Big Bamboo Pizza + Beer Monday Night Promotion

Mondays are becoming the night in Shanghai to get over the workday blues with dining promotions although the work-week is barely 8 hours old. At Big Bamboo, the Monday night special is pizza and a pint of beer for 58RMB from 18:00-02:00. At 20:00, the bar is filled primarily with middle-aged men taking advantage of the deal and already in need of an after-work pint. The servers are quick to seat you and receive your order. The pint of beer is standard Budweiser or Carlsberg on draft. Looking at the regular menu, all the pizzas are listed at the same price, so selecting one pizza over another will not mean that you are getting more value from the pizza through this deal. Thus, there is no feeling of satisfaction from beating the system by ordering a more expensive pizza. Feeling a bit hungry, we ordered the Chicken Pesto (chicken breast, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, broccoli, feta cheese with tomato pesto sauce and mozzarella cheese) and Mediterranean (spinach, black olives, peppers, onions, tomatoes, feta cheese).

The pizzas promptly arrive and were larger than the server described them (about 12-inches). The crust was extremely thin and crispy, even able to hold the weight of the chicken without folding. The Mediterranean pizza was not impressive. The nobs of feta were generous, but the black olives were sparse. The remainder of the vegetable toppings looked and tasted more like an attempt at pico de gallo. The chicken pesto was slightly better as the chicken was cooked through, seasoned and not dry. There was not as much feta as the Mediterranean though. The pesto tasted non-existent with no hint of extra-virgin olive oil, basil, and pine nuts. The only green splash of color came from the broccoli. The mozzarella cheese on both was just enough to cover the pizza, but almost disappearing in the pizza. Overall, the crust is the best part of the entire pizza. At least a pint was served with this deal.

Big Bamboo. 132 Nanyang Lu (by Xikang Lu), Jing'An District, Shanghai 200040, People's Republic of China. 海市静安区南阳路132号. www.BigBamboo.cn

Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookie

When I heard that a friend planned on bringing me back one of the infamous Momofuku Milk Bar compost cookies from the United States to China, I was absolutely ecstatic. The Momofuku compost cookie created by Christina Tosi held promises of sweet, salty, savory, and decadent all rolled up into a cookie. It is made of pretzels, potato chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch, chocolate chips, butter, unbleached wheat flour, sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, graham crumbs, pretzels, potato chips, glucose syrup, eggs, whole oats, cream, milk powder, coffee grounds, salt, leavening, and vanilla. The milk powder is an interesting addition, but its distinguishing properties in a cookie is somewhat of a mystery.

Granted its enjoyment would not occur until a few days after its delivery, anticipation was still building. My friend gave me one lone cookie enclosed in cellophane. Having read a recipe (among the many variations) on how to make my own compost cookie, I started to think the calories alone could be a meal in itself. The first bite was one of buttery decadence. There is so much butter in this cookie, your teeth and tongue could feel its baked texture and presence. The cookie was also incredibly sugary with the slightest hint of coffee. There were small bits of saltiness from the pretzels (the crunch from the potato chips probably baked away), but the cookie was overall sweet. Almost too sweet. The compost cookie was still very tasty. My stomach could have managed another one had there been one available. Now, if only I could sample a compost cookie fresh out of the oven...

**The cookie photos may not be of the entire cookie, but the excitement from the idea of its consumption may have caused a lapse in memory.**

Momofuku Milk Bar. Multiple locations in New York City. www.momofuku.com/milkbar

Bistro Burger Dissatisfaction

Another burger, another year. It is safe to say that it has been about a year that I have consumed a burger and, coincidentally, I returned to the same place - Bistro Burger, another Eduardo Vargas establishment. The first visit was a blurred memory of dissatisfaction after trying the signature burger and the "protein-style" version. This last visit is another reminder of the disappointment I first felt.

Scouring the menu, few of the burger options jumped out as something unique or comforting. Bearing witness to countless false promises made by various menus in China, expectations were already low. The burger selected (another seemingly insignificant, yet important memory for the food blog) arrived with a bit of arugula salad and was topped with grilled onions. The bun had a fluffy appearance and was warm. However, the entire burger was poorly constructed. The hamburger itself did not stay together well, falling apart instead of being a cohesive mass of beef. Each bite into the burger resulted in more contents of the burger falling apart or off, preventing me from having the perfect bite with the right balance of all the ingredients. Having been seated with intense hunger pangs to accompany me, I could barely finish half the burger. It simply was not satisfying. Another year, another Bistro Burger disappointment.

The fries were served hot out of the fryer and were pretty tasty after an introduction to salt and black pepper. The consistency of the fries was good - crisp on the outside with a soft center. The milkshakes were not bad either. The server brought out the metal cups each milkshake was made in so there was slightly more milkshake per glass serving. The milkshakes could have benefited from more ice cream and less milk, as the texture was on the thin side.


Still not the best burger in Shanghai, but the fries and milkshake may be worth the snack.

Bistro Burger. 1/F, Mansion, 291 Fumin Lu (near Changle Lu), Shanghai, China. 富民路291号1楼,近长乐路