Tangyuan snapped up for festival
LONG lines can be seen at timehonored tangyuan (glutinous rice balls with sweet or salty fillings) restaurants in the city ahead of the Lantern Festival today.
At the venerable Wang Jia Sha in Jing’an District, famous for its local snacks, tangyuan, an essential treat for Lantern Festival is the best-seller these days.
“About 5,000 to 6,000 boxes of tangyuan with crab powder fillings are sold daily, as it is the signature flavor of Wang Jia Sha,” said Zhou Yongqing, deputy director of the restaurant’s dim sum department.
“The crab is fresh and tangyuan involves a number of complicated procedures.”
Each box contains eight tangyuan with crab powder fillings. Zhou said most customers have been coming for years.
“Compared with machine-made frozen tangyuan sold at supermarkets, handmade ones sold by time-honored eateries represents our childhood memories,” said a customer surnamed Zhou, a 50-something who bought three boxes stuffed with crab powder and sweet sesame.
The restaurant introduced a new flavor this year — salty yolk with meat floss — which is popular among young people.
At Mei Xin Dim Sum, a restaurant on Shaanxi Road N. in Jing’an also renowned for its tangyuan, glutinous rice balls sell out every day by 2pm.
A customer surnamed Ma who lives in Minhang District said she took two buses and stood in line for more than five hours yesterday to get her hands on the holiday treat. She said buying tangyuan at Mei Xin Dim Sum before the festival is a holiday tradition, and left with five boxes containing both sweet sesame and salty pork fillings.
A restaurant employee said more than 10,000 boxes of tangyuan have been sold every day, and working overtime still doesn’t meet the demand.
Ning Bo Dumplings, another popular tangyuan eatery located in the Yuyuan Garden area, has also been overflowing with customers. More than 70,000 tangyuan fly off the shelves daily, and sales are projected to exceed 100,000 today. Dating back to 1945, Ning Bo last year introduced durian tangyuan, which has been selling out before noon every day.
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FIFTY firefighters in Minhang District were appointed vice principals of 64 schools in the district yesterday.
A new initiative in Shanghai, the aim is to enhance fire safety and educate students.
The vice principals will advise schools on fire safety issues, ensure fire safety around the school buildings, carry out periodic safety inspections, train school staff in fire safety and organize annual fire drills.
All 58 middle schools in the district are covered in the program, and it will be introduced to other schools later, according to authorities.
The firefighters appointed are experienced in fire prevention, fire case investigation and fire safety publicity and include members of firefighting and rescue squads with experience in fire rescues.
Yu Xiaoping, vice head of the Minhang firefighting and rescue squad, said the appointments represented a new effort by the city’s firefighters and rescuers to raise society’s awareness of fire safety by educating the youngest members.
“We’re providing a more systematic approach to campus fire safety through this program, adding up to the current fire safety education in various schools,” he said. “We aim to improve the overall fire safety of the schools and enhance the students’ fire escape skills.”