In Lantian Road, Putuo District, there is a long-established Shanghai brand that makes freshly baked mooncakes - "Yue Lai Fang". Every year, when the mooncakes are fragrant, the old residents living in the surrounding area are accustomed to buying two hot and fragrant puff pastry fresh meat mooncakes on the way to buy vegetables or leave work to taste the seasonal taste.
In fact, the old brand that integrates into the ordinary life of the people also has a side that hides the merit and name.
The mysterious craftsmanship that spread from the red walls of the Forbidden City once branched and scattered in the hutongs of the capital, and eventually withered away due to the changes of the times, but one of them went all the way south and took root in Shanghai, passed down from generation to generation for 95 years, and finally preserved the unique precious bloodline in the country.
This is the Beijing-style mooncake making process inherited by the "YueLaifang" masters.
Shanghai's only Yuelaifang turned over the mao mooncake.
Fresh meat mooncakes and hairy mooncakes have become the two golden signs of "Yue Lai Fang" that have gained a firm foothold in the market.
【Intangible Cultural Heritage Crafts Must Always Be Passed On】
September 2 is a ritual day for Yang Wuhui, a 32-year-old pastry chef at Yuelaifang. This year's first batch of Baiguo Turned Mooncakes was officially baked on this day.
In 1926, starting from Chen Shanqing, the founder of Yuelaifang, the intangible cultural heritage production process of turning the hair mooncake was passed down to Yang Wuhui, and three years ago, his master Ni Endi retired, and the heavy responsibility fell on the shoulders of young people.
At the age of 16, Yang Wuhui entered Yue Laifang as an apprentice, because he was smart and studious, and was recognized by Master Ni. In 2008, after the "Famous Teachers and Apprentices" ceremony held in the district, Yang Wuhui officially worshiped Master Ni as his teacher and learned to make mooncakes.
Yang Wuhui inherits the old craft of making hairy mooncakes
Legend has it that during the Qing Dynasty, the hairy mooncake was placed on the desk of Empress Dowager Cixi for the first time, and its unassuming appearance made Lafayette very unhappy, and even slapped the table. Unexpectedly, this shot made the puff pastry on the mooncake fly and dance, and the exquisite craftsmanship also impressed the well-informed Cixi at once. The outer skin is so fluffy and crispy, the taste is wonderful, mixed with the fresh and soft sticky pie filling, so that this strength to overcome the appearance of the moon cake has been given the name of "turning the hair moon cake".
Most of the mooncakes use vegetarian filling, not only for a long time to preserve, but also because the humidity of the vegetarian filling is more controllable than the meat filling, and the Baiguo mooncake is a more complex and richest taste in various flavors.
Pine nuts, walnut kernels, melon seeds, sesame seeds, kumquats, green plums, winter melon sugar, almonds, sugar osmanthus flowers, the filling used in the Hundred Fruit Mooncake must be carefully selected, and a pine nut that walks oil may ruin the taste of the whole hairy mooncake. The production of hairy mooncakes is more cumbersome, the process is complicated, and some secret key mental methods are involved in the middle, so the descendants of Yue Laifang never easily assume this craft in the hands of others.
"As soon as I entered Yue Laifang, I knew that there was a saying that there was a mooncake, and every year I watched the teachers make it. After working for many years, I have the opportunity to lay the groundwork, divide the embryos, and weigh the filling. "Yang Wuhui looks at it every time and remembers it in his heart.
"If you want the puff pastry to float up like a feather, when wrapping it, there should be a 45-degree angle between the puff pastry and the oil skin, which is an ancient method to be strictly followed."
The production of the hundred fruit filling is a test of the master's skill.
Yang Wuhui first mixed the powdered sugar and sesame oil, stirred continuously with a plate, so that the sugar and oil were fully integrated, becoming as viscous as toffee, and then mixed the prepared baiguo raw materials to make a filling. The proportion of raw materials has strict standards to make a filling with moderate sweetness, which is also one of the secret recipes taught by Master Ni to Yang Wuhui.
There is an ancient method of making a mooncake that is strictly followed
38 grams of filling, 40 grams of skin, 78 grams of raw embryo of a turned mooncake, 70 grams after baking. "3 points of table, 7 points of oven", in the past, when the chef baked the mooncake, no one was allowed to go near the oven. Nowadays, the time and heat of baking are all controlled by Yang Wuhui. A plate of raw embryos is covered with food-grade kraft paper and put into the oven, adjust the temperature, and after about 40 minutes, the mooncakes are baked, and the room is suddenly full of aroma.
