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Chubby Feng a celebrity chef
April 18, 2011, Monday
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FARMER Feng Wenhua, also known as "Chubby Feng," holds the district record for making zongzi or glutinous rice dumplings - 29 in 18 minutes - and she's a master of many traditional snacks. Wing Tan visits her at Chubby Feng's Restaurant.Farmer Feng Wenhua finally can catch her breath these days after the exhausting week of preparing traditional foods for the Qingming Festival or tomb-sweeping day.
"Now I can sit down and have a moment of peace," says the 51-year-old, wiping her hands on her bluish homespun apron.
Feng, who is stout and usually smiling, has been nicknamed "Chubby Feng" and in 2009 she opened a popular restaurant in Zhuanghang Town called Chubby Feng's Restaurant.
Her famous snacks and homemade cooking draw guests to the suburban Fengxian District and her neighborhood, which is more than 800 years old.
The super granny is the town's star chef and she's always busy during festivals and holidays making traditional food. There's tangyuan (rice balls filled with pork), qingtuan (green dumplings), zongzi (pyramid-shaped glutinous rice), sweet pancakes and fagao (rice cakes stuffed with sweet red bean paste).
"These are all my specialties and I have been making them since I was a girl," Feng says proudly. She holds the district record for making zongzi, traditional during the Dragon Boat Festival. They're sweet glutinous rice with various stuffings, all wrapped in leaves and tied securely. She can make 29 perfect zongzi in just 18 minutes.
During the recent Qingming Festival, Feng, together with 10 women farmers working in her restaurant, had to make around 2,000 qingtuan every day.
"Visitors from downtown drive here for a hour just to buy my snacks," she says.
For city folks, green-colored qingtuan is reserved for the tomb-sweeping day, but in Fengxian it's distributed on holidays, weddings, baby-shower parties, house-warming celebrations and other festivities.
What makes Feng's qingtuan so special is that they are pure, natural and healthy - no chemicals or green dyes.
For glutinous rice, she uses the freshest rice and grinds it herself, and to give it the green (for springtime) color she uses ma hua lang, a wild herb that tastes a little bitter and helps dispel inner heat.
"The herbs grow wild around our village and are not cultivated, so they are free of chemical pesticides," Feng says.
After collecting and washing the herbs, Feng boils them in a big pot so the water turns green; the time is controlled to ensure the bitter taste is gone. Then she soaks the glutinous rice powder with the vegetable juice according to her secret ratio for around an hour; that turns the dough green.
She kneads the dough for around 40 minutes until it's soft, smooth and elastic. Sometimes she makes yellow dough using pumpkin juice.
Feng makes all the fillings herself. She sorts and washes red beans, stews them for hours, filters then and then sautes the beans with sugar and oil. She also makes jujube and sesame fillings.
"Pound and sautee them until they smell savory, add a little sugar, and there it is," says Feng.
Each big lump of glutinous green dough is divided into 20 or 30 pieces and each is stuffed with the sweet red bean filling. Then she steams them for around 10 minutes in a clay oven.
The steaming-hot qingtuan glisten with a healthy, green luster; the taste is slightly sweet with a hint of herbs.
Another specialty snack is zongzi, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings, wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and tied with straw string. Feng's big zongzi are soft and sticky, containing a rich filling and tightly wrapped.
"I love cooking for others. Just watching people enjoy my food makes me happy," says Feng.
Hard life
Before she opened her homey eatery, Feng had a life full of twists and turns. She was born into a poor family in remote Cungu Village in Fengxian District, a place where the land wasn't fertile.
She struggled for years. In winter she pedaled her creaky tricycle to sell pancakes and youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks) near the temple in the town center; in summer she peddled ice cream at the front gates of schools and kindergartens; they were frozen in her hand-made icebox insulated by thick cotton padding.
To support her family, Feng also sold chicken and shrimp in the food market, opened a small rice-processing plant and leased around 7 hectares to grow fruits and vegetables.
One morning as she was driving her loaded truck to the food market, she had a collision and suffered serious injury. A leg was badly broken and she hurt her voice crying for help.
"That was the hardest time in my life," Feng recalls. She was confined to bed for several weeks, leaving her business and land unattended.
However, she didn't give up.
"Cooking is what I'm good at, so why can't I open a small restaurant?" she asked herself.
In 2009 Feng opened Chubby Feng's Restaurant, offering various local snacks, dishes and famous Fengxian mutton.
Patrons come from nearby towns as well as downtown Shanghai.
Her well-known dishes include sliced cold chicken soaked in rice wine; duck eggs marinated in wild herb juice; quick-sautedd burclover with spiced spring shoots; and a wide range of snacks such as wonton, dumplings and pancakes.
"My patrons like what I cook very much," Chubby Feng says. "They say my food reminds them of their childhood."
