New Openings: Spring Sugar Rush!
Amandine, a French bakery, pastry and chocolate shop will open in May next to Tribeca in Sanlitun Soho. I’ve already had a sneak peek and sampled some of their wares, and was impressed with the various creative flavors of macaroons – from salted butter caramel to sweet potato sesame.
Arnaud Dupuis, Amandine’s pastry chef and operations director, has spent 20 years passionately working at bakeries in Paris. Dupuis holds a CAP (a French diploma) in pastry and chocolate making from École Grégoire-Ferrandi, one of France’s leading professional training schools, and specialized in chocolate making at the gastronomic school Bellouet Conseil. In France, Dupuis progressed from being a chief pastry chef to having responsibility for an entire pastry laboratory, and later developed his own product line, one bakery lab and one pastry shop, through which he invited customers to discover new combinations of flavors while revisiting the classics.
Up north at Sanlitun villiage, a new café called Home Made Dessert is a sweet supplement to the nearby Macau Taste. The venue will open soon, serving Hong Kong-style desserts and drinks.
The sugary invasion is spreading south as well. Taiwanese pastry specialist Vigor Kobo (维格饼家) opens an official mainland China shop at the “Taiwan Street” (台湾映像) just east of Qianmen Dajie. The award-winning pineapple cakes (fengli su 凤梨酥) deserve a try, but also be sure to sample the sun cake (太阳饼) and mung bean cakes with red bean paste (鸳鸯绿豆糕) – all are old-fashioned decent Taiwanese snacks. （http://www.taiwan-vigor.com.tw/front/bin/ptlist.phtml?Category=349745）
Amandine
Stall B1-330, Bldg 3（next to Tribeca）, Sanlitun Soho, Gongti Beilu, Chaoyang District (8590 0586)
点食诚心.朝阳区工人体育场北路三里屯SOHO3号楼B1-330号 (Tribeca 旁边)
Home Made Dessert
Stall S5-15 (next to Macau Taste), Sanlitun Village, 19 Sanlitun Beilu, Chaoyang District
甜品家作. 朝阳区三里屯北路19号三里屯VillageS5-15号 (澳门味道旁边)
Vigor Kobo
Daily 9am-8pm. 4-2Nanxiaoshun Hutong, Qianmen Taiwan Street, Dongcheng District (6702 0900)
维格饼家. 东城区前门台湾映象老街南晓顺胡同4-2号
