October, 2015 | Sugared & Spiced

2015/10/312019/06/29

[Shanghai 上海] Speak Low

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Speak Low

Add: 579 Middle Fuxing Road, near Second Ruijin Road
Tel: 6416 0133
Hours: 6pm-late
Price: [2nd floor] 70-90 RMB/cocktail [3rd floor] 110-220 RMB/cocktail
Visited: Oct 2015

There is a quiet little shop on Middle Fuxing Road called “Ocho” selling a neat range of bar tools, many of which curated from Japan by one of the Japanese shop owners. It’s sleek enough to make bartenders drool, but I suppose this doesn’t really concern the rest of us who don’t make cocktails for a living?

復興中路上有家安靜的小店叫做 “Ocho”，裏面陳列著各式各樣的調酒用具，聽說其中不少是老板從日本特別挑選來的精品。這些亮晶晶的東西看起來的確漂亮，不過你說，我又不是調酒師，這跟我沒什麽關系吧？

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But not so quick. You see, there is something curious about this mannequin pointing its finger to the book shelf on the left…

慢，別這麽急。你看這個人偶，如此果斷的指著自己左邊的書架，是不是有點奇怪呢？

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2015/10/312019/06/29

[Shanghai] Racines

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Racines

Add: 41 Guangyuan Road, near Yuqing Road / 广元路41号，近余庆路
Tel: 6448 3851
Hours: 6-11pm
Price: 350-400 RMB
Visited: Oct 2015

French bistro by Japanese chef Kenji Ishibashi, who was trained in Marseilles and Nice before working as chef at Mardi Gras and La Queue du Chiot here in Shanghai. His most recent project, Racines, has been up and running for a few months now and gathering good reviews, so I dropped by earlier this week for a try.

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Racines (“roots” in French) is located on the first floor of an apartment building without apparent signage – it’s definitely not a place you’d notice if you just walk by. I suppose they don’t really want walk-ins anyway, as the place is small. There are three seats in front of the open kitchen, and the tables can accommodate about 18 people. There are only two people in the kitchen – Kenji Ishibashi and his assistant, and only one service staff.

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The menu is scribbled on a blackboard (very French indeed), the list is fairly short but there are many attractive options. It took us quite a while to get anything – I guess two people in the kitchen isn’t exactly a lot – but when the dishes did arrive, they were delicious. The meal started on a good note with bread and some very good butter and chicken liver pâté.

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2015/10/252019/06/29

[Shanghai] Uncle No Name Espresso

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Uncle No Name Espresso

Add: 227 Fengxian Road, near Nanhui Road / 奉贤路227号, 近南汇路
Tel: 6236 1220
Hours: 8am-9pm (open daily)
Price: [coffee] 20-45 RMB [pastry] 20-30 RMB
Visited: Oct 2015

Uncle No Name Espresso, a cozy cafe on Fengxian Road with delicious coffee. The owner is Australian, though the shop is run by local staff – a very friendly bunch. There are bar seats right near the front window, a few tables lining the corridor, and a bit more space within the shop itself. It’s not a huge place, but you don’t need much to enjoy a good cup of coffee.

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2015/10/242019/06/29

[Shanghai] Ochobo 千代保

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Ochobo 千代保

Add: 2F 20 Donghu Road / 东湖路20号2楼
Tel: 5404 7866
Hours: 6-10pm (closed on Sunday)
Price: 580 RMB/set
Visited: Oct 2015

Dinner at Ochobo, the sister restaurant of Sushi Oyama and Kappo Yu. The kaiseki set is priced at 580 RMB, making it the most affordable of the family, and I find the portion to be more manageable as well (I tend to leave overstuffed from Sushi Oyama and Kappo Yu). Reservation recommended.

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Menu, written on a paper fan, changes monthly.

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Sake cup selection.

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2015/10/232019/06/29

[Shanghai] Xixi Bistro 喜喜小館

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Xixi Bistro 喜喜小館

Add: 89 Wuyuan Lu,near Changshu Lu / 五原路89号，近常熟路
Tel: 6486 1331
Hours: 11:30am-2:30pm, 5-11pm
Price: lunch 88 RMB/set, dinner 100-150 RMB/person
Visited: Oct 2015

Lunch at the recently very popular Xixi Bistro. The owners are Italian (Piercarlo Panozzo and Ivan Icardi from UVA and FUMO), the chef is Shanghainese (Tony, also from UVA and Fumo), so the food is Chinese with an Italian flair. Cute place, good value, plus there’s a lovely courtyard that would be perfect on a nice day when the construction is eventually over.

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2015/10/162019/06/29

[Shanghai] Crystal Jade 翡翠酒家

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Crystal Jade 翡翠酒家

Add: 7F Westgate Mall 1038 West Nanjing Road / 南京西路1038号梅龙镇广场7楼
Tel: 5228 1133
Hours: 11:00am-3:00pm, 5:00-10:00pm
Website: www.crystaljade.com
Price: 150-200 RMB/person
Visited: Oct 2015

Please note that this was an arranged tasting.

Lunch at the newly revamped Crystal Jade in Westgate Mall. I’d never been to Crystal Jade before the renovation so I can’t really compare, but the new look is quite pretty in shades of grey and blue-green, with lots of mirrors all over. The menu has also gone through much scrutiny, resulting in a more concise list of classic and modern Cantonese dishes.