The puff pastry surface has a nice thread, and the light touch of the puff pastry falls into the plate. The skin of the mooncake is light and tasteless, but it is chewed with the filling of the fruit, and it is soft and sweet. Even after a few weeks of storage, the puff pastry of the mooncake is still thin, thin and crispy. Zhao Heng's "Old Food Man's Pen" once had the most detailed and vivid description of the hairy mooncake: "As thin as chalk, as thin as cotton paper".
The kung fu of making the mooncake is in the "3-point table, 7-point oven".
The production of the mooncake is time-consuming and laborious. Master Yang and his colleagues can make thousands of fresh meat mooncakes a day, but they can only make hundreds of mooncakes.
Every year, Yuelaifang only accepts reservations, and this year received 2400 orders. A box of 6 turned mooncakes, the price of 268 yuan, equivalent to more than 40 yuan a piece. Such a price is not acceptable to the average consumer.
Hundred fruit turned hair mooncake.
Even if the price is expensive, there has always been no shortage of gourmets who know how to appreciate the mooncakes, Yang Wuhui said: "Listening to the old man in the store, there is an old customer in Beijing who orders every year, and when the mooncakes are sent to her, often the puff pastry drops a box, but she does not mind, on the one hand, the puff pastry scattered is a proof of craftsmanship, and it is also rare to see such a real fruit filling on the market." ”
【"Front shop and back workshop" returns to the original point】
No matter how good the mooncake is, it is always difficult to enter the homes of ordinary people. What really makes Yue Laifang stand firm in the market is still a fresh meat mooncake with rich juice and cheap price.
Rows of fresh meat mooncake embryos are neatly stacked, stamped with the red seal of "Yue Lai Fang", and baked in the oven. The baked fresh meat mooncake has a crispy skin, golden color, and a tender black pork filling, with a hint of Shanghainese favorite fresh sweetness.
The most elaborate process of fresh meat mooncakes is also in the puff pastry. Is it possible to achieve a layer of puff pastry and a layer of skin, and the old diners can understand it in one bite.
The chef is preparing the crust of the fresh meat mooncake.
The crust of the fresh meat mooncake pressed by the machine has a lumpy texture and is very different from the hand-wrapped puff pastry. Based on the technique of making a hairy mooncake, puff pastry is Yue Laifang's best trick.
Fresh meat mooncake 6 yuan / piece, egg yolk fresh meat mooncake 7.5 yuan / piece, radish shredded fresh meat mooncake 5 yuan / piece, the store window to supply three of the most classic varieties. In order to wait for a stove of freshly baked mooncakes, some exquisite diners are willing to stand on the side of the road and wait for a long time, and after getting their hands, they directly get their stomachs on the spot, and the hot fresh meat mooncakes are still in the best condition, and the puff pastry that bites down can be scattered on the ground.
"Front shop and back workshop" was once a major feature of Yue Lai Fang. In 1926, Chen Shanqing founded Yuelaifang on Lauberson Road (now Changshou Road) in Western Huxi.
At that time, the shop was surrounded by factories, and the commuting hours were crowded, and all kinds of cakes and Su-style candies produced and sold by themselves made Yuelaifang's business prosperous. Gradually, Yuelaifang became famous on the beach because of its stable production and reliable flavor, and became a well-known brand name.
With the change of the times, the old store has undergone several relocations, the front store and the back workshop have been forced to separate, and the awareness of the Yuelaifang brand among Shanghainese has also declined. Until 5 years ago, when Gao Lijun became the general manager of Shanghai Yuelaifang Food Co., Ltd., the situation changed somewhat.
Lao Gao does not like to eat pastries, but it does not affect his interest as a business operator in the cultural connotations of the old brand, and the answer may lie in the traditional craftsmanship if he wants to revive the old brand, which is now somewhat declining. The old man in the shop told him that the mooncakes produced in the workshop in the past were all ready to take advantage of the heat and immediately brought to the container in the store. "In the 1970s, every Mid-Autumn Festival, customers lined up on the Longevity Road, and the scene was spectacular."
This story made Gao Lijun yearn for the grand situation of Yuelaifang for a while, and decided to restore the production and operation mode of the factory before and after the store of Yuelaifang. He asked someone to design the layout of the workshop, and it took a lot of effort to apply for a production license.
"When the card came down, I suddenly calmed down, and the old store finally returned to its original point."
