Gotta Have Coffee: CW Rounds Up 12 Must-tries for Shanghai’s Coffee Lovers

Date: Sep 24th 2009 10:15p.m.

Contributed by:
andreawong

Venture beyond your regular java spot and check out 12 amazing hidden coffee gems around the city

By Huan Hsu, Crystyl Mo, Joanne Yao, Nick Taylor and Kellie Schmitt

Strongest Cup of Coffee

The Japanese owner and coffee guru of Café Dan isn’t much for small talk. He’d much rather be left alone to painstakingly handdribble water over coffee grounds into various beakers for his many coffee-crazed customers. However, we did manage to squeeze out of him a recommendation for strong coffee: light-roast Kilimanjaro (¥45). Why? Well, this bean, grown in the rich volcanic soils of its namesake mountain, delivers a “sharp, wine-like acidity”. Why the light roast? Contrary to common assumption, a light roast preserves more caffeine than a medium or dark one. The owner roasts all the beans at Café Dan himself, and uses them within three weeks of roasting. The difference between a light and medium roast is not the length of roasting. Rather, it’s just 10 degrees. Light roasts go in the roaster for 25 minutes at 210 Celsius while a medium gets heated to 220. The Kilimanjaro should be approached with small sips; it is fiercely sour with a complex, intense body and a very, very long finish. The more you drink, the more sour it tastes. Pucker up, this is a caffeine whammy.

Find It No. 41, Lane 248 Taikang Lu 泰康路248弄41号, Tel: 6466-1042

Most Extravagant

Here, we don’t mean extravagant as in “most expensive.” We mean, where can you
get one of the world’s most celebrated coffees for a fair price? Jamaican Blue Mountain
is one of the rarer coffees around (the most expensive is the notorious “scat”
coffee, Kopi Luak). At 1919 Café, a cup of smooth Blue Mountain goes for ¥68 (¥32
cheaper than at Café …

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Gotta Have Coffee: CW Rounds Up 12 Must-tries for Shanghai’s Coffee Lovers

Date: Sep 24th 2009 10:15p.m.

Contributed by:
andreawong

Venture beyond your regular java spot and check out 12 amazing hidden coffee gems around the city

By Huan Hsu, Crystyl Mo, Joanne Yao, Nick Taylor and Kellie Schmitt

Strongest Cup of Coffee

The Japanese owner and coffee guru of Café Dan isn’t much for small talk. He’d much rather be left alone to painstakingly handdribble water over coffee grounds into various beakers for his many coffee-crazed customers. However, we did manage to squeeze out of him a recommendation for strong coffee: light-roast Kilimanjaro (¥45). Why? Well, this bean, grown in the rich volcanic soils of its namesake mountain, delivers a “sharp, wine-like acidity”. Why the light roast? Contrary to common assumption, a light roast preserves more caffeine than a medium or dark one. The owner roasts all the beans at Café Dan himself, and uses them within three weeks of roasting. The difference between a light and medium roast is not the length of roasting. Rather, it’s just 10 degrees. Light roasts go in the roaster for 25 minutes at 210 Celsius while a medium gets heated to 220. The Kilimanjaro should be approached with small sips; it is fiercely sour with a complex, intense body and a very, very long finish. The more you drink, the more sour it tastes. Pucker up, this is a caffeine whammy.

Find It No. 41, Lane 248 Taikang Lu 泰康路248弄41号, Tel: 6466-1042

Most Extravagant

Here, we don’t mean extravagant as in “most expensive.” We mean, where can you
get one of the world’s most celebrated coffees for a fair price? Jamaican Blue Mountain
is one of the rarer coffees around (the most expensive is the notorious “scat”
coffee, Kopi Luak). At 1919 Café, a cup of smooth Blue Mountain goes for ¥68 (¥32
cheaper than at Café …

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Shanghai Weekender: We Command You to Party

Date: Sep 18th 2009 11:20a.m.

