Miscellaneous Food: Beijing Part 2

Apologies for the long wait! I've been in and out of the country, trying to work on some projects, though I've been meaning to write about my Beijing experience for awhile.

This post is sadly not about the two restaurants that I enjoyed the most in Beijing because as usual, I didn't bring my camera. (I am amazed at bloggers who can blog about 80% of the food they eat, I think I average about 25%...yes, that makes me seem like a heifer).

The two places that you must try in Beijing are Pure Lotus for vegetarian food, in a creative and beautiful setting and Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant which is where all the locals go for their roast duck fix. The meal I had there was truly inspiring, not just because of the roast duck but also because of the beautiful tofu dishes, fish and vegetables dishes, all gorgeously presented in a way that made me hunger to get back to the kitchen and cook!


On one of my nights off, my generous friend offered to take me to eat at some alternative places to the usual tourist fare.


The meal that I did manage to take photos of was dumplings at Da Qing Hua. This is a large, local restaurant, where their specialty is dumplings but they have many other kinds of regular dishes.


It took us awhile to find this place but the seating area was large and full of regular families enjoying a meal together, on a weekday night.


Although the duck was not as fine as in Da Dong Roast Duck restaurant, I actually enjoyed it a lot because it was more fatty. They served it with the pancakes and also with man tou, or steamed buns.


We didn't reliaze that our meal came with a bunch of free items, so we ordered vegetables and tofu as well as our dumplings.


This was the most unusual dish, it was actually a complimentary dish and I believe it was sweet potato, fried and then basted in a thick sticky sweet syrup that stuck together as we tried to lift it. When warm, it was actually quite nice though we wouldn't have been able to eat much of it and in this instance because of our over zealous ordering, we hardly touched it at all.


This is the first of the two types of dumplings, these are boiled dumplings. You can also have your dumplings steamed. We ordered vegetarian boiled dumplings and they were not bad, though the skins were not as thin as I'd have liked (but I think that's the Beijing way of making dumplings).


These were the fried dumplings, with a cute little fricasee of doily dough on the top of the dumplings. I bet this is because they cook a batch of potstickers together and throw a bowl of batter over the whole which then forms this pattern on the bottom of the pot, but that's just my hypothesis. It certainly adds to the flavour and texture of the dumplngs. I liked this one better than the boiled dumplings.


This was also sweet potato but cooked in egg yolk, very savoury and good! The menu had a lot of unique options but both because we concentrated on the dishes that we recognized and because there were only two of us, we didn't get to try a lot of the more local and regional specialties.


This is a photo I snapped as we were leaving. After our meal, we stumbled back toward the first ring road of the city and went for a massage, after which we decided to hit up a bar. Or rather, a bar restaurant for some dessert and coffee, since we were too old for bars and clubs!


I'd read about this Spanish bar-restaurant in a Luxe guide and had wanted to come, it looks gorgeous in the photos and during the day but the lighting at night wasn't particularly good.


As you can see, the architecture is still quite dramatic, given the high curved ceilings and imaginative bar set-up. The restuarant is tucked away in the snack street of Wangfujing.


It's called Garden of Delights and it's an unexpected venue and dinner location. The night we went wasn't the weekend, so the place was rather deserted. In general, Beijing has so many lovely bars and lounges, there's a multitude of watering holes that you could go to every night if you wish. Now the city just has to get it's air clean!

Da Dong Beijing Duck Restaurant
Chang Hong Bridge
Third Ring Road.Beijing
Tel: 65822892 / 65824003

Garden of Delights
53 Donganmen Dajie,
Wangfujing
东华门大街53号
中国儿童剧场对面
Tel: 5138-5688
Open 11pm-2:30pm; 6pm-11pm

Miscellaneous Food: Beijing Part 1

While in Beijing, I was privledged to learn about and sample some of the new products that different food and beverage companies are releasing in the China market. Since they are already in-store, I won't be giving away any trade secrets by sharing some of these innovative and tasty ideas with you.


This was my favourite by Knorr's (Unilever), it's a soup base to make a classic Chinese thick, double-boiled soup. This is clearly a product that is targeted at Chinese tastes and can be extended for sale in other Asian regional markets.

Market research has shown that typically, the focus is on pre-packaged soup and soup mixes but this product is clever both because it's compact and it helps you make soup, rather than trying to sell you a supermarket soup. Although the soup market is huge in China, I think it's hard to find a generic and successful formula because soup is a very personal, family taste and is considered a home-made specialty.


This was a product by Quaker oats, or Pepsi Co, which is a riff on their exisiting and popular oats. Actually, the chinese eat a lot of oats already because of their high nutrient content, so this is an innovative way of eating oats. You can pour it directly into a rice cooker and steam it together with your rice, as well as make a nutritious porridge or baby food.


