Life and Times in the Southern Capital
Archive for October, 2008
Breakfast: Round 2
Oct 13th
Not really sure why most of my posts revolve around food.. I really do stuff other than eat, and I actually eat a lot more Chinese than Western food. I guess that after you are here awhile, all that “Ohh!! I ate Snake\Dog\Pig’s Face\Etc. today!” stuff becomes fairly mundane, and hardly seems worth sharing with others. But when I find a Western type service offering I am pretty floored and want to tell everyone I see how amazing it is that it’s now in Nanjing… So guess that’s what I’ll do until the new Western arrivals stop amazing me.
The other day I was in Carrefour (actually my first time there since I first went to get some Subway) and wasn’t too surprised to see Cereal, they have carried it since they opened in Nanjing a decade ago, but as I passed the display I did a double take and had to turn around. The Cereal was on sale for 16RMB. The box was only 150grams, but anyone who has bought Western cereal in China knows, the markup is typically in the 40-60RMB range for what is still a pretty small box. The cereal is also packaged for China, in the past I have bought cereal that was pretty much for “Asia” with a ton of different languages on the box. This one is all Chinese, though the cereal is actually made in Thailand. Maybe this has been going on for awhile, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it with such low prices and variety (though I honestly just usually go to my local supermarket, Metro once a month or so and Times Grocery when I really need some cheese or tortillas; I try to get in and out of Carrefour as quickly as possible to avoid the crowds whenever I find myself there). But looks to be a good sign for cereal lovers that Kellogg’s looks to be doing things on a larger scale, resulting in much lower prices and more variety the the previous “imported” cereals. Now if I could just find some untatined milk to go with this………..
It’s Donut Time!
Oct 7th
So I was in Golden Wheel mall the other day, and while I didn’t check out the new Subway restaurant there (in case it’s not apparent, I love me some Spicy Italian with all the fixins), I did check out Donut Time.
It’s on the ground floor of the mall, near the Papa Johns. It is pretty nicely done inside, about on par with a Starbucks type place. You order at the front counter and seat yourself. As I wasn’t really wanting to eat doughnuts at 9pm, I grabbed some to go. Prices were 5RMB per doughnut, and they have a couple promotions running now (when I was there it was buy a half dozen and get a half dozen plain or glazed free).
They also have various coffees, lattes, teas, etc. I didn’t try any of those, but may swing through in the future, as it is a pretty comfy atmosphere and they advertise having free wifi.
The doughnuts came in a wide number of varieties, I’d estimate around 20. Though some may be strange to American doughnut consumers (and likely anyone else who has any idea what a doughnut is.) For example, the doughnut topped with pork meat floss, or the dougnut topped with shredded cheese. Rest assured they have more traditional toppings, like icing, as well.
I just tried the chocolate topped one with a sort of mint creme in the center (I like sweets as much as the next guy, but I wasnt scarfing down the whole box myself, sharing is caring!). The cake part of the doughnut was pretty much the same as you’d expect if you have had a dougnut anywhere before. The filling was good and just the right creamy consistency. The icing was more of a dry hardened shell than an wet icing consistency, but the chocolate tasted decent and that’s what matters most.
I hope this place works, even if its as a coffee shop first and a donut shop second, as it’s nice to have an alternative to Starbucks, Costa or a local chain for a coffee, unfortuantely I didn’t notice pricing on coffee, but given the affordability of the doughnuts, I cant believe it would be anything except a small fraction of Starbucks’ prices.
If you don’t know where Golden Wheel is, it’s in XinJieKou, just North of the GE (Golden Eagle) building on the other side of Han Zhong Lu.
Donut Time (多纳时光)
Golden Wheel (金轮新天地)
Shop C-109
8 Han Zhong Lu
Xin Jie Kou CBD Area
Hours:
Mon-Thu: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Fri-Sun: 10 a.m. to 10.30 p.m.
Phone: 025-84770319