shanghai | Sugared & Spiced

2015/10/072019/06/29

[Shanghai 上海] Grains

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Grains (venue closed)

Add: 202 Wukang Road, near Fuxing Road
Tel: N/A
Hours: [Mon-Thu] 8am-6pm [Fri-Sun] 8am-7pm
Price: [coffee] 25-50 RMB [pastries] 8-20 RMB
Visited: Sep 2015

It’s Franck Pecol at it again. After Franck, Le Petit Franck, Rachel’s, and Farine, his most recent project is Grains, a stylish coffee shop located on – you’ve guessed it – Wukang Road. It’s a sleek space with beautiful interior design and some charming outdoor seats to match. They roast their own beans daily before the shop opens (more details below), source mini croissants and pain au chocolat from their very own Farine, and rumor has it that the space will turn into a bar in the evening…sometime in the future.

Franck Pecol又開新店了。繼法式餐館Franck，小酒館Le Petit Franck，漢堡店Rachel’s和面包店Farine之後，Pecol先生最新的項目是間名叫Grains的咖啡店。你猜他開在哪裏？沒錯，又是武康路。這裏的咖啡豆每天早晨在開店前新鮮烘培，可頌和餅乾等則由自家的Farine提供，加上漂亮的設計和舒服的戶外座位，也難怪每到周末就門庭若市。

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2015/10/062019/06/29

[Shanghai] Quan Er 荃二 (2)

shanghai

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Quan Er 荃二

Add: 1 Alley 76 Wuyuan Road, near Changshu Road
Tel: 186 2165 1927
Hours: [Thu-Fri] 8-10pm [Sat-Sun] 3-10pm (closed Mon-Wed)
Price: varies
Visited: Sep 2015

I had previously told you about 荃二 (Quan Er), a tiny boutique on Changle Road filled with beautiful ceramics and other knickknacks collected from Japan. It has since moved to Wuyuan Road to a bigger and brighter space, with a charming loft design. In case you had missed the info last time, here it is again: I met 文林 (Wen Lin), one of the three shop owners, years ago through a magazine interview. A soft-spoken man from Sichuan, Wen was then the Associate Director of the lifestyle section at Bund Pic and travelled often to Japan for work. Throughout the years, he and his colleagues have accumulated an impressive collection of miscellaneous goods, and decided to open Quan Er to share this with like-minded others.

之前曾介紹過的日式雜貨店荃二，最近搬了到五原路。新的空間更大更明亮，而且還有舒服的夾層設計。跟店主之一的文林認識是在去巴黎之前，通過雜志訪問的緣故。四川人，相當安靜沈穩，跟他說說話似乎血壓都降低了。之前是外灘畫報生活版副總監的他，由于工作的關系經常去日本，幾年下來和同事們收集了不少手工藝職人的作品。想想不如開間店，分享給同樣愛好的人，于是就有了荃二。

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2015/10/052019/06/29

[Shanghai] Mellower Coffee

shanghai

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Mellower Coffee

Add: 9 Jinan Road, near Songshan Road / 济南路9号, 近嵩山路
Tel: 6351 1079
Hours: 8:30am-10pm
Website: www.mellowercoffee.com
Price: [coffee] 40-58 RMB
Visited: Sep 2015

Mellower Coffee is a local Chinese chain that popped up about a year ago in Oct 2014, and is apparently very serious about its coffee. While coffee connoisseurs go for the real deal (AeroPress, Chemex, V60, ice drip etc.), most customers – myself included – go simply to try a drink called “sweet little rain”, consisting of Americano served with a piece of cotton candy hovering above it. Details below.

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Why yes, that is a piece of cotton candy cloud raining sugar into my coffee. As the steam from the coffee heats the cotton candy, it melts and drips, thereby sweetening the coffee. Super cute presentation and idea, but the result is mediocre coffee (inevitably you have to wait for the cotton candy to melt, and that means lukewarm coffee by the time you get to it) and a sticky coffee cup that’s messy to hold.

