Mom’s Taste

There are almost no mothers in Ningbo who can’t make glutinous rice balls. Jiang Dingfa’s mother, Ying Shi, was good at making dim sum, especially glutinous rice balls.

At the beginning of the 20th century, because of his poor family, Jiang Dingfa went to sea with his adults to work as a helper at a young age. In order to make a living, his parents nicknamed him "Agou", so the adults on the boat all called "Agou" and "Agou", and gradually the name "Jiang Agou" became louder than Jiang Dingfa. The days at sea were difficult, bitter and hungry. Agou often had a sweet dream, and his mother called him in the dream, "Agou, come to eat glutinous rice balls."

When Jiang Agou was 18 years old, Ying made up his mind not to let his son go to sea. "Working as a coolie is not the answer. How can we live in the future without a craft?" Jiang Agou was sent to Sanya by his mother. Shunhe Xiang from the north learned to do business. Shunhexiang is a shop that sells southern goods. The life of an apprentice is not much better than that of a helper on a ship. You have to be dependent on someone else, swallow your anger, be respectful to the shopkeeper, and greet customers with a smile. But Jiang Agou is smart, diligent, and quick-sighted. Three years of apprenticeship has taught him a business lesson: one must be honest in doing business, and only by making small losses can he make big profits. The shopkeeper wanted to keep him helping in the shop, but Jiang Agou, who was just in his early 20s, had already made up his mind to go home and take care of his mother.

Unexpectedly, the first thing the apprentice does when he returns is to get married. Ying believed in the saying that men should "get married first and then start a career" and had already arranged a marriage for Agou. He Fengxiu, who came from Fenghua, was hard-working, kind and lovely. After getting married, he helped Ying take care of the housework. On the contrary, Agou felt a little guilty, and chatted with his wife in private, "Our family is orphaned and widowed, and we don't have much money. Why are you willing to marry me?" He Fengxiu's answer was beyond Agou's expectation, "I have eaten food sent by my mother. The glutinous rice balls are so big and sweet that they won’t be bitter at your house.”

The wife’s words made Jiang Agou enlightened. Neighbors all praised my mother for making good glutinous rice balls, so why not set up a stall selling glutinous rice balls? People from all over the city of Ningbo, as long as they are Ningbo people, like to have a bowl of lard and sesame glutinous rice balls.

When Agou told his mother, Ying was very supportive, so the family of three closed the door of the old house, took some silver they had saved before, and went to Ningbo City God Temple to set up a glutinous rice dumpling stall.

At first, there were only glutinous rice balls. Agou was a kind-hearted person and asked the guests to add more sugar and sweet-scented osmanthus, so he complied with them one by one. But he soon realized that selling only glutinous rice balls would not work. Customers would get bored sooner or later, so he also introduced fermented glutinous rice balls and red bean paste balls. The various fillings of glutinous rice balls were also made in different ways. There was a steady stream of customers coming to his stall to eat desserts. Continuously. Want to eat "tank duck dog" in the middle of the night

After four years, Jiang Agou's glutinous rice dumpling stall became famous in the Chenghuang Temple. He used his hard-earned money to rent a store next to Taihe Bridge on Kaiming Street. If you have a store, you need a sign, and you don’t even have a store name. What should you do? Jiang Agou, who had never read a book, was worried.

Many regular customers helped with ideas, but they were just names for some ordinary snack bars. In the end, Ah Gou decided to use his own name, "Jiang Ah Gou", and shouted loudly. He couldn't write a few words himself, so he invited Mr. Wang Yunbiao, a well-known stage dancer from the Ningbo Yue Opera Troupe at that time, to draw a vat, a shelduck and a yellow dog on the signboard, with "glutinous rice balls" embedded in the middle. Two little words. Coincidentally, when Mr. Wang Yunbiao was painting the sign, there were a bunch of children lying around, one of whom was Cao Houde who later became a famous calligrapher in Ningbo. This past incident was brought up inadvertently decades later when Chen Kaihe, the new inheritor of the brand, came to ask Mr. Cao Houde to write "To Conscience" for Tank Yadog because of the reopening of Tank Ya Dog. It can be regarded as a special fate.

The name "tank duck dog" is said to be due to Jiang Agou's kindness and a debt owed by a customer. One day, an old scholar ate several bowls of glutinous rice balls in the store, but in the end he had no money to pay the bill, and Jiang Agou didn't care. The scholar said, seeing that the name of your shop is a painting, it is difficult for people to spread it, so I will write a shop name for you. As soon as the two people discussed it, they decided to use "Cang Ya Dog" as a signboard, which is the homophony of "Jiang A Gou" in Ningbo dialect. "Cang" is the same as "Jiang", and "Duck" is the same as "A". It is easy to understand and harmonious. The original paintings all correspond.

