(101 Things About Shanghai) Zoned for Crappy Pastries
ETA 12 August 2010
ExtraOrdinary has disappeared from the infamous corner and in its place is Bakery #4 in 12 months: Elysee (insert French accent aigu on first and second Es) Boulangerie-Patisserie. Yes. En Francais. Bien sur. And OMFG- they have real pastries hidden away inside, beyond the view of the shrimp-fluff-oily-cheese-kelp-bread in the window. Today, I bought an honest to goodness tarte aux abricots for 8 kuai and it was AWESOME. Pity they’ll be out of business by autumn, if all goes as usual
On the corner of Nanchang Lu and Shanxi Nan Lu there is a pastry shop that sells the most absurd and unappetizing pastries: shiny, stale, styrofoamy, often topped with pork floss or cold savoury cream sauce or fake cheese that has congealed or a mountain of cool whip that has hardened around the edges. It occasionally has customers but it often doesn’t. How does it stay in business, you may ask. Well, it doesn’t.
Since last summer, three different bad pastry shops have occupied this address. It started out with Raymond’s, who gloated on their signs that they had branches in HongKong and TaiPei (I know damn well that both Hong Kong and TaiPei have many crappy pastry shops so this name dropping does not reassure me). They gutted the place before setting up shop and put in all new counters and shelves and window seat bar stools. They were in and out of business before autumn hit. Paper was placed on the glass door to hide the insides and a new shop started tearing apart the old one, gutting it.
When they opened a few weeks later, they were 1st Street (see above). They had replaced Raymond’s interior decorations with their own, which were exactly the same. And they served exactly the same oily, dry, surreal pastries. About a month ago, 1st Street closed their doors and a new business covered the windows and door with paper and started gutting it anew. It reopened last week under a new name (which I’ve conveniently forgotten), with exactly the same furnishings and exactly the same crappy pastries.
I’m trying to understand the method to this madness. Am taking bets on how long the new place lasts.
ETA The new place is called Extraordinary, with a bun instead of the O.
In other news, we walked to the Boxing Cat Brewery today for a celebratory microbrew as we’d finally signed a contract for a new flat. When we got to the entry gate, the staff were closing up and leaving, quite somber. Why? The brewmaster had died suddenly. We are big fans of the lovely beers there so I want to throw out a big huge note of condolence for them. He was a brilliant brewmaster.
Surreal pastries with punctuation? Fabulous.
The photos are pretty great too.
They’d be even better with a semi colon and fudge sauce 🙂
are you referring to asian bakeries in general? have you even had different kinds? they’re not all “Crappy” as you say. in general, asian bakeries are known to have a lighter taste, less sweet or loaded with different things like garlic, cheese, mushrooms, sausages. most asians can’t stand your typical krispy kreme, starbucks bakery. it’s all about your tastebuds
No, I wasn’t referring to Asian bakeries in general. I was referring to the ones on that corner. I said as much in that post. I actually prefer the light, less sweet Asian baked goods to North American ones because I don’t like ‘my’ typical Krispy Kreme/Starbucks sweetness/fattiness (gee, thanks for the generalization). I like garlic and cheese and sausages (don’t like mushroom). The bakeries I wrote about on that corner were filled with oily, stale baked goods. They kept going out of business- 3 bakeries in one year died on that corner because they only sold bad products. It’s not about my tastebuds- it’s about bad baking. The current bakery there is great.