在夏日尽情享受美酒与羊肉大餐 - 2019年07月26日

Dining on a plate of goat meat while drinking a cup of spirits during the scorching summer heat is a health-preserving tradition among people in several suburban areas in Shanghai. The cuisine is also popular in the Zhangze Community of Yexie Town, Songjiang District.
In Zhangze, diners spend about 20 yuan (US$2.9) on a plate of pulpy goat meat, a bowl of goat soup noodle and a cup of spirits.
“I visit a goat meat store every other day. It has become my habit,” said Ding Chunhai, a diner in Yexie Town. For goat meat lovers in Songjiang or downtown Shanghai, the delicacy is also irresistible.
The pulpy goat meat, one of the signature goat meat dishes in the Zhangze area, earns high acclaim for its balanced mixture of skin and meat, its slippery and soft taste and the way it immediately melts in the mouth once you take a bite.
“When cooking pulpy goat meat, we use no ingredients but boiling water to soften the goat meat. Boiling with no ingredients is the most challenging way to test the quality of goat meat” said Zhang Xinmei, a 51-year-old chef at Zhangze Goat Meat Manor.
The habit of eating goat meat in Songjiang area is considered to have be formed during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) when Mongolian people took control of the country.
In 2017 the art of cooking Zhangze goat meat, which has a history of more than 700 years, was listed among the sixth batch of intangible cultural heritages of Songjiang District.