Suzhou is just a half hour away from Shanghai by train, and is famous for its many Chinese gardens and silk. Another important export from Suzhou – the famous Su-style noodles. Today we tried one of the oldest noodle shop in Suzhou that has sprung up everywhere in Shanghai.
Songhe Lou 松鶴樓 is a very famous Suzhou restaurant that is over 200 years old. When one talks about Songhe Lou, one name would come to mind – Emperor Qianlong. Many culinary creations were associated to this gourmand of an emperor during his many visits to Jiangnan during his long reign. To be precise, the year of the opening of the restaurant was the 2nd of year of the reign of Qianlong (1737). As a story scene, Songhe Lou appears multiple times in Louis Cha’s (aka Jin Yong 金庸) martial arts novels.
段誉信步而行，突然间闻到一股香气，乃是焦糖、酱油混着熟肉的气味。他大半天没吃东西了，划了这几个时辰的船，早已甚是饥饿，当下循着香气寻去，转了一个弯，只见老大一座酒楼当街而立，金字招牌上写着“松鹤楼”三个大字。招牌年深月久，被烟熏成一团漆黑，三个金字却闪烁发光，阵阵酒香肉气从酒楼中喷出来，厨子刀勺声和跑堂吆喝声响成一片……
金庸《天龙八部》
Suzhou Noodles “奥灶面”
A good bowl of Suzhou noodles depends on five different aspects 面、露、汤、浇、青 – the noodle, the sauces, the soup, the toppings and the final touch of scallions. Every restaurant has its unique sauce and soup that gives the noodle its distinct flavour. This shop is famous for its red soup, i.e. braised meat sauce with fish, eel and pork soup. But I decided to try their dry version instead this time round.
Shrimp and Crab Dry Noodles Combo 虾蟹双鲜拌面套餐
I love scallion oil noodles 葱油拌面, this would be my favourite carbo in Shanghai. The dry noodle combo combines the scallion noodles with my favourite toppings, how much better can it get?
The set came with half a soy sauce braised egg 卤蛋 and some other small treats. But the highlights were the two toppings that came with standard set.
The topping for the noodles is called 浇头 (“drizzled on top”) and you can choose to have them drizzled on the noodles before serving, or served separately called 过桥 (“over the bridge”).
Songhe Lou is famous for four toppings – braised pork belly in sauce 燜肉, marinated duck in sauce 滷鴨, sautéed shredded eel in hot oil and ginger 响油鱔糊 and sautéed shelled shrimp 清炒蝦仁. And when in season, you can also opt for sautéed crab meat 清炒蟹粉, but these days due to advancement in refrigeration this also constantly available.
Ordering the noodles for the uninitiated can be a daunting task as it is laden with codes – from the doneness of the noodles (硬面、烂面) to the amount of soup (紧汤、宽汤、拌面) to the amount of scallions (重青、免青). For the dry version, it was much simpler.
The braising liquid that has been used to stew the pork belly is used to stew the pig intestines. I usually would not put them directly into the noodles in fear of the cleaning process – there have been cases when they tasted bad.
Knifefish Wontons 刀鱼馄饨
Springtime in Shanghai, Shanghainese will crave for a bowl of knifefish wontons. Knifefish dishes are only available for a limited time, normally during March and early April (before the Qingming festival). There are three types of knifefish, depending on its origin — river, sea or lake. Among them, those from the Yangtze River 长江刀鱼 are the best in terms of texture and flavour.
But recent years have witnessed a sharp decline in the number of Yangtze knifefish due to over-fishing. These days, the knifefish that is used for these wontons is the more common sea knifefish 海刀. They are larger in size and the flesh is more fishy than the sweet and tender river knifefish 江刀. But in the name of conservation, we just have to make do with it.
Su-style Soup Dumplings 苏式小笼包
Xiaolongbao, which is now familiar to people all around the world, originated in Changzhou 常州 in the Qing Dynasty. It became popular in Suzhou 苏州 and Wuxi 无锡, which resulted in a split in style. Changzhou focused on the natural flavours of the meat juice, Wuxi is biased towards the sweet side. Su-style xiaolongbao or soup dumplings 苏式小笼包 is in the middle in terms of sweetness and umami. Changzhou xiaolongbaos, which all these different ones are derived from, are characterised by a large opening in the middle of the folds.
A really good and inexpensive eat in Shanghai. You can settle a satisfying lunch under ¥80, but to splurge you need to be prepared to spend ¥200. English menu available though none of the waiters speak English. But self-service ordering using WeChat mini app took away all those issues. Standard varies in different shops, this one in Nanjing Road was so-so.
Songhe Lou Su-Style Noodles 松鶴樓苏式汤面
上海市黄浦区南京东路299号宏伊国际广场负一楼B-108室
Tel : +86 (21) 6314 9959
Visited Mar 2024
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