9 viral Shanghai snacks & sips — are they worth the hype?

Food trends may seem frivolous, but they can be surprisingly revealing barometers of broader cultural shifts. 📈

Of these popular snacks and sips in Shanghai, one took off thanks to clever Chinese wordplay, another because of its health appeal, and most from simply being downright delicious. We hate how much we love you, Dubai chewy cookie.

Here are their backstories and our two cents on whether we think they’re actually worth the hype.

1

A crossover between Chinese nian gao (年糕) and buttery French canelés, the butter mochi (黄油年糕, huángyóu niángāo) has a crispy shell, chewy core, and caramelised aroma that’s dizzingly aromatic.

Such is its popularity that NYT Cooking even commissioned Kayla Hoang to create a recipe for homebakers last month.

“(Shanghai butter mochi, butter tteok and) butter rice cakes are a style of mochi that are subtly sweet and deeply buttery,” says Hoang. “One theory credits a baker in Nantong, China, just north of Shanghai [...] Other influences may be Hawaiian butter mochi and Filipino bibingka.”

Worth trying?

As American TV chef Paula Deen knows all too well, anything containing that much butter is bound to be delicious.

2

A goofy-looking snack that’s galloped to social media fame, fuelled by the Horse Year hype and a hilarious internet pun.

The Ugly Horse Bread or Ox-Horse Bread (牛马面包, niú mǎ miànbāo) really took off, as jaded youth began self-deprecatingly describing themselves as “ox-horses” (牛马, niú mǎ). Topped with shaggy meat-floss ‘toupées,’ some of these cream-filled buns even look as frazzled and sleep-deprived as overworked corporate drones.

Worth trying?

Rather similar to Rome’s maritozzo buns, except any self-respecting Italian would probably cross themselves at the thought of pairing cream buns with meat-floss.

3

Called “little clams” (小贝, xiǎobèi) in Chinese, this pastry sees salad dressing and pork floss clamped between two cake-ball halves — before being rolled in more creamy dressing and feather-light floss.

These bite-sized cake bites encapsulate a key distinction between Chinese and Western palates; the former are far less squeamish about blending sweet and savoury (also see Ugly Horse Bread).

Worth trying?

We had our reservations, but a taste test turned us into acolytes. Dangerously easy to pop into your mouth, these are also good for gifting by the box.

4

A classic Cantonese dessert, mango pomelo sago has been ‘hacked’ by Chinese youth — you can now take it to-go, as thick yogurt replaces the liquid ingredients (milk and coconut milk) in the ’solid’ version of the dessert soup.

Unlike the other eats and sips listed here, the Solid Mango Pomelo Sago (固体杨枝甘露, gùtǐ yáng zhī gānlù) uniquely started as a social media trend. However, it didn’t take long for supermarkets and stores to capitalise on it — Dingdong Maicai (see image above) even offered DIY kits at the height of its popularity.

Worth trying?

It’s only kind of like the original, and lacks the coconuty profile we love. A healthier alternative, nevertheless.

5

“Fibremaxxing” — the latest wellness buzzword for cramming as much fibre into your diet as possible — has found its poster child in this new snack.

Chock full of different tubers, from purple yam to pumpkin, as well as chestnuts and sometimes cream cheese, China’s Five Grains Bun (五谷丰登馒头, wǔgǔ fēngdēng mántou) boasts a beautiful cross-section for a cellphone-toting generation.

It also demonstrates how modern mantou can compete with pretty pastries rather than be replaced by them.

Worth trying?

We’ve been swapping these for our usual European breakfast pastries and feeling rather smug about it. Summer bod loading...

6

Just when we thought Dubai chocolate had peaked, it came back even more addictive. What started as straight out chocolate bars are now incorporated in mochi-like treats, so you get equal parts crunch and chew.

Try the trend with a local twist — ground black sesame instead of crushed pistachios — at independent South Korean bakery Wekuum in Changning or Beijing’s OUR Bakery in Huangpu.

Worth trying?

A thousand times yes! It’s a textural thing. Crunchy kataifi is irresistible when coupled with the contrasting textures of mochi skin, fruit or nuts.

7

Every “matcha bae” visiting Shanghai has been flocking to this café for its viral sheep latte that requires a skilled tea barista and a steady hand. 

Said barista creates individual sheep out of white and black foam using a delicate dropper, so each cup is a masterpiece you can drink.

Worth trying?

We sheep-ishly admit we judged this wanghong cup, but it tastes as good as it looks. The cold head of cream atop the warm matcha caught us off guard in a good way.

8

The ultimate mashup of two time-honoured treats: tanghulu (糖葫芦, tánghúlu) meets milk skin (奶皮, nǎipí). Picture sheets of creamy Mongolian milk skin plastered onto skewers of crunchy, candied hawthorn fruit (or other fruits).

According to popular lore, tanghulu traces its origins to when a physician prescribed a mix of hawthorn berries and sugar to an ill imperial concubine during the Song dynasty.

Also centuries old, milk skin or öröm/urum is a pastoral snack that’s typically eaten on its own or paired with salty milk tea or sweets. 

Worth trying?

An instance of two rights make an even bigger right. The milk skin ‘softens the blow’ of the hard candy shell shattering beneath your teeth.

9

What better way to capture the hearts of young people than by combining two of their favourite things: coffee and cute stuffed toys?

13DE Marzo Café taps into Millennials’, Gen Z’s and Gen Alpha’s shared passion for plushies — a small source of comfort in an increasingly confounding world — and is one of the culprits behind Anfu Lu’s perpetual pedestrian traffic.

Worth trying?

We confess, this is the only thing we have yet to try on this list.

Leave a comment under this article to alert us to Shanghai’s next delicious distraction though.

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Opening image by Mercy和这个世界 on Little Red Book. All visuals are sourced from the respective establishments or credited to their original content creators. This article is not to be replicated without prior consent.