Contributed by:
zammo

Things are getting big again as the summer flows away. Tonight we have leftfield parties in four spots: FREE the WAX’s birthday at The Shelter; Knives Out at Not Me; it’s Dadarock at Dada; and Jah! at LOgO. It’s enough to make us wish we had eight legs. Two for each dancefloor, you see. If we did have eight legs, we’d probably go and show them off at this big gay party.

More big gay fun tomorrow at Shanghai Studio’s Drag Party. DJ Sacco tells us he’s planning a Patrick Swayze-themed set, with stripping, bow ties and that lift-the-girl-up bit from Dirty Dancing. Come in drag for free entry and a free drink. Meanwhile, there’s beautiful noise terror at Live Sound Garage, Beijing’s Bigger Bang at Yuyintang (aftershow party at Not Me) and – pick of the weekend, people, we’re going big font for this, it’s

Underground Resistance’s DJ Santiago Salazar

at The Shelter with Void. That means supremely beautiful Detroit synthy rhythms with a slight Latin flavor and undercurrents of African American militantism. Underground Resistance’s troops play maybe once a year in China. Be there, or be part of the sucky mainstream.

If you’ve got any dance left in you, the only place to be on Sunday night is Dada, for this new disco party.

Now, that’s quite enough fun for one weekend.

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Where to Party this Weekend

Date: Sep 11th 2009 4:06p.m.

Contributed by:
zammo

If you’re not too art-ed out already, get down to FREE the WAX’s Brainfeeder party tonight at Kathleen’s 5 and check out graffiti artist Ques creating spray can art live to Samiyam’s beats. It was going to be at Mocca, but things have shifted around, so take note. Shanghai by Bus have brought over Japanese dancehall supremo Cojie from Mighty Crown, Asia’s king sound system. Catch him at The Shelter. Meanwhile, SOHO has one half of Deep Dish, Sharam spinning for a measly RMB120 and the Shanghai Devils host a new party at the refurbished Martini Bar in the D&G shop.

Saturday’s big event is Matt & Flo’s triumphant return to party throwing. These two stalwarts of the social scene overrun Lost Heaven’s new Bund-side palace of food and drink with their tribal Dance Party. Get a meal on the second floor before the party and you’ll get a free bottle of wine (per group of four) if you mention Matt and Flo when you book. Should you wake up before the evening, head to M1NT for brunch, cool off in the pool, then turn yourself into a green meany at Longitude’s absinthe party.

Sunday, Cold Fairyland play at JZ Club, offering an intimate view of these Shanghai stars. Then it’s the launch of another new night at Dada, Santo’s Sunday, which promises magical, weirdo fantastical disco. An odd one indeed, but what else are Sundays good for?

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Zaobao Zaobao: young woman face punch by graduate student who refuse to give up his seat

Date: Sep 10th 2009 9:06p.m.

Contributed by:
wudao

The following story today is good enough without the need for any commentary.

A young lady asks a male passenger to give up his seat, marked as priority seating, to a pregnant women standing nearby. This passenger refuses without thinking and start to use languages that angered the whole bus. When everybody shot back with a piece of their mind, the guy yelled a Chinese proverb that means Quit!

The proverb did stop everybody’s comment but it didn’t stop this male passenger from sneaking a punch to the young woman’s face as he was about to get off the bus. Luckily, he was caught. Things suddenly took a 360 degrees turn when others threaten to call the police. This passenger started to apologize for his acts and promised to take the woman he just hit to a hospital. Well, maybe the guy isn’t so bad.

Not! Just when the hands that were holding his shirt relaxed, the guy made a run for it. And we arrive at the best part of the story, two male passengers also on the bus dashed 200 meter with all their strength and they caught this guy again.

In the police station, we found out this young man is actually a currently graduate student studying finance at a local school. Wow, I can’t say this guy is stupid, but something is missing from his head.

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Shanghai Carnivores: Your Time Has Come

Date: Sep 10th 2009 12:29a.m.

Contributed by:
crystyl

Henrik Hubschmann is a man with a vision. A vision of lots and lots and lots of meat.