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2015/10/042019/06/29

[Shanghai] Chang Zuo 長作

shanghai

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Chang Zuo 長作

Add: No. 2, Alley 764, Changle Rd./ 長樂路764弄2號
Tel: N/A
Hours: N/A (no specific info during soft-opening)
Price: [drinks] 40-68 RMB [pastries] 40 RMB
Visited: Sep 2015

Just opened 2 months ago, Chang Zuo 長作 is the newest outlet by Chinese fashion brand/select shop Dong Liang 棟樑. Located on Changle Road, this beautifully renovated structure includes a first floor cafe, topped by 3 levels of boutique space displaying a carefully curated selection from independent designers, as well as Dong Liang’s own creations. The design style is a mix of modern and wabisabi, with careful attention to details. It’s exactly my cup of tea.

托荃二文老板的福，我在回上海的第四天就發現了棟梁于長樂路上新開的 “長作“。一樓是咖啡館，二至四樓則是與棟梁合作的獨立設計師作品陳列室。整個空間非常漂亮，許多小細節都做的相當用心，而且雖是新店，卻已有種沈澱過，令人安心的穩重感。

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2015/01/272016/03/14

[Shanghai] Flask

shanghai

Flask

Add: 432 Shanxi Nan Lu, near Fuxing Zhong Lu / 陕西南路432号, 近复兴中路
Tel: 3368 6108
Hours: [Mon-Sun] 7pm-2am
Price: 90 RMB/cocktail
Visited: Jan 2015

A sandwich shop called “The Press” recently opened on Shanxi Nan Lu. Glass façade, sharp concrete corners, neon strip lights that read “get your hands dirty”, a painting of superman munching away, and a vintage coca-cola vending machine. The emptiness and the eeriness of it remind me of Edward Hopper’s paintings, and it’s definitely not a place that you’d voluntarily venture in if you just happen to pass by.

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…unless you already know that there’s something curious about this coca-cola vending machine.

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Pull open the door and pass through the tunnel hidden just behind. Welcome to Flask, the newest addition to Shanghai’s growing speakeasy scene.

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The space is designed by Alberto Caiola. A few prominent features of the interior include the dramatic drop ceiling, a wall of giant whisky bottles illuminated by amber lights, and the sleekly arranged bar itself. More details here.

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2012/08/242015/10/10

[Shanghai] Heritage Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula

shanghai

The Peninsula Add: The Peninsula, 32 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, near Beijing Dong Lu / 中山东一路32号, 近北京东路 Tel: 2327 6756 Hours: 2:00~6:00pm Website: www.peninsula.com/Shanghai/en/ Price: 260 RMB/person, 470 RMB/couple + 15% Visited: Aug 2012 Please note that this was an arranged tasting. Last week, I had the pleasure of tasting The Peninsula’s newly-launched Heritage Afternoon Tea in the Palace Suite, a luxurious…Continue Reading “[Shanghai] Heritage Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula” →

2012/06/222015/10/09

[Shanghai] Spread The Bagel x Amelia’s Jams

shanghai

The Pantry

Add: 90 Nanyang Lu, near Xikang Lu / 南阳路90号, 近西康路
Tel: 138 1871 9543
Hours: [Mon-Fri] 7:30am~6pm [Sat-Sun] 8am-6pm
Website: www.bytheco-op.com
Prices: [cookies] 35 RMB/bag of 5 [bagels] 45 RMB/half-dozen [jams & chutney] 35~45 RMB/jar
Visited: Jun 2012

If you remember my post on Strictly Cookies, I had an absolutely sugar high afternoon in Lexie’s kitchen space where she fed me just about everything in her delicious repertoire. I was back there again this week for a little rendezvous with Christine Asuncion from Spread the Bagels and Amelia Heaton-Renshaw from Amelia’s Jams, two of Lexie’s buddies from The Pantry. Uh oh, here comes another afternoon of serious overeating…

Pictures below were not taken at The Pantry, but at a separate kitchen space.

