Field Correspondant Beta Blognut returns with part two of his Asian Donut expose. Check out part one here, or just scroll down. And for those who’ve been asking, I’m in the process of updating my Donut Shop links and should get to all the recent Reader Suggestions shortly.

A line runs down the block at this famous soup dumpling shop in Shanghai and the kitchen is cramped full of cooks grabbing at a pink mountain of raw pork.

Soup Dumplings are delicious but deadly treats. Beta Blognut’s host warns him in advance just how to eat one of these pork-stuffed and sesame-topped delicacies. It involves using his chopstick to lance the dense doughy shell, a whiff of hot steam escaping. Ever so carefully, he tips the dumpling over his plastic spoon, so that the mouth-scalding oily broth dribbles down into it. After slurping up that pork-flavored ambrosia, he then does like the locales and shoves the entire thing into his mouth. He finishes off a plate of them, but avoids the soup filled with gray cubes of coagulated pig’s blood.

Now it’s time for dessert. Cruising the streets of Shanghai, Beta Blognut happens upon yet another European style bakery called Christine. Sounds French, n’est pas? Inside, he sees many more examples of the Chinese’s inability to master the chemical nuances of western baked goods. Cream horns are weirdly chewy, flaky flavorless dough is considered a treat, and croissants are to be avoided at all costs. And whatever you do, be wary of the clean white shop with a cartoon face licking its lips. While the rainbow-color fare inside screams jellybeans, bubblegum, and fruit candies, Beta Blognut learns the hard way that purple and red don’t translate into grape and strawberry flavors. Opening up a handful of these colorful wrapped little treats, he ingests such fare as corned beef, spicy pork dollop, and some sort of gelatin-coated bit of bone that is apparently popular among the ladies of Shanghai. Not being sexist here, as a friend explains that women who are mindful of their weight nibble at these pieces of bone so that they get the “flavor” without the calories.

He does find a dusted lump amid the other baked treats at Christine that looks promising. While it’s wrapped in plastic, this does look very much like a donut. And since he’s only out twelve cents, it’s worth the splurge.

It’s a donut! A tad unfresh, but the real deal and not a hamburger bun with goop on top. Much like the other desserts he’s sampled in Beijing and Shanghai, the main flavor is red bean paste. It’s not exactly the Culinary Revolution he was hoping for but he is certainly on the right trail, even if he cannot pronounce it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 4:57 pm and is filed under Travelogue, Field Correspondent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.