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3 Barbecue combination 烧味三拼 (118 RMB), a trio of BBQ pork with manuka honey, crackling pork belly, crispy roasted duck 马芦卡蜂蜜叉烧、金牌脆皮烧肉、金牌脆皮烧鸭. Very good.

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Steamed Black Truffle and Prawn Dumpling 黑松露翠玉饺 (8 RMB/piece).

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Steamed Minced Pork Patty with Squid Ink 墨鱼汁土尤蒸肉饼 (88 RMB) is a dish I haven’t tasted before. Pork belly is first minced then mixed with chopped water chestnut, diced eel, and squid ink. Flavor and texture both excellent.

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2015/10/152019/06/29

[Shanghai] The Commune Social

shanghai

The Commune Social

Add: 511 Jiangning Road, near Kangding Road / 江宁路511号，近康定路
Tel: 6047 7638
Hours: [lunch] Tue-Fri 12-2:30pm, Sat-Sun 12-3pm [dinner] Tue-Sat 6-10:30pm (closed on Mondays)
Price: [lunch] 178-258 RMB/set [dinner] 200-300 RMB/person
Website: www.communesocial.com
Visited: Oct 2015

Light lunch at The Commune Social, a tapas / dessert / cocktail bar by Jason Atherton. If you’ve lived in Shanghai for a while, you recognize this name – he is the chef the behind Table No. 1, one of my favorite restaurants in Shanghai years ago. His second venue in town is – again – designed by Neri & Hu, and the rustic industrial chic continues here with raw iron, reclaimed wood, unfinished concrete and exposed bricks. Lovely texture and patterns.

There are a few distinctive spaces within The Commune Social, and the idea is to have drinks in the courtyard, some light bites at the open-kitchen Tapas Bar, then move to the Dessert Bar to see the pastry chefs at work, and finish upstairs at the Cocktail Bar. That’s a lot of movement for one meal. Since it was a nice day out, we chose the courtyard seats and were quite happy staying in one place.

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2015/10/142019/06/29

[Shanghai 上海] Sunny Hills 微熱山丘

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Sunny Hills 微熱山丘

Add: 2F, 133 Yuanmingyuan Road
Tel: 6236 3300
Hours: 10am-8pm
Website: www.sunnyhills.com.cn
Price: free tasting, 120 RMB/box of 10, 180 RMB/box of 15
Visited: Oct 2015

Sunny Hills, a pineapple cake brand from Taiwan, is now available in Taipei, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo. The Shanghai branch, located on 133 Yuanmingyuan Road right behind The Peninsula, is a bright second floor space composed of not much other than an elongated table, meant for people to rest their feet and have a pineapple cake…for free.

台灣的鳳梨酥名店微熱山丘似乎生意不錯，在上海、香港、新加坡、和東京都開了分店。上海的分店位于圓明園路133號2樓，就在半島酒店後方，雖然離外灘不遠，卻是個相當安靜舒服的區域。店內設計明亮，不小的空間裡就放了一個長桌，讓客人歇歇腳，喝杯烏龍茶，當然還能品嚐鳳梨酥…而且一切免費。

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For those who haven’t had pineapple cakes, these are rectangular pastry shells wrapping thick, chunky pineapple jam. Sunny Hills prides itself in using freshly harvested sun-ripened pineapples indigenous of Taiwan, resulting in a fragrant, and especially tangy pineapple filling. The outside pastry shell is also made with care, using flours from Japan, butter from New Zealand, and eggs from a Taiwanese farm apparently renowned for using classical music to inspire the breeding process (?).

微熱山丘使用台灣八卦山的土鳳梨，原味熬煮而成的內陷比一般常吃到的要酸上一些，而且保有了果肉的口感。外皮的用料也有講究，用的是日本面粉、紐西蘭奶油、和據說是聽古典樂長大的雞生的蛋（真的嗎？）。

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2015/10/122019/06/29

[Shanghai] Somm Wine Gallery

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Somm Wine Gallery

Add: 2F, 284 Anfu Road, near Wukang Road / 安福路284号2楼，近武康路
Tel: 5425 1760
Hours: [Mon-Fri] 4pm-1am [Sat-Sun] 2pm-1am
Price: 130-400 RMB/tasting flight, 150-600+ RMB/glass, 800-3400+ RMB/bottle
Visited: Oct 2015

Other than French pastries, I also developed an interest in French wines during my three years in Paris. It was only natural to get accustomed to drinking regularly, since good wines are so easily accessible (both in terms of availability and price) compared to Shanghai. I can now recognize some familiar names and have a better idea of what I personally like, but of course I’m still far from being a connoissuer and wish that I can continue to learn about French wine even after leaving Paris…so when two friends opened a French-focused wine tasting bar here in Shanghai, I knew I was going to spend quite some time there.

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So here’s Somm Wine Gallery, a stylish space quietly nestled on the second floor of 284 Anfu Road. Beautiful window panes, sleek and comfortable HAY chairs, mood lighting…all very nice,but the focal point here is most definitely the Enomatic wine dispensing system, which guarantees wine quality for 3 weeks (some up to 1 month) after opening. Don’t want to finish a bottle of Montrose 2007 (2,000 RMB) by yourself? Well here you can try it by the glass (360 RMB/12cl) or an even smaller tasting size (180 RMB/6cl).

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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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