For The Love Of Wok Hei

2 Dishes From Shanghai Classic That Exemplify The Masterful Technique Of Flavour Through Fire

Hello everyone, It’s Jay once again, and I’m in the Calgary community of Beddington. Today I want to talk about the single greatest flavour in Chinese food, and I’m here at Shanghai Classic to help illustrate my point. 

Now I’ve seen all the photos that people have posted on google maps of the food from Shanghai Classic, and there are definitely some bangers here if you enjoy a nice salt & pepper squid or Singapore fried noodle, but the flavour I’m talking about can be only attained by someone who is a master of the wok. That’s right, I’m talking about wok hei.

Wok hei is also known as the “breath of the wok” and can be best described as that charred smoky essence that envelopes a particular dish that is cooked in the wok under intense heat and flame. Now think of maillard reaction, and add additional dimensions of caramelization of sugars, and smoking oil. Are we done? Not quite. Consider now that the food is cut into smaller pieces, providing a much greater surface area that is exposed to that intense heat and flame, maximizing the flavour potential. Now that I got your mind and tastebuds tingling, let’s take a look at 2 of my favourite dishes.

The first is this Shredded Duck Lai Fan which is a humble looking preparation of shredded duck meat, onion, bean sprout, scallion, and a round rice noodle. This is a dry noodle, which is very lightly sauced and is wok fried to achieve a glorious amount of wok hei. Put simply, I thoroughly enjoyed this dish.

The next dish represents the flavour in a more subtle and complementary way as the star of this dish is clearly the whopping serving of braised beef brisket, tendon, and bok choy on this expertly wok fried bed of chow fun. Though the flavour of wok hei is present, it plays a supporting role that pairs with the tender and savoury braised beef and collagen-laden chunks of tendon. The bok choy is a nice addition that cuts the richness of the toppings and frames the arrangement with a much needed pop of colour. 

Though both dishes have their strengths, they each showcase wok hei in a different and unique way. The duck lai fan, with it’s thinner noodles provides an enormous amount of surface area for maximum shock and awe that carries, most impressively, this unassuming looking plate of noodles from the moment it hits the table. This was definitely the dish that impressed me the most.

But that doesn’t mean that the braised beef chow fun was any less impressive. This was, after all, the first time I’ve had chu hou brisket served on a masterfully wok fried bed of chunky rice noodles and not a bowl of steamed rice. The wok hei in this case added a surprising amount of depth and complexity and didn’t just depend on the showy amount of tender braised beef and tendon piled on top, but hey, it doesn’t hurt, am I right?

If you’d like to try these dishes, they are listed on the “other” menu. Not the big fancy menu with the bound cover and photos, but the little 2 page laminated menu without pictures.

Shanghai Classic in Beddington Village.