Tea House, but the price of 48 yuan is much higher than Yechun's. Diners said: "Taizhou has a large amount of morning tea, which is too 'real'. If you eat any of them, you can't eat anything else."
The main visitors to Taizhou morning tea shops are residents and office workers from the surrounding areas, as well as diners who come to admire them. Qin Fan, the post-90s generation, works on Sichuan North Road. She said that the morning tea shop opened at 7 a.m., and sometimes she simply took the subway in the early hours to avoid the morning rush hour of the subway and have a good breakfast. Many residents will pack some steamed buns and Wonton after breakfast tea.
Wonton in fish soup. Photo by Peng Wei
The reporter observed that the atmosphere of drinking tea in Taizhou morning tea shops seems to have decreased, making it difficult for people to calm down. The barley tea in the store is free. If you need Longjing, Tie Guanyin, white tea, etc., the fee ranges from tens of yuan. For example, a pot of white tea costs 88 yuan, which is not very cost-effective for diners who come alone to experience it. If a pot of tea is missing, it is like losing the "soul" of morning tea. Many people quickly leave after eating a bowl of small Wonton or red Noodles in soup. In addition, the ordering mode is to scan the QR code, which reduces interaction and communication between diners and servers compared to the paper version of the check box.
There are also regrets in the innovation of tea snacks
Nowadays, Cantonese restaurants such as Dian Du De and Fan Lou are mostly located in commercial buildings and open for business after 10am. Experience Guangzhou style morning tea at 7 or 8 o'clock in the morning in Shanghai, and Shanghai's time-honored brands such as Xinya and Xinghualou have become good choices.
The Xinya Tea House, born in 1926, has attracted many literati and scholars such as Lu Xun and Ba Jin to visit. Many Cantonese restaurants in Shanghai temporarily suspended morning tea services, but Xinya Nanjing East Road headquarters has been sticking to morning tea stalls after 7:30 pm, accumulating many loyal old tea customers.
Whether on weekdays or weekends, Zhu Hong, the executive chef of Xinya Cantonese Restaurant, always meets some old tea customers who basically choose to sit at a fixed dining table. Most of the old tea drinkers are "Lao Guang" rooted in Shanghai, and there are also some Shanghai locals who love Cantonese morning tea. "The 'Lao Guang' people chat with us in Shanghai dialect, but when they sit around a table for breakfast tea, they speak Cantonese. They have been eating breakfast tea in Xinya since they were young, and many elderly people in their seventies and eighties still insist on coming every month, which has become a sentiment."
Xinya Tea House. Information images
Zhu Hong introduced that "time-honored brands" have always faced the problem of innovation. Shrimp dumplings, Shaomai, vermicelli, Cha siu bao, the "four kings" of Guangzhou style morning tea, have always been popular. Xinya also launched an innovative version of Shanghai local breakfast inspired by Guangzhou style ingredients. For example, Shanghai people like to eat fried rice cakes, and Xinya has developed a popular dish called Matsutake Yaozhu fried rice cake. For example, Chen Pi Fang Gao. Dousha Fang Cake is a pastry commonly eaten by Shanghai people, while Chen Pi is a popular ingredient in Cantonese cuisine and soup making. By combining its flavors, it is an innovative tea dish. So, when drinking morning tea in Xinya, there is a diverse selection of varieties and a style that embraces all kinds of flavors.
The highly praised Tangshaweng is a semi lost traditional Dim sum of Guangdong developed by Xinya in the past year, which is sold out every day. This Dim sum is only available in some small tea restaurants in Guangdong, and it is not often seen in brand stores or large hotels. The taste is somewhat similar to the sugary cakes eaten by Shanghainese. Because they are fried Dim sum, they are both loose and fragrant, and will melt when you bite them. "Morning tea needs to be innovative, but innovation cannot be separated from its roots. On the one hand, it needs to explore tradition, and on the other hand, it cannot be completely unrecognizable."
Dim sum of Cantonese morning tea. Information images
Like many morning tea shops, Xinya has a relatively high popularity on weekends, with revenue two or three times higher than usual. Zhu Hong said that in the past two years, Shanghai's Cantonese cuisine has become increasingly diverse, integrating local snacks and constantly improving and innovating, with more customers than in previous years.
Another Shanghai "time-honored brand" Xinghualou reopened its 8 o'clock morning tea on weekdays at the end of 2021. Over a year has passed, how is the situation with the 8 o'clock morning tea now?