This is another great product, this time championed by a local company, China Mengniu, which is a dairy and milk producer from Inner Mongolia. This is their yoghurt milk drink, which is extremely popular in China, that has aloe vera bits in it. I was recommended this by a non-Chinese friend in fact and it has a wide popularity and appeal. The range of yoghurt and yoghurt drinks is just mind-boggling and really, good luck to Vitagen and Yakult! I wish we brought in just a fraction of China's varied offering in the sour milk category.

Given the size, breadth and potential of the Chinese market, there are now so many overseas companies and brands in China, many of which aren't even present in most of the rest of Asia. You notice that food bloggers are usually all up about French or Spanish foods and produce but actually as a rather enthusiastic consumer (let's not lie, eh), I often wish I had more access to the Mainland Chinese grocery and retail market.

You might recognize some of the big names, like Proctor and Gamble, Coca-Cola, Estee Lauder, Sephora, Carrefour, Walmart and H&M but there are actually tens of hundreds more, in part because of the large brand portfolio of some of these companies. For example, Estee Lauder owns LaMer, Clinique, Estee Lauder, Bobbi Brown, MAC and I believe Origins, so they own about half your cosmetics counters! Similarly, P&G and Unilever combined probably own half your processed foods and personal care shelves.


While in Beijing, I was fortunate enough to do some store tours to a Walmart superstore, which cracked me up because of the cute red outfits and Uncle Sam's smiley face insignia on the souvenir badges. The produce though, was distinctly Chinese and I was impressed with their fresh, chilled and processed offerings.

These are two of the meats that I bought and carried back home. One is dried Chinese/Shanghainese ham and the other is the similar but saltier Fo Tui (literally, Smoked Leg), these are great for slicing up to flavour soup or to cook with steamed chinese cabbage. I bought some interesting local produce from Nanjing as well but more on that in a later post when I finally get around to cooking my purchase!

I'm looking for people to try out some of these products! Leave me a comment and address, if you're interested in testing out the soup base or oatmeal-in-rice. I'll send you some in return for your feedback!

Miscellaneous Food: Shanghai 2

I wanted to treat my cousin A. and C. for their wonderful hospitality. I had such a great time over the weekend, trotting around the freezing Shanghai cold and they were so patient with my frequent stops into shops and cafes. C. and I had such fun shopping, tailoring, eating, getting massages, it was a fantastic girl vacation and A. had to put up with all that!

We had also eaten some wonderful food, a lot of which I didn't really get a chance to photograph because it was too formal an occasion (that happens a lot even in Singapore, I envy the people who can blog constatntly, I think my hit rate of blogging restuarant meals I eat is about 30%).

Luckily, over the first part of the weekend, it was still just the three of us and I asked them to pick a restaurant from a frou-frou list that I could buy them a meal at. Upon seeing the description of "interior that looks like a scene from Blade Runner", A. immediately jabbed the paper and said, "I want to go to Shintori Null 2" in a faux kung-fu accent.

Accordingly, we caught a cab to Puxi and to Julu Lu. In the twenties and thirties, before the rise of Communism, Julu Road was known as Rue Bâtard—an address highly sought after for its stone row houses and its gardens, which you can still glimpse near the corner of Hanshan Road.

The strip fell into disrepair as Shanghai slumped through the eighties; until just a year ago, it was best known for the beer-soaked girlie bars—which are finally being pushed out, one by one. Restaurateurs, besotted with the magnificent buildings, are now luring architects, creative media types, and an increasingly diverse group of foreigners to this burgeoning restaurant row, which has helped spark Julu's second golden age.


The taxi found No. 803 but it was just a gap in a whitewashed wall. Confused, we stepped in and around the hole and found ourselves in a bamboo courtyard. We were immediately impressed and followed the gravel path up to a giant wooden and steel door. Uh-oh, we thought, perhaps it's closed.

As we stood outside it though, the door slid open seamlessly and silently to reveal a black interior with soaring high ceilings, dramatic glass and light dumbwaiters and high sushi chef tables with gorgeous modernist flower arrangements. It was a sight to behold, especially in Shanghai. The concept of the place and the artistry, right down to the arching single orchid flower display and the grated steel mezzanine, entirely transported you to a new and visionable future for the Chinese state.


We had a Pyo tei salad (75RMB) which is a roe and mentaiko salad, paired with a clever ranch-like dressing. Although the colours were very bright, the salad was crisp and refreshing. We also had the Nigiri Sushi, which you can order from the sushi table or have the chef make a mix set.

We had the Peking duck roll, which was a Vietnamese-inspired roll (70RMB), I had been looking forward to this as it was one of the recommended dishes but while the rolls themself were alright, the accompanying meat was a bit hard.


The two best things we had and which I would definitely recommend, are the beef steak on pu (bamboo) leaf (150RMB), which is a really picturesque dish. The beef comes wrapped in a bamboo leaf, which is then grilled over a stone fire. The smell from the crackling leaf and the cooking beef is fantastic and the resulting meat is soft and tender.