"In the middle of the night, at midnight, I want to eat glutinous rice dumplings. I won't leave after one bowl, and I will be addicted to two or three bowls. Even if the copper coin is not enough, I will fall off my shirt. Pledge your head." This saying, which many old Ningbo people are familiar with, refers to the history of this century-old brand. From an unknown open-air stall on the street of Chenghuang Temple, it has gradually developed into a time-honored brand that everyone is eager to try. A hundred years of ups and downs

In the past hundred years, Tank Yagou has experienced from prosperity to decline, and even faced the crisis of bankruptcy.

In 1956, Gangyagou Kaiming Street store was expanded to a business area of ??200 square meters. In addition to snacks, it also provides soy milk, rice, dumplings, fried pancakes, etc. throughout the year. In summer, it provides a variety of cold drinks. In winter, they serve glutinous rice noodles and lard stuffing, which are popular among Ningbo people, and business is booming.

In 1993, Tank Yadog was awarded the title of "Chinese Time-honored Brand" by the Ministry of Commerce. In December 1997, the glutinous rice balls with duck and dog were rated as "Chinese Famous Snacks" by the China Cuisine Association. In 2012, it was awarded "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Zhejiang Province" by the Provincial Department of Culture.

Despite its reputation, the operation of Tank Duck Dog was once in trouble.

Due to the renovation of the old city, in May 2007, Gangyagou said goodbye to the prosperous shop in the Chenghuang Temple Food Street that had been there for 10 years. The business area was reduced from 1,300 square meters to 100 square meters overnight, and it lived in an extremely inconspicuous place on Kaiming Street. In the store.

While many old Ningbo people lamented the decline of time-honored brands, some professionals put forward their own opinions. "The time-honored brand's signboard is difficult to support. The address relocation is only an external factor. The catering options are becoming increasingly diversified, while the time-honored brand remains unchanged. This is the decisive factor that leads to the old shop of Tank Ya Dog being eventually eliminated from the market." Tank Ya, who holds the title of "Chinese Cooking Master" Lin Jun, dog quality control R&D manager, analyzed. Handmade quick-frozen glutinous rice balls

Chen Kaihe, a native of Ningbo who grew up eating Ningbo glutinous rice balls, could not bear the dust on this golden signboard and was determined to restore the glory of the old days. He personally came forward and took the future development plan of Tank Yagou and persuaded dozens of old friends who grew up with Tank Yagou to transfer their shares.

In 2009, Zhejiang Caidefeng Holdings Co., Ltd. was established, officially taking over this once-gleaming golden sign from the descendants of Jiang Dingfa.

In December of the same year, the new Gang Ya Dog store opened in Yinzhou Wanda Plaza. This brand-new store under a modern management system has more than 70 kinds of traditional snacks, in addition to Ningbo’s traditional snacks such as lard dumplings and dragon and phoenix. Golden dumplings, crystal oil buns, etc., as well as popular delicacies such as spring rolls, vegetarian roast goose, eight-treasure rice, and beef noodles.

"Lard glutinous rice balls" have always been the treasure of the restaurant, and it has not changed yet. It is precisely because of this golden sign that a wide variety of foreign brands of quick-frozen glutinous rice balls have emerged one after another to seize the Ningbo market, leading to the strange phenomenon of Ningbo glutinous rice balls made in other places. In order to reverse this situation, the former "Tang Yuan King" Tan Ya Dog also decided to launch a new quick-frozen product in 2014. "In terms of process, making quick-frozen glutinous rice balls is actually very easy. But in the past three years, we have been seeking a balance between tradition and speed." Lin Jun controls the taste of Tan Ya Dog's quick-frozen glutinous rice balls throughout the process.

At that time, Jiang Dingfa was familiar with his mother's craftsmanship and was extremely particular about the selection of raw materials. The rice noodles were all ground from the finest local white glutinous rice. The glutinous rice balls are filled with high-quality, thick pork suet, the finest black sesame seeds, and the best white sugar. At that time, it was a pleasure for regular customers to watch Jiang Dingfa making glutinous rice balls. It's a bit like Mr. Mei Lanfang crossing his orchid fingers, or the Shaoxing opera actor shaking his sleeves with ease and skill.

Chen Kaihe insists that every glutinous rice ball made by Tan Ya Dog must be rolled by hand and must have the temperature of the palm of his hand, instead of being completely replaced by a cold machine, although this will increase the huge labor cost burden. It will also lengthen working hours.

Times are changing, and so are tastes. "In the past, people in Ningbo liked glutinous rice dumplings that were sweet and greasy. After the formula was improved, they became healthy and nutritious. A 20-gram glutinous rice dumpling contains 5 grams of fillings and 15 grams of skin. The sweetness is just right," said Lin Jun.

Quick-frozen glutinous rice dumplings made with traditional water-milling technology will enter major supermarket chains such as Sanjiang and China Resources from June 2014. At the same time, Ang Ya Dog will also go out of Ningbo and open branches in the Yangtze River Delta region in 2014.