“When people walk upstairs to the deli, I want them to say ‘wow!’” says Henrik. He is talking about the deli case at his new Yasmine’s Steakhouse and Butcher Shop in Jinqiao, which hosts an extraordinary display, the likes of which Shanghai has never seen.

Yasmine’s is a meat extravaganza of epic proportions, a temple to meat, a carnivore’s pilgrimage destination. At the deli (steakhouse downstairs, deli upstairs), there is a jaw-dropping line of glass cases bursting with European-style nose-to-tail meat products. There are pates, terrines (PLENTY of head cheese at 500g for ¥50), sausages (half a dozen house-made varieties), steaks both foreign and domestic, salami, organic chicken, veal ribs, ham salad, shrimp salad, potato salad, bacon, meat pies, meatloaf, freshly deep-fried pork rinds, and whole pigs, yes, several young whole pigs on display. Pheasants and quail are here too, (pheasants are ¥99 for 2 and Kenneth can help with suggestions on how to cook them). Rabbits are coming soon.

The man in charge of all this meat is Kenneth the Butcher, who only recently got off a plane from Copenhagen, where he had spent most of his life (now he spends most of his life in the deli kitchen). He used to work in hospital meal services, overseeing the production of 27,000 meals a day, so this volume of food is but a molehill to him.

Kenneth is a taskmaster for quality: the same amount of meat as you see in the cases was rejected and sent back to suppliers because it was not up to par, according to Henrik. Kenneth is an “educated butcher” he tells me, who did four years of butcher training. From the …

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Bi-bi, Baby: A Shout of Support for Our Bisexual Brothers and Sisters

Date: Sep 15th 2009 12:03p.m.

Contributed by:
xingzhao

Years ago, my friend B told me she was bi. “I thought it was something you should know,” she said. Though she had never had a girlfriend or been with a woman, she considered herself bi. Years later, B is now in a committed relationship with a man she is planning to marry, and she still hasn’t been with any women.

Although B feels part of the LGBT community in Shanghai, she feels uncomfortable about going to LGBT events. “Once someone said to me with a weird face: ‘Right, you are bi, and you have a boyfriend…’” B recounts with a shrug, “But I consider myself queer.”

In the LGBT community, the B (bisexuals) and T (transgender) members are often marginalized, even by the gay and lesbian community. “Do you like men or women? Pick one!” is the attitude of many gay people towards bisexuality.

However, deciding whether you want to be with a man or a woman is not like choosing whether to drink tea or coffee. My friend, Oli, is an attractive Frenchman who identifies himself as bi (pronounced “bee” in French). “It depends on how I feel,” he says. “I might feel like being with a man today and a woman tomorrow.”

Bisexuals may have more options in terms of choosing partners, but they are also caught between the very structured hetero and homosexual worlds. Some gays even consider bisexuality a betrayal of sorts.

With the world becoming a more tolerant place, sexuality shouldn’t be seen as just black and white, gay or straight. Oli has thus decided to start a Yahoo! bisexual group for all those who feel attracted to both sexes. “You fall in love with people, it doesn’t matter if they are men or women,” he says.

Many gay people fight …

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Void Present the Best of Detroit and Berlin

Date: Sep 17th 2009 1:21p.m.

Contributed by:
zammo

Over the next few weeks, Void will bring to Shanghai members of the most influential Detroit and Berlin record labels in the history of electronic music. Like jazz, techno was born in the US, specifically Detroit, but had to emigrate to Europe before it found popularity. The earliest Detroit sounds had their biggest impact in Berlin and, from there, electronic music spread across Europe and conquered the world.

This Saturday sees an appearance at The Shelter by Santiago Salazar, a member of Underground Resistance. Founded by Mad Mike Banks and Jeff Mills in ‘89, UR has done more to establish the Detroit techno sound than any other crew. Notoriously publicity shy and rarely lured outside motor city, UR DJs spin only at the most credible underground parties. Only one has appeared before in Shanghai, Nomadico, again brought by Void back in 2007.