The last thing we had was the Shintori stone pot rice. This is their signature cod mixed with rice and cooked in a stone bowl (RM100) with a little Japanese fish sauce. It was very yummy and the steaming rice on a cold day was just a comforting end to the meal.

We shared the green tea tiramisu (RMB45) for dessert- I liked that it was very light but I didn't like the watermelon accompaniment at all, that was extremely cheap, from both a Chinese and a Japanese point of view.


Given the prices, this is not exactly the kind of place you'll find the glorious underbelly of Shanghai society at. That being said, the prices were not that bad, lunch for all three of us came up to about RMB600, which is Singapore dollar terms (yes, I know, you don't expect to pay Singapore prices when in Shanghai but then you don't expect to find Shintori Null 2 standards in Shanghai too!) really wasn't that bad for three people, given the kind of food we'd been eating.

If you make the visit (and I hope you do), you should definitely make time to visit Spin. Right round the corner from Shintori, it sells the same Japanese-inspired earthenware that gives Shintori Null 2's table settings such a distinctive minimalist style. Spin's range of ceramics are designed in Shanghai but created in JingDeZhen, China’s ceramics capital and the potters utilize new techniques, with old style Japanese glazes.

The pieces are unique, simple and beautiful. I bought my colleague these two slightly Cubic,canted off-center mugs and saucers. I bought some distinctive red and dark green glaze bowls for Japanese soup and two pale blue large cereal bowls from the new series "Fold", which basically features crockery with a distinctive crumpled fold running through the clay.

The best deals are on the teapots, these make such great gifts and they are not that expensive. The designs range from the whimsical, to the dramatic and from fat squat little wifely teapots, to graceful curving long spouts and thin stems. Each comes in it's own pinewood stamped box, lined with silk. While there, we got to meet some of the artisans and they were just charming with their dedication to their craft and meticulousness in designwork.

After lunch, you should also take a walk next door to People's 7, the glass and concrete-encased bar next door that looks out onto the same enclosed bamboo garden. This is part of a series of bars cum nouveau Chinese cuisine restaurants and all of them are numbered. Upon reaching the place, you will see a tic-tac-toe of recessed florescent holes in the wall, you have to punch in the right number, given to you when you make a reservation, or stand there guessing until you hit upon the right combination.

Clever, creative, even witty. This was the very developed side of Shanghai that I saw today and this was definitely in-line with the growing bourgeious and what's-up guides to the city. Check out Kitschy Shopping, Reader's Choice Nightlife and Mad About Shanghai's blog for more tips on where to go and what to see.

Shintori Null 2
803 Julu Road
86-21/ 5404-5252

Spin Ceramics
758 Julu Rd, Bldg. 3,
86-21/6279-2545

People's 7
805 Julu Rd
86-21/5404-0707

Miscellaneous Food: Shanghai

Shanghai! I really enjoyed the place. I used to be so biased, always a Beijing loyalist at heart, the history, the hutongs, the political circles. After this trip, I could really spend more time in Shanghai. The art! The crowds! The food...

The food is...well, varied. It's a very cosmopolitan city. However, I must say I'm not a big fan of Shanghai food proper and even my favourite Shanghai dishes are rather akin to similar Cantonese dishes.

I was due at a conference in Shanghai but left early to spend the weekend with my cousins first. A. is studying business school there and his wife, C. was also there to visit. We stayed at his apartment in Pudong and on the second day, they brought me to XinJishi for some authentic Shanghainese food.

Later in the trip, I went back to XinJishi which has several locations around Shanghai. My favourite location is the one in Xin Tian Di, where it is housed in a little old stone shikumen, a traditional 1930s Shanghai home. The whole area of Xin Tian Di is meant to be a rejuvenated commercial and culinary area and given the cool night air and the twinkling Christmas fairy lights that adorned the trees, it looked suitably festive. The location in Xin Tian Di also looks out to the magnificent Peacemark-Tourneau store with its luxury watch displays.


The first dish we had was an appetizer of stuffed red dates. These had been steamed and then stuffed with a ground mixture of glutenous rice. It was really interesting, a savory and sweet mixture, kind of bulbous and satisfyingly chewy to boot.


We had a whole bunch of smaller dishes to follow, the long beans, the cold tofu, which I love and these little duck skin pancakes with tiny caplin roe. I was impressed at the speed of the service, the tastiness of the food and the detail in presentation.


The fourth dish was quite perculiar, it's a clear glass noodle, but served with a thick crab mixture, made from the hairy crabs that Shanghai is so known for. The crab and crab roe sauce is thick and a bit gooey, it's a good contrast to the noodles but a bit too heavy for my taste.


The last dish was my favourite and it's what I wound up eating the most often. I think it's called Kou Rou, or spare meat, it's really layered pork that's been braised and then steamed in these old-fashioned pots, until the dark sauce has been infused through the meat and also the fat of the pork, rendering it translucent in layers. This was irresistable and also terribly bad for you! Yay, Kou Rou Shanghai...