Capital Bites: Seafood See-Food, Friday Fish and Chips and Lido Gung Ho Now Open!
This week, I think I finally got the hang of eating at a buffet. It's pretty much the simplest philosophy ever: no carbs until the dessert course. (Crackers with cheese donut count!) This last week has been something of an exercise in fish-faced gluttony, and it's never been a better time to get yer crustacean on. To that end, I present a small photographic collection of "Seafood See-Food: this week in Beijing's underwater eats". That, and more epicurious news through the link.
First up, Garden Court's Sunday champagne-and-seafood brunch-stravaganza. The above image is just one course of [redacted: lets just say 'many']. The first thing upon walking in is a giant iced fountain-like structure, except instead of water, there's tasty fishy wonders. If you can make it past that (and the oyster shucking station, and the mini bagels, lox and smoked salmon, and gorgeous desserts and and and ...), the servers also bring around all manner of two-bite delights: a cupful of risotto, a foie gras-stacked slider, eggs benedict ... delish. If you've got the scrilla - all RMB 498+15% with free-flow Veuve and RMB 398+15% without - I'd definitely recommend splashing out.
The Westin Beijing Chaoyang have seriously stepped up on the seafood front, recently launching their ongoing Epicurean Seafood buffet dinner. They've introduced a special rotating menu of hot dishes (I went on Lobster Monday, and was very curious about Abalone Tuesday) and added more seafood-based dishes to the regular hot lineup (see: Korean seafood soup, sambal squid). Most interestingly, they will also cook live crustacean to order, with little tanks holding crabs, shrimp, oyster and mussels. You can pick out your crab, and while you wait, indulge in the seafood on ice (seen above.) Great value, great food.
... And finally in this little series, Eatalia's new shrimp risotto (RMB 60). Very new and as-of-yet unlisted on the menu, this little sweetheart blends cheese, shrimp chunks and arborio in a mirepoix base. It's magnificently cheese-ful, but not to an overpowering extent. Chicken, veggie and mushroom varieties also available.
Gung-Ho! opened their new Lido branch on Wednesday, and it is pretty darn impressive. It's much bigger than the Gongti location, with space for around 20-30 diners to sit down and enjoy pizzas straight from a brand-new conveyor-belt oven. The menu is the same. What you don't see is the impressive backstage set-up: a kitchen downstairs which will be a central hub serving future Gung Ho! branches - expect two more at least in 2012 - and an upstairs training center which is inspirational to say the least. More on this to come.
The Ritz-Carlton Beijing and JW Marriott Hotel Beijing have a new Executive Chef, Bruno Correa. He hails from Switzerland, but made his name in Hong Kong with a gold medal from the Black Box Cooking Competition. We'll get a cooking class from him tomorrow, so keep your eye on this webspace!
From Switzerland to Australia now, new Australian chef Darren Greenwood is making his mark on the menu at Village Cafe. First up, theme nights: choose from three different curries on Wednesday, specialty steaks (sirloin, filet or Tomahawk) on Thursday and - most exciting now - FISH 'N CHIP FRIDAY. Probably not wrapped up in newspaper, but possibly still drenched in vinegar and salt!
Did we tell you that the new Blue Frog is open in U-Town? Get Burger Burger Monday (two-for-price-of-one) sans-crowds (for the time being!) at their new Chaoyangmen location.
The Kro's Nest is offering 60 free litres of Tsingtao on tap from 5-8pm on Tuesdays at Xiaoyun Lu and on Thursdays at Sanlitun (that's today!) Subsequent half-litres of Tsingtao will be RMB 15.
Lily's Diner has just opened a new branch at Sihui. They haven't given us much more information for now, so regrettably we can't tell you where it actually is, but keep your eyes open if you live around Sihui.
With O2 Sun Bookstore going out of business, we reckon Lush should take over the deceased bookseller's Wudaokou branch. That would allow the popular student cafe to expand massively, but there's no certainty this is how things will pan out. We'll see what happens.
Little Sheep Hotpot (小肥羊) looks to be joining the KFC barnyard.
Leaving you with this: the sweetest little marzipan snowman ever snowmanned, care of the Grand Hyatt's Executive Pastry man, Christoph Reinthaler. They have lots of lovely surprises for Christmas (all to be revealed soon!) but I couldn't resist showing y'all this little guy early. I dunno what to name him; maybe something very Teutonic?
Oh, and by the way, we didn't forget about Thanksgiving. Details of Very Grateful dinners, turkeys and desserts to come post-haste. We may even give away a bird or two! Stay tuned, and snack safely!
Photos: Susan Sheng
