Sugar Rush: A Trio of Desserts at Shang in the Lower East Side

At the recently opened Shang, my friends and I couldn't decide on a dessert, so we took the most logical route. We ordered everything that piqued our interest. You only live once, so make it a good life, eat all the dessert your heart desires.

We started with the banana chocolate cake, served warm with pineapple and jackfruit and a quenelle of whipped cream with spiced macadamia nut brittle on top. The entire concoction pooled over with a luxurious rum butterscotch sauce, sinking into every open cake pore, like an Asian interpretation of sticky toffee pudding. At the end of the dish, rested a small cut of chocolate pave rested: darkly rich and dense and finished with a glazed strawberry, which could function as a dessert of its own if larger.

Next came the duo of custards: vanilla custard atop a bed of lemon and apple cider sauce and chocolate custard with huckleberry compote. The custards, warm but not hot, made my taste buds quite happy with such creaminess tucked into a nutty fried exterior. The sauces were passable on both ends. Gelato would have fared much better.

The "spiced black rice pudding" and "warm coconut crème caramel" listed in the dessert description sounded good, but weren't actually the highlights. Instead it was the simple lady finger which, as my friend Kathryn noted, was "like a freshly made Milano cookie." Buttery light and crisp with smears of dark chocolate ganache sealing the two cookies and a simple dusting of powdered sugar—that was all we needed. A dip into the side of Chantilly crème made for a truly happy ending.

Shang

187 Orchard Street, New York NY10002 (map)
212-260-7900