Address: 27 Dong Street (Zhuanghang Town Old Street)
Tel: 136 0195 2894
How to get there
By driving: Take the S4, get off at the Nanqiao exit, turn right on Nanfeng Road; drive west till you reach Zhuanghang Town. Turn right on Yixin Street; old Dong Street is on your right.
"Now I can sit down and have a moment of peace," says the 51-year-old, wiping her hands on her bluish homespun apron.
Feng, who is stout and usually smiling, has been nicknamed "Chubby Feng" and in 2009 she opened a popular restaurant in Zhuanghang Town called Chubby Feng's Restaurant.
Her famous snacks and homemade cooking draw guests to the suburban Fengxian District and her neighborhood, which is more than 800 years old.
The super granny is the town's star chef and she's always busy during festivals and holidays making traditional food. There's tangyuan (rice balls filled with pork), qingtuan (green dumplings), zongzi (pyramid-shaped glutinous rice), sweet pancakes and fagao (rice cakes stuffed with sweet red bean paste).
"These are all my specialties and I have been making them since I was a girl," Feng says proudly. She holds the district record for making zongzi, traditional during the Dragon Boat Festival. They're sweet glutinous rice with various stuffings, all wrapped in leaves and tied securely. She can make 29 perfect zongzi in just 18 minutes.
During the recent Qingming Festival, Feng, together with 10 women farmers working in her restaurant, had to make around 2,000 qingtuan every day.
"Visitors from downtown drive here for a hour just to buy my snacks," she says.
For city folks, green-colored qingtuan is reserved for the tomb-sweeping day, but in Fengxian it's distributed on holidays, weddings, baby-shower parties, house-warming celebrations and other festivities.
What makes Feng's qingtuan so special is that they are pure, natural and healthy - no chemicals or green dyes.
For glutinous rice, she uses the freshest rice and grinds it herself, and to give it the green (for springtime) color she uses ma hua lang, a wild herb that tastes a little bitter and helps dispel inner heat.
"The herbs grow wild around our village and are not cultivated, so they are free of chemical pesticides," Feng says.
After collecting and washing the herbs, Feng boils them in a big pot so the water turns green; the time is controlled to ensure the bitter taste is gone. Then she soaks the glutinous rice powder with the vegetable juice according to her secret ratio for around an hour; that turns the dough green.
She kneads the dough for around 40 minutes until it's soft, smooth and elastic. Sometimes she makes yellow dough using pumpkin juice.
Feng makes all the fillings herself. She sorts and washes red beans, stews them for hours, filters then and then sautes the beans with sugar and oil. She also makes jujube and sesame fillings.
"Pound and sautee them until they smell savory, add a little sugar, and there it is," says Feng.
Each big lump of glutinous green dough is divided into 20 or 30 pieces and each is stuffed with the sweet red bean filling. Then she steams them for around 10 minutes in a clay oven.
The steaming-hot qingtuan glisten with a healthy, green luster; the taste is slightly sweet with a hint of herbs.
Another specialty snack is zongzi, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings, wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and tied with straw string. Feng's big zongzi are soft and sticky, containing a rich filling and tightly wrapped.
"I love cooking for others. Just watching people enjoy my food makes me happy," says Feng.
Hard life
Before she opened her homey eatery, Feng had a life full of twists and turns. She was born into a poor family in remote Cungu Village in Fengxian District, a place where the land wasn't fertile.
She struggled for years. In winter she pedaled her creaky tricycle to sell pancakes and youtiao (deep-fried dough sticks) near the temple in the town center; in summer she peddled ice cream at the front gates of schools and kindergartens; they were frozen in her hand-made icebox insulated by thick cotton padding.
To support her family, Feng also sold chicken and shrimp in the food market, opened a small rice-processing plant and leased around 7 hectares to grow fruits and vegetables.
One morning as she was driving her loaded truck to the food market, she had a collision and suffered serious injury. A leg was badly broken and she hurt her voice crying for help.
"That was the hardest time in my life," Feng recalls. She was confined to bed for several weeks, leaving her business and land unattended.
However, she didn't give up.
"Cooking is what I'm good at, so why can't I open a small restaurant?" she asked herself.
In 2009 Feng opened Chubby Feng's Restaurant, offering various local snacks, dishes and famous Fengxian mutton.
Patrons come from nearby towns as well as downtown Shanghai.
Her well-known dishes include sliced cold chicken soaked in rice wine; duck eggs marinated in wild herb juice; quick-sautedd burclover with spiced spring shoots; and a wide range of snacks such as wonton, dumplings and pancakes.
"My patrons like what I cook very much," Chubby Feng says. "They say my food reminds them of their childhood."
Address: 27 Dong Street (Zhuanghang Town Old Street)
Tel: 136 0195 2894
How to get there
By driving: Take the S4, get off at the Nanqiao exit, turn right on Nanfeng Road; drive west till you reach Zhuanghang Town. Turn right on Yixin Street; old Dong Street is on your right.
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