French Toast Cube

I have eaten Hong Kong-style French toast many times before, but not this variation.

In Hong Kong, French toast can range in thickness from regular sliced bread to John Grisham paperback. Usually it's topped with butter, peanut butter or sweetened condensed milk, or all three. And sometimes pork floss. And every once in a while, you come across bread on steroids, like the one I ordered yesterday at Lisboa, a Macanese restaurant in Shanghai.

It was a block about half the size of your average loaf, overloaded with black sesame and with specks of bacon. The top was buttered, slit in Tic-Tac-Toe fashion, and browned to the crispness that I liked. And it came with a trio of dipping sauces: honey, sweetened condensed milk, and melty vanilla ice cream.

I like the contrast of the salted butter top with the sugary dips, especially the ice cream. (It reminded me of the olive oil ice cream with sea salt from Otto.) Shockingly enough, even the bacon bits with ice cream were not bad. Though I'm sticking to the "everything in moderation" credo with this one.

Lisboa Restaurant
B1-D, Shanghai Times Square
93-111 Huahai Zhonglu
Shanghai