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4/10/2011
3/27/2011
New Starbucks logo hits China. Setting a new trend for Asian copycat coffee brands?
Love it or not, that's the brand new Starbucks logo. I personally like it as it doesn't look as heavy as the previous one with its bold fonts. I like the idea of the brand being so strong that is doesn't even need to be written. I just wonder what people in China will call it now? The green mermaid? Will the disappearance of the ringed name let Chinese branches add their own Chinese name around (新吧克)? Was it a move from SB to seduce Asian markets even more? SB has always been good at adapting its environment, mainly thanks to greatly smart adaptions of their recipes so that wouldn't be too much of a surprise if they'd done the same for their logo, making SB a truly All-the-Nations coffee brand.
Below:
- Starbucks new logo as seen in Shanghai, PRC
- Starbucks Asian copies. Will the new logo inspire copycats as much as the old one?
- Starbucks logo through the years: the better you do, the less you need to tell.
Below:
- Starbucks new logo as seen in Shanghai, PRC
- Starbucks Asian copies. Will the new logo inspire copycats as much as the old one?
- Starbucks logo through the years: the better you do, the less you need to tell.
3/22/2011
Sometimes it feels good to be a Monkey
What's better than a tasty Hoyo de Monterey robusto and a mojito to celebrate the beginning of a new exciting week?
The Monkey is good at hiding in the urban jungle so if you're new in town and can't find your way to this secret den just ask me. If you make it in, ask Angelo, he's a true jewel in Shanghai F&B industry's crown and a great friend who will always look after you.
Monkey Lounge (Shanghai, PRC)
No 22, Lane 56 Donghu Lu, near Xinle Lu
东湖路56弄22号， 近新乐路
The Monkey is good at hiding in the urban jungle so if you're new in town and can't find your way to this secret den just ask me. If you make it in, ask Angelo, he's a true jewel in Shanghai F&B industry's crown and a great friend who will always look after you.
Monkey Lounge (Shanghai, PRC)
No 22, Lane 56 Donghu Lu, near Xinle Lu
东湖路56弄22号， 近新乐路
3/21/2011
Another Japanese Delight, EN yakiniku
After the YAKITORI style (grilled poultry), a great YAKINIKU place (grilled meat) on Shanxi Lu (by Fuxing Lu). We're lucky to have it right next to our place and it became one of our favorite brunch places.
Beautiful bamboo facade, inside wooden floor, tables and beams. Ideal for long dinners with group of friends. They serve one of the best meat in town (beef, pork, chicken, no lamb though) so don't expect All-You-Can-Eat deal for 10Euros there but it tastes so much better. Count 15 to 22Euros per person (including the indispensable Asahi nama biru (tap beer)). The kind of meal that makes me wish I had an unlimited capacity stomach.
EN Yakiniku (Shanghai, PRC)
no.400 Shanxi Lu by Fuxing Lu
400号陕西路（复兴路）
Beautiful bamboo facade, inside wooden floor, tables and beams. Ideal for long dinners with group of friends. They serve one of the best meat in town (beef, pork, chicken, no lamb though) so don't expect All-You-Can-Eat deal for 10Euros there but it tastes so much better. Count 15 to 22Euros per person (including the indispensable Asahi nama biru (tap beer)). The kind of meal that makes me wish I had an unlimited capacity stomach.
EN Yakiniku (Shanghai, PRC)
no.400 Shanxi Lu by Fuxing Lu
400号陕西路（复兴路）
Hidden Japanese Yakitori den
OK... I won't tell you where to find this one. Not right now anyway :-)
This yakitori is the kind of place you sort of want to keep for yourself. It is so exclusive, so precious, so rare... so Japanese. I'm grateful to my wife. She's the best guide you can imagine when it comes to Japanese eateries in China. And I must protect the secret, or at least a certain dose of mystery.
