Welcome to The Foodie - your essential guide to the juiciest food news and gossip in Shanghai. This week:
Thought for Food – which is being sold as ‘Shanghai’s new gourmet, natural, organic restaurant’ – has officially launched at Octave. Although it’s been quietly open for months, with Executive Chef Alexander Bitterling (hailing from Germany, but also having worked in Australia and Thailand) now on board the menu has been rejigged in conjunction with Octave’s nutritionists to ensure maximum flavour and nutritional vigour. The kitchen will be dishing up both a la carte and share plates, with juice and smoothie pairings.
Down on Yongkang Lu, Nom Nom Eat Drink and Be Merry has burst forth onto the street. Despite a bright exterior and enticing design, the food is unfortunately nothing to write home about. The chicken salad croissant (32RMB) is edible but mostly consists of huge slices of tomato, a sprinkle of rocket, and somewhat bizarrely, grapes. The salads are similarly confusing, with a cobb salad at 38RMB served in a round plastic takeaway container. Ingredients are piled upon each other meaning you have to dutifully work your way through amound of salad leaves before reaching the carrot, egg and tomato hidden beneath. But all is not lost for Nom Nom; this spot’s redeeming feature is its coffee, with a creamy cappuccino for only 25RMB and a drinkable but very sweet pumpkin spice latte at 32RMB.
As a special treat for Christmas, Pantry's Best has launched their new Christmas cake, this year bringing a snowman into the mix - quite literally, there's a snowman inside the cake (see above). Order a whole Snowman Surprise Cake (399RMB) at pantrysbest.com and enjoy some jolly Christmas fun.
Beef and Liberty is now serving their epic Christmas burger, the Sweet Baby Cheesus (138RMB). And don't let the cute name put you off; this burger is a mouthful. With three types of cheese, plus two beef patties and cranberry sauce, you'll need a reindeer's hunger to get through it.
Speaking of special burgers, fancy pants fast food chain Carl's Jr has a seasonal special of their own available. It's not exactly Christmassy, but their new Portobello mushroom burger is certainly tasty. It features a juicy beef patty sandwiched between two slices of Swiss cheese, crispy breaded onion rings and smothered in a 'gourmet mushroom sauce'. You can try it at their newly renovated Xujiahui branch or at any of their other outlets around town.