In the world of fast food desserts Beard Papa has always stood above the crowd. The concept for the chain is really quite basic; take a freshly baked pastry and fill it with flavored cream. Although simple, the recipe still never fails to satisfy. At the Beard Papa stand in the basement of Isetan three flavors of filling are generally “on tap”; vanilla, chocolate and green tea. The Isetan branch currently has strawberry as well.
Seasonal fruit enhanced with Japanese style.
Tianjin has its fair share of locally-based dessert shops but we wanted to explore the world of newly imported dessert chains here in Tianjin, so we visited the Japanese Natural Beauty, in the basement of the Isetan Shopping Center.
In 1998, two Singaporean lawyers Lyn Lee and John Yip manifested their love of chocolate into a dedicated store, the artfully named awfully chocolate. Eleven years on, Singapore is home to 6 branches, and the brand has spread to Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Shanghai and Beijing in mainland China.
Despite this rapid expansion, Beijing franchise owner Teresa Bai has stayed true to awfully chocolate’s roots, sticking to the original 4-item core menu and maintaining its signature “less is more” look.
Beijing is not a neat city. Soviet-style concrete blocks jostle uncomfortably with ultra-modern glass constructions, and tower higgledy-piggledy over stunted hutongs that have somehow escaped the wrecker ball. The streets are crammed with dust-dimmed signs leading to hole-in-the-wall shops and rudely assaulted by spanking new malls. Those with Attention Deficit Disorder: you have been warned.