一饼难求—闵行老五葱油饼 - 2017年01月25日

MANY people rave about the fried spring onion pancakes sold at a downtown Shanghai shop called A Da, but fewer realize that Minhang has its own very popular pancake shop, called Lao Wu, on Xintan Road.

Queues at the shop often stretch to 100 meters as people wait for up to an hour to buy the delectable pancakes. There’s a limit of six per customers so supplies don’t run out.

At A Da, the shop owner makes all the pancakes himself, but at Lao Wu, the production is teamwork.

Employees show up for work as early as 3am so that the shop can start selling pancakes when it opens at six. The busiest times are breakfast and dinner.

“We don’t do any advertising,” said Chen Xiagen, owner of Lao Wu. “But every day, we sell at least 1,000 pancakes. I think it is because our pancakes are truly delicious.”

Before opening Lao Wu, Chen sold pancakes every winter at a street booth as a part-time job. Back then, his pancakes were not that popular. He subsequently spent two months at home experimenting to make them better. The secret, he said, is to bake the pancake for about seven minutes after frying.

“Our ingredients are more or less the same as other shops,” he said. “We put the same amount of spring onion and lard in the dough, but baking after frying makes the pancake crispier and less greasy.”

A Da became famous in Shanghai after it was promoted on a BBC program about Shanghai cuisine. Chen said he doesn’t mind working in the shadows.

“I’m already quite satisfied with the shop,” he said. “Our customers are happy and they keep coming back. That’s enough satisfaction for me.”