The rise of fresh meat mooncakes has a relationship with Yue Laifang. Shanghai writer Shen Jialu wrote that before the 1990s, fresh meat mooncakes were born in the "Yuelaifang" area of Caoyang Road and Lanxi Road in Shanghai. During the planned economy period, "meat tickets" were used to buy pork, and shanghai residents had an average of 2 yuan per person per month, and they could only buy 1 kilogram of pork. Buying fresh meat mooncakes requires neither meat tickets nor food stamps, so it is very popular.
Yuelaifang, who ate the "policy dividend", made many merchants red-eyed, using an asphalt barrel to convert it into a briquette stove, and then putting a pan on the shelf, and the scene of a small restaurant selling fresh meat mooncakes on the street became a common practice for a while.
At the end of the 1980s, Yuelaifang realized that the demand for fresh meat mooncakes was breaking through the season, so it took advantage of the convenience of the former store and the factory to take the lead in trying to produce fresh meat mooncakes throughout the year. Since then, the eating habits of Shanghainese people have quietly undergone a small change, even in the cold winter month, the fragrant fresh meat mooncake can become a comforting civilian food.
[It's not easy to polish the "old brand" signboard]
Guangming Estate, Zhen Lao Fang, West District Lao Fang, Shen Dacheng are all well-known fresh meat mooncake brands in Shanghai, and consumers often queue for hours. Even Xinya, which traditionally produces Cantonese-style mooncakes, has joined the ranks of selling fresh meat mooncakes. However, the brand of Yuelaifang has always been tepid. Only some of the "old lands" in the western Part of Shanghai will still chant Yue Laifang, and every year in the Mid-Autumn Festival, they will queue up to buy fresh meat mooncakes.
I don't know when it started, fresh meat mooncakes became "net red" goods, but Yue Laifang failed to take advantage of the trend. And the seasonal limit, limited production of wool mooncakes, it is difficult to change the situation of the brand for a while, when Gao Lijun takes over, what he can do is to first keep the old brand, improve the income of the masters, let them be at ease to be craftsmen. "The only one's hairy mooncake, so labor-intensive and time-consuming, why can't it be priced at seventy or eighty yuan a piece?" But without a tough brand endorsement, can consumers buy it? ”
Yuelaifang also has a self-operated store on Zhongshan North Road, in addition to setting up counters in Caoyang Mall and Huilian Commercial Building. In recent years, the company has cooperated with Hema Fresh and is also trying to broaden its sales channels. But as soon as sales went up, production capacity became a bottleneck.
Yuelaifang fresh meat mooncake was sold to Hema Fresh Shop.
"Every year in the middle of autumn, making mooncakes is too busy, and people in the office have to come to help. But after two months of busyness, it is idle again, so it is difficult to recruit soldiers to expand reproduction. Gao Lijun told reporters.
Yue Laifang's situation proves that the aura of the old brand does not come with its own traffic. In the old brand mapping in previous years, Yuelaifang was classified as a "sleeping brand" and once faced the embarrassment of brand valuation transfer.
Gao Lijun also thought of a lot of ways, he contacted the district cultural and tourism department, to carry out intangible cultural heritage into the community activities, tell the story of the old brand, by Master Yue Laifang to teach residents to make cakes, enhance the popularity of the old brand.
Mooncakes are seasonal foods, and Yuelaifang has been the busiest in the past two months.
Every year, the competition in the mooncake market intensifies, and various flavors such as pickled tuk tuk, thirteen spiced crayfish, and black pepper beef emerge in an endless stream. A few years ago, Yuelaifang also tried to make innovative flavor mooncakes, but found that it was sold later or several classic brands were the most popular, coupled with the shortage of manpower, there was less motivation for innovation.
How do old brands live? The aroma of wine also has to be drunk diligently. Turned mooncakes, fresh meat mooncakes, green dough, smoked fish, in fact, Yuelaifang does not lack a fist product to hand, and they are all special foods that will wait for a year to miss.
Tell the brand story well, various social platforms are the best publicity position, and for traditional craftsmen, it is easy to do a good job of a well-crafted mooncake, and it is difficult to shoot a series of short videos with communication power.
Manager Gao Lijun is not less worried about the development of the old brand.
Next year, Gao Lijun will also reach retirement age. What to do with this brand, he can't think of so much. This season, try to let the moon cake open more orders, keep the income of the masters, become a problem that he can't sleep well every day, and as soon as he wakes up, he starts to think about it.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Chunhai Text Editor: Zhang Chi Title Image Source: Dong Tianye Photo Editor: Zhang Chi Editor's Email: [email protected]
Source: Author: Qin Dongying Dong Tianye