There’s just one record label in the world that could compete with UR in terms of both its influence on electronic music and the reclusiveness of its founders: Basic Channel. From ‘93 to ‘95, this Berlin label released nine EPs that redefined techno. The influence of these tracks can still be heard in musical styles from dub-step to chart trance, despite the fact that label founders Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus never gave interviews nor allowed their photographs to be taken.

Fourteen years ago, I was introduced to Mark Ernestus in Detroit by UR label boss Mike Banks and I asked him why he and his crew shunned publicity to such an extent, never even putting their names on any of their releases. Ernestus said he preferred the music to speak for itself., and was taking his cue from UR.

Next month, Substance, a long-time Basic Channel collaborator, will play a Void party at The Shelter …

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Children Crocs: A Dangerous Trend?

Date: Sep 6th 2009 5:47p.m.

Contributed by:
fionahuang

The Crocs Trend

To me, Crocs are one of the ugliest shoes in existence. Every kid in Shanghai seemed to be wearing a pair, though. In the summer, I see kids wearing them as outdoor shoes. In the winter, they seem to be the most popular indoor shoe.

Benefits of Crocs

When I asked other parents why they bought these shoes, they swear that they are super comfortable for the children. Apparently, they mold to your feet for a customized fit and are extremely healthy for your feet. The special rubber material is also supposed to be slip resistant. Succumbing to peer pressure, I finally splurged and bought Liam a pair of real Crocs last week, equipped with all the cute add-on decorations. He loves them and will no longer wear any other shoes.

Croc Elevator Injuries

After buying them, however, my friend warned me that many children around the world have gotten into escalator accidents, both minor and more serious, while wearing their Crocs. According to Internet reports, the entrapments occur because of the two biggest selling points of shoes like Crocs: their flexibility and grip. Some report that the shoes get caught in the “teeth” at the top and bottom of the escalator or in the crack between the steps or the side of the escalator. Most of the injuries have apparently involved small children, as young as two. Scary stuff.

To Croc or Not to Croc?

For now, I am letting Liam wear his new favorite shoes. (He really loves them.) If I become convinced that the risks outweigh the benefits, I will obviously get rid of them. Any comments or advice on this issue would be appreciated.

Forget the Fake Crocs?

As for the fake Crocs sold in the Pu’an market, my inclination would be …

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Gay Undie Fashion Show and Lesbian Speed Dating

Date: Sep 7th 2009 3:34p.m.

Contributed by:
xingzhao

September in Shanghai is cheerfully full of fun festivities. Even before the SH Contemporary Art Fair kicks off, the pre-events at galleries and art spaces have already started stirring the atmosphere to make Shanghai feel like the Edinburgh Fringe, not to mention all the gay parties that are coming up.

Shanghai’s Russian/Japanese fashionista along with her French gay boy (toy?) brainstormed to host the self-claimed biggest gay party after Shanghai Pride on 18th September. Taking place at the River South Art Centre, an underwear fashion show will be presented to entertain the party-goers. If you are planning on a mission trip for underwear shopping, the show might give you some ideas. The organizers also want the party to be super unique, so they are going to have divas from Bali and DJs from Taiwan. Perhaps we can name September Shanghai’s No Lack of Drag month. The sex toy company Lelo will also be giving out free condoms and sex toys at the party.

Meanwhile, since the opening of the Box bar, there seems to be a lot more lesbian parties in town. This Saturday the Box’s friend Zimo who played her lesbian music (yes, very gay friendly) a few times at the bar before is hosting a Lesbian Speed Dating Party. Here’s their blurb for the party: “Do you always go to cinemas alone? Do you always sit at your balcony, drink beer and listen to music alone? Do you walk alone, laugh alone, cry alone and live your life alone? I’ve been waiting for you.”

Very very lesbian indeed. So there are a lot of lesbians waiting for you on Saturday 12 September at the Box bar. Well, for some reason I just can’t shake off the image of a dungeon in …

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