The perfect confection

These snacks are selling like hotcakes at Deda.[Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

Deda is not the only place in Shanghai that sells the butterfly pastry. From the snack counters in 24-hour convenient stores to the silver trays at hotel restaurants, it seems that the city can never get enough of it. The best ones are often deemed by the locals as those that are freshly made by home-grown bakeries.

The bakery at Park Hotel, opened in the 1930s and once the tallest building in east China, was one of the first in Shanghai to offer the butterfly pastry. For many senior citizens, sipping a cup of coffee while eating the pastry at the hotel's art-deco lobby was something of an indulgence in the golden days.

According to the salespeople at Park Hotel and Deda, the majority of those who buy the butterfly pastry now are from the younger generations.

The butterfly effect has also rippled to places outside Shanghai. On Taobao.com, China's largest customer-to-customer online shopping platform, people from other Chinese cities are paying almost 50 percent more to have the delicate pastry packed and shipped to their homes.

According to Liang Jianzhou, chief director of Park Hotel's cultural affairs office, the butterfly pastry has also been chosen as the treat for first-class passengers on high-speed trains between Shanghai and Beijing.