The reporter also chose weekends to experience it. At 9 o'clock in the morning, there was not a single table of guests for the morning tea on the second floor of Xinghua Building Fuzhou Road Main Store. In less than half an hour, a few tables of guests came sporadically, including local residents and tourists from other places. There are also many varieties of early tea in Xinghualou, reaching fifty or sixty. There are also some distinctive Dim sum, such as gold medal and cattle tarts, pomelo buns with vegetable juice, fruit salad, etc.
Desserts from Xinghualou
In the eyes of some citizens, the renovated Xinghua Building has restored Guangdong morning tea at 8 o'clock, which at least meets the needs of some Shanghai residents and provides an additional option for eating morning tea. Uncle Wu, a diner, said that he invited several old friends to Mount Huangshan and Huizhou next month for free travel. He chose to discuss the trip in the morning tea shop, drink tea, eat Dim sum, and plan the trip. It was very relaxing. But compared to the past, it lacks the atmosphere of Cantonese morning tea. For example, there is no car to push Dim sum, and tea is not divided into big, middle, small, etc. Tea only has three choices: black tea, chrysanthemum, and Pu'er, which is somewhat regrettable.
The transformation of traditional morning tea in big cities
Stealing half a day's leisure is the essence of traditional morning tea culture. Looking back at the morning tea life in Shanghai, the reporter found that eating morning tea during leisure time in the fast-paced city has become a kind of luxury time to some extent. The popular morning tea in Guangdong, Yangtai and other regions has quietly undergone some changes in Shanghai.
At present, the majority of people who drink morning tea are middle-aged and elderly people, especially retired elderly people. Morning tea is not very attractive to young people in Shanghai. Firstly, their daily work schedule determines that there is not enough time to "sigh at tea". Secondly, many young people on weekends are unwilling to wake up early just to have morning tea. In the view of Shanghai writer and food critic Shen Jialu, many Cantonese restaurants in Shanghai are gradually developing their morning tea into a formal meal. "For example, Cantonese restaurants such as Dian Du De, Tao Tao Ju, and Fan Lou are mostly located in commercial districts. They say they refer to morning tea, but in reality, they have turned into afternoon tea, which many Shanghainese enjoy." He said that turning morning tea into afternoon tea is more in line with the pace of life in Shanghai.
Morning tea is not only developing towards a more formal dining style, but also has a trend of all-weather consumption, breaking through time constraints. The reporter learned that whether it is "time-honored brands" such as Xinya and Xinghualou, or Cantonese restaurants such as Diandude and morning tea shops in Yangzhou and Taizhou, their consumption scenes have expanded from morning tea to the whole day, and the time range for enjoying morning tea has been extended. From morning, noon to afternoon, even evening, you can eat the classic Dim sum of morning tea almost all day long. The tea and snacks consumed remain unchanged, but the time has changed. From the perspective of enjoying delicious food, this does not make much difference for many consumers.
In the interview, many diners reported that after Guangzhou style morning tea and Yangtai morning tea arrived in big cities such as Shanghai, their prices became more high-end. Many local morning tea shops in Guangdong have outstanding cost-effectiveness, with a per capita consumption of 50-60 yuan to enjoy a variety of snacks. However, in places such as Shanghai and Beijing, Cantonese morning tea tends to be branded for mid to high end consumption. Some brand shops have an per capita consumption of over 100 yuan, while there are fewer stores with an per capita consumption of less than 50 yuan.
Crab Meal Roast in Xinya Tea House
During the process of tasting morning tea, some consumers also found that the increasingly branded and standardized Cantonese style tea houses have created new problems under the unified production. On some review websites, consumers have given negative reviews that "eating morning tea gives the taste of frozen products.". They came up with a morning tea strategy: "A good morning tea shop must have a pure handmade open kitchen, and all the freshly made tea snacks are served."
In Zhu Hong's view, eating morning tea is better than freshly made and fresh, so Xinya morning tea insists on not using semi-finished and pre made products. In addition, different morning tea shops should have their own characteristics, rather than 100% standardized development, which will erase the smoky atmosphere of morning tea. He believes that with the development of cities, the form of morning tea will change according to different cities and populations, but it will not affect its inheritance.
Drinking morning tea is a way of life that conveys a longing for a beautiful and comfortable life. The rapidly moving society requires the aroma of a pot of clear tea and the package of rich snacks. City, why not give morning tea a place.