In the picture above, from top left to bottom right: White Knight (white sesame), Cinnarella (cinnamon raisin), Parmesan Pleaser (parmesan), Plain Jane (plain), Cocoa Fever (chocolate chip), and Everything Supreme (everything!) – 45 RMB for a half-dozen.

Bagels might look simple to make, but it’s actually a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. At Spread the Bagel, the whole drill takes about 16 hours in total and involves steps of making the dough, flavoring, letting it rise, shaping, letting it rise more, chilling, letting it rise more, boiling, then baking. This gives the bagels a shiny, caramel-colored crunchy exterior and a dense chewy interior, which, when paired with freshly-whipped cream cheese (available in regular, scallion, honey walnut, etc.), is just about as simple (yet gratifying) as breakfast gets.

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2012/06/152015/10/07

[Shanghai] Seesaw Cafe

shanghai

Seesaw Cafe

Add: 433 Yuyuan Lu, inside Jing’an Design Center / 愚园路433号静安设计中心内
Tel: 137 6170 0535
Hours: 8:30am~10:30pm
Price: 15~25 RMB/coffee
Visited: Jun 2012

The very recently opened Seesaw Cafe has all the elements I look for in a coffee shop. Glorious coffee, clean and stylish decor with courtyard seats, friendly baristas who are passionate to share their knowledge, and – drumroll please – buttery, sugary delights from Strictly Cookies.

A friend and I ordered a “coffee set for two” (58 RMB), which includes two cups of coffee and a selection of 4 dessert bites. We opted for a cappuccino and a latte, which came strong and smooth, with beautiful latte art.

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2012/06/092015/10/09

[Shanghai] Strictly Cookies

shanghai

Strictly Cookies

Add: check website for various locations
Tel: 137-8894-0337
Website: www.strictlycookies.com
Price: 35 RMB for a pack of 5 cookies
Visited: Jun 2012

My afternoon with Strictly Cookies definitely went overboard. Lexie Comstock, the girl behind the cookies, fed me a total of 9 different varieties – 5 of the regular flavors, plus another 4 of their new ice-cream cookie sandwich creations. I was effectively on a sugar high an hour into these cookies, and in the back of my head I was calculating how many laps I need to run to burn them off, all the while stuffing yet another piece in my mouth because these are so addictingly good. Life of a food blogger, you know, it’s really tough.

First, there are a few classics like the Strictly Chocolate Chip, Call Me Sugar, and Oatmeal Raisin the Roof. No surprises here, just plain awesomeness. The cookies are soft, chewy, sugary in the typical American way – not ideal for the body but does wonder for the mind (because eating these will make you a very happy person).

There are also a few modifications, like the Skinny Chocolate Chip, which has the same recipe as the classic Strictly Chocolate Chip, except it only uses 1/3 the sugar. The sweetness was perfect for me and, because there’s less sugar, the cookie doesn’t flatten out as much when baked, resulting in a more cakey texture.

Then there’s the Unifier, which ingeniously combines a brownie and a cookie – not much, just two of the best things in life. Underneath the thin crust is a gooey heart, so soft it just melts in your mouth.

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2012/04/062015/10/07

[Shanghai] Ginger

shanghai

Ginger (venue moved)

Add: No.1, 299 Fuxing Xi Lu, near Huashan Lu / 复兴西路299弄1号, 近华山路
Tel: 3406 0599
Hours: 9:30am~9:30pm
Website: www.gingercafe.cn
Price: [drinks] 25~45RMB [food] 42~98 RMB
Visited: Apr 2011

I have been to Ginger a few times before, but never thought it was anything special. This past Wednesday I sat out with a friend in its tiny alley patio, and I gotta say, this is a pretty sweet spot for the Spring weather in Shanghai. I only had a pot of ginger tea so I can’t comment on the food…you will have to go and find out yourself.