As for those who don't know, a yakitori is one of the numerous type of Japanese cuisine. Western people usually knows Sushi well, Teppanyaki, Shabu Shabu, Tonkatsu, Gyouza, Okonomiyake, Isakaya maybe... there's more than a dozen different kind of Japanese restaurants, each one originated from a different part of the country, different service style, cooking methods, philosophy, kitchen set up, size and guest seating type (bar, table, tatami...).
At a Yakitori place (焼き鳥/やきとり/ヤキトリ), it's all about about skewered food. Believe me Japanese are good at grilling anything! Liver, Chicken Heart, Chicken Skin, Cartilage, Tongue, Pork Belly... and other more common things and close to my taste such as: Garlic, Green Pepper, Asparagus wrapped in Bacon, Enoki mushrooms, Chicken/Beef Meatballs, Chicken Wings... a real grilled fest washed with an extra cold Asahi beer. God... it doesn't get any better.
Now the scene... an all wood decorum, walls covered with rice papers strips with beautifully written dishes'names and prices, gently waved by the fresh air every time a guest slide the door and step into these small temples built in homage to food and drink deities. Yakitori must be small, comfy, homy, crowded, noisy, smelly, smoky, LIVELY! You eat at the table or by the bar like me and get intoxicated with more beer, sake or plum alcohol. Top 40 Japanese pops playing, totally covered by laughters, and heavy half-drunk talks. I love that part. Soon people are cheering, hugging each other, the usual Japanese shyness and restraint vanish. This is time for brotherly, sincerity... emotion.
Hidden Japanese Yakitory Den
Address: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Phone: XXXXXXXXXXX
Web: N/A
This yakitori is the kind of place you sort of want to keep for yourself. It is so exclusive, so precious, so rare... so Japanese. I'm grateful to my wife. She's the best guide you can imagine when it comes to Japanese eateries in China. And I must protect the secret, or at least a certain dose of mystery.
As for those who don't know, a yakitori is one of the numerous type of Japanese cuisine. Western people usually knows Sushi well, Teppanyaki, Shabu Shabu, Tonkatsu, Gyouza, Okonomiyake, Isakaya maybe... there's more than a dozen different kind of Japanese restaurants, each one originated from a different part of the country, different service style, cooking methods, philosophy, kitchen set up, size and guest seating type (bar, table, tatami...).
At a Yakitori place (焼き鳥/やきとり/ヤキトリ), it's all about about skewered food. Believe me Japanese are good at grilling anything! Liver, Chicken Heart, Chicken Skin, Cartilage, Tongue, Pork Belly... and other more common things and close to my taste such as: Garlic, Green Pepper, Asparagus wrapped in Bacon, Enoki mushrooms, Chicken/Beef Meatballs, Chicken Wings... a real grilled fest washed with an extra cold Asahi beer. God... it doesn't get any better.
Now the scene... an all wood decorum, walls covered with rice papers strips with beautifully written dishes'names and prices, gently waved by the fresh air every time a guest slide the door and step into these small temples built in homage to food and drink deities. Yakitori must be small, comfy, homy, crowded, noisy, smelly, smoky, LIVELY! You eat at the table or by the bar like me and get intoxicated with more beer, sake or plum alcohol. Top 40 Japanese pops playing, totally covered by laughters, and heavy half-drunk talks. I love that part. Soon people are cheering, hugging each other, the usual Japanese shyness and restraint vanish. This is time for brotherly, sincerity... emotion.
Hidden Japanese Yakitory Den
Address: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Phone: XXXXXXXXXXX
Web: N/A
3/15/2011
Not so "petite"
Few weeks ago I met a super nice Shanghai guy called Sam. Gentle, very well spoken, and with an extremely sharp vision of how to run his business in the investment banking. What a surprise to find out, few weeks later, that this gentleman also owned four restaurants (five soon) in Shanghai! His F&B story started when he and his wife discovered Europe, its restaurants and arts. They quickly became addicted to antic shopping, buying everything from old pianos to original silver frames, armchairs, bird cages, etc... They would ship non less than five containers of them to Shanghai. Sam says it was easy to bring wood, bronze and the silver, but piano and furs were stopped at some point and wouldn't make it to China. Furs OK but pianos?... Well, he says, apparently too many Chinese piano collectors got cheated by sellers that would buy not that old pianos in Japan, age them and sell them for a fortune to naive collectors...
