Senior Street Vendor Made Yummy Pancakes For Three Decades

2016/07/20

Han Jing

Wu Gencheng, more commonly known by his nickname A Da, is one of the most famous street food vendors in Shanghai, known for his handmade spring onion pancakes.

A Da is the oldest child in his family and has a hunchback, hence his nickname, which means ‘big’ in Chinese.

A Da begins to knead dough around 3am every day, a time when most of people are still asleep. He finishes all his prep work before 5am. His little stall on No. 2, Lane 159 of Maoming Road S is scheduled to open for business at 6am.

He has been making spring onion pancakes since he was 28 years old. He has made an average of 400 pancakes everyday for the past 32 years. If you were to place the pancakes end to end, it is equivalent to the distance from Shanghai to Taipei.

People yearning for a bite of his pancakes queue in front of the stall regardless of the weather, winter or summer, rainy or shine. “It’s hard for A Da to make the pancakes and then for us to have one,” said the first customer in the line, coming all the way from the city’s Xujiahui area.

It usually takes 30 minutes to make a stove of 20 pancakes. If someone in front of you buys 20 pancakes, it means you will wait for another 30 minutes.

Around 3pm, A Da finally sets aside a quiet moment to have a cigarette. He is plagued by varicose veins as he does a lot of standing at work.

A Da makes the spring onion pancakes alone. He said that no one was willing to learn how to make these pancakes, as it was a really tough job. Now he is planning to train a successor to pass on the traditional flavor, although it may take him several years to do so.

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Senior Street Vendor Made Yummy Pancakes For Three Decades

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