They Survived! Finding My Favorite Wonton and Scallion Pancake Shops after Redevelopment
As I wrote in my last post, in May I went back to Shouning Road (寿宁路) to at least have a scallion pancake (葱油饼), knowing that the wonton store was already closed. But I saw that the whole block was cordoned off, and the little spot that the scallion pancake place had occupied was cemented over as well.
Then I remembered that last time, I saw one or two stores on the street leave some sort of sign of where they moved to.
So I looked a little closer…
…and lo and behold my scallion pancake place left a handwritten message that they moved to Daxing Street 大兴街 #10! I never knew actually that they were called “老广东葱油饼“ or old Guangdong Scallion Pancake.
They even wrote the notice twice. It’s funny, in both the horizontal and vertical versions, they left out a word which they added back in to the side: above, they left out the 油 (oil) word, and below, they left out the 饼 (pancake) word.
Though I had actually already had had a long day with a visit to the Power Station of Art, and then a department store, I made a U-Turn to look for the new location of the scallion pancake place. I found it! It’s right next to the entrance of the Zhexiangyuan Canteen (浙香源城市饭堂) . Now here, they call themselves Old Shanghai Scallion Pancake (老上海葱油饼), not Old Guangdong! Underneath the big words they wrote: “原人民路老广东葱油饼店,” or originally the Old Guangdong Scallion Pancake store on Renmin Road, which was the big road intersecting with Shouning Road.
It’s actually kind of confusing: they used to be adjacent to the "老广东菜馆” Old Guangdong Eatery, but they were themselves called the “老上海葱油饼“ Old Shanghai Scallion Pancake as you can see to the left. I don’t think at any time they were “老广东葱油饼“! But anyway…
Back to the present. Their scallion pancakes were as flaky and deliciously oily as ever! And their prices only increased 50 cents or so, from 4 to 4.5 RMB (from US$0.62 to US$0.69).
And the people were the same, the woman and the man. I told the woman that I had come from the Renmin Road location looking for them, and she asked “How did you find us?”
And before I could answer, she said “Was it from the signs on the walls?”
I said, “Yes!” Then asked, “How long have they been in this location?”
She said, "十来天,” about 10 days ago. So I caught them just after they moved. I was about to leave, but then I figured I might as well ask, “Do you know there used to be a wonton place just around the corner from you? Do you know what happened to that place?”
She said, “The 千里香 (qianlixiang) place? Yes, you can find it easily, it’s just on 中华路 (Zhonghua Road), on this side of the street.”
I thanked the woman, took another picture, waved goodbye, and then did another U-Turn to bike back to where I came from. I realized then that I had passed this wonton place already, and had wondered if it was related to “my” wonton place!
Indeed, here was the new location of the 福建千里香馄饨王 (Fujian Qianlixiang Wonton King), at Zhonghua Road 1318 (中华路1318号).
The boss guy is the same!
And they had the same menu…
…but then they had this new menu of other stuff, like Taiwanese braised pork over rice, mala beef noodle soup, and Wuhan Hot Dry Noodles. Why?! And how could then make all of that in their little kitchen? I’m always wary of places that don’t focus on one thing.
I ordered my long-delayed order, 荠菜肉小馄饨 (shepherd’s purse and pork small wontons). It’s the one I forgot to order the last time I went to the original location, after a year away from Shanghai - I ordered the large wontons by mistake.
Now, I don’t know know if the year-and-a-half that elapsed since the last time I had this dish made me remember these wontons as the absolute perfect, platonic ideal wonton, but this surprise reunion with my favorite wontons left me questioning! Did they change their technique, or I did I remember it differently? These wontons seemed more dense and compact, the cilantro pieces seemed to be in bigger pieces rather than finely chopped, and there seemed to be more of that brown onion stuff floating around.
Well, as good as I had remembered these wontons or not, I’m still very thankful that this wonton shop - and the scallion pancake shop - survived Shanghai’s urban redevelopment efforts, and can continue to serve people in the area.