Sam and his wife showed an amazing, if not unique sense of design and decorum, designing their restaurants themselves... four of them! All of them called a French name but serving more like a mediterranean choice of dishes from Roasted Beef Salad, Sea Food Pastas and Pumpkin Risottos with feta cheese.
I haven't been to the three others but La Petite Fleur is a very charming restaurant, and it felt so not shanghai, it was so relaxing and I felt I was transported to South of France, Italy or Spain, where things goes slower than here, much slower...
La Petite Fleur (Shanghai, PRC)
n.25 Anfu Lu
+8621 54038247
By the same creative minds:
Le Petit Jardin
Le Petit Chateau
Le Jardin Secret
Sam and his wife showed an amazing, if not unique sense of design and decorum, designing their restaurants themselves... four of them! All of them called a French name but serving more like a mediterranean choice of dishes from Roasted Beef Salad, Sea Food Pastas and Pumpkin Risottos with feta cheese.
I haven't been to the three others but La Petite Fleur is a very charming restaurant, and it felt so not shanghai, it was so relaxing and I felt I was transported to South of France, Italy or Spain, where things goes slower than here, much slower...
La Petite Fleur (Shanghai, PRC)
n.25 Anfu Lu
+8621 54038247
By the same creative minds:
Le Petit Jardin
Le Petit Chateau
Le Jardin Secret
3/10/2011
Two Glory Hours at Morton's Steakhouse
My friend J is always great at sniffing good deals around town and I believe he was the one to recommend us Morton's happy hours for he had himself been initiated to the joy of not so tiny tinies at Morton's Singapore.
The guys and I should thank the discoverer and owe him respect. We did indeed spent one of the most delightful guys evening out at the second floor of Shanghai Pudong's IFC mall infamous steakhouse.
So let me tell you what glory hours we had there. The offer only convinced us to cross the Huangpu river, and it had to be good: 38RMB martinis from 5 to 7pm (4,20Euros) with an all-you-can-eat beef sirloin sandwiches, and the rest should be as below...
Morton's The Steakhouse (Shanghai, PRC):
4/F, IFC Pudong,
8 Shiji Da Dao,
near Lujiazui Huan Lu
世纪大道8号，
国金中心IFC商场4楼
近陆家嘴环路
Phone: +8621 6075 8888
http://www.mortons.com/
From Chicago to Shanghai, be sure they kept it high
Choosing our weapons
Round 1, Chocolate Martini
Round 2, Morton's Mojito Martini
Mouth watering beef sandwich, in numbers
Third, Dry Martini meets Hoyos de Monterrey
The Epicureans
Round 4, Espresso Tini
Final round! Blue Cheese Olives Martini
The guys and I should thank the discoverer and owe him respect. We did indeed spent one of the most delightful guys evening out at the second floor of Shanghai Pudong's IFC mall infamous steakhouse.
So let me tell you what glory hours we had there. The offer only convinced us to cross the Huangpu river, and it had to be good: 38RMB martinis from 5 to 7pm (4,20Euros) with an all-you-can-eat beef sirloin sandwiches, and the rest should be as below...
Morton's The Steakhouse (Shanghai, PRC):
4/F, IFC Pudong,
8 Shiji Da Dao,
near Lujiazui Huan Lu
世纪大道8号，
国金中心IFC商场4楼
近陆家嘴环路
Phone: +8621 6075 8888
http://www.mortons.com/
From Chicago to Shanghai, be sure they kept it high
Choosing our weapons
Round 1, Chocolate Martini
Round 2, Morton's Mojito Martini
Mouth watering beef sandwich, in numbers
Third, Dry Martini meets Hoyos de Monterrey
The Epicureans
Round 4, Espresso Tini
Final round! Blue Cheese Olives Martini
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