Capital Bites: Ferran Adria, New Ganges, Pizza, Steak at China Grill and David Sedaris Dumps on Chinese Food

Ferran Adria, the man behind the El Bulli legend, is coming to Beijing for a one-off cooking demonstration on August 23. The event will take place at the Raffles hotel and will be the first of four days of Spanish-themed events headed up by chef Dani Garcia of the acclaimed Calima restaurant.

Adria will only be here for that one event, and no doubt there'll be a lot of interest in his visit, though we haven't had word yet as to whether the demonstration class will be open to the public. We'll let you know more when we have it, but for now, have a bit of fun with this El Bulli dish name generator, courtesy of Slate.com.

A number of my colleagues are all raving this morning about a Cantonese restaurant on Gongti Beilu called HK O'Man (or Lao Keng Ji). They visited last night and by all accounts were very impressed. I'll get a proper review out of one of them once they've calmed down.

The new branch of Kro's Nest is taking shape just next to Salsa Caribe and d lounge, though no opening date just yet. In other pizza news, we hear Gung Ho! are getting closer to opening a second base, around the Lido area.

Kamat's has given up the ghost on the second floor of Paddy O'Shea's, but the curry and Guinness fun goes on with Ganges moving in soon to fill the gap and add yet another outpost to their Indian empire.

Our August issue featured this review of Big Boss. It seems the place has closed down already, as several readers have reported seeing it completely lifeless whenever they've passed by.

Japanese ramen chain Aijisen has run into hot water over claims their soup is not made from boiled-down chicken bones – did anyone believe that to begin with? – but rather from a powder mix. We'll have more on this early next week, but you may find branches of Aijisen a little emptier than usual this weekend.

I had the pleasure of a visit to China Grill at the Park Hyatt earlier this week, and among other things on chef Jens Muenchenbach's new menu, enjoyed a steak of 21-day dry aged Australian beef. Salty on the outside, grilled with just the right amount of charring, and slightly rare inside, the meat didn't even need any sauce, mustard or other accompaniment. Well worth a try for diners who don't mind spending a bit on a good steak.

Finally, for a bit of light weekend reading material, this article in the Guardian by David Sedaris on his experiences with Chinese food has gotten up a few people's noses. I can sympathize with the poor man wondering where to wash his hands after a father has held up his kid to take a slash in the sink, but for an obviously gifted, intelligent writer, the tone of the piece is disappointingly snide and the content basically something anyone who just got off the plane could come up with. So you came to China and saw somebody spitting? The meat sometimes has bones in it? You could read that on the Beijinger forum, even if the writing isn't as good. Mr. Sedaris also claims that "In Beijing, you see an overwhelming amount of shit." A bit like reading the British press, then.