Capital Bites: Caramel Cider, Delivery in Wudaokou and New Openings

Foods that can help increase body temperature: root vegetables (like potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, kale and carrots), ginger, milk, black sesame and goji berries. Now's probably a good time to stock up on those. Your laptop can only keep you so warm. Also, those of you living in Haidian might be happy to hear that Jinshisong is now providing delivery from 12 restaurants in your area. Plus, new openings around town ...

We've heard about all the usual suspects at Parkview Green (Din Tai Fung, Element Fresh, etc.) but as the long long long-awaited mall finally gets rolling, more news about good eats there are surfacing:

Saboten, a famous tonkatsu chain from Japan, soft-opened on Monday of this week. There's also a food court whose hoardings suggest will be housing food spots like Crepanini, Goody House (which we find somewhat bewildering) a mysterious place called "The Peak" and another equally mysterious one called "Du Hsiao Yueh" which, based on the Wade-Giles romanization, seems like it will be Taiwanese in nature. We'll be staying on the trail for you.

For those of you in Wudaokou, the folks at Jinshisong has seen fit to expand its delivery services to Haidian, starting with 12 restaurant options in Zhongguancun and Suzhoujie (including Middle 8 and Chamate, which are pretty much the most exciting ones). Currently, the delivery outfit is also offering RMB 25 credits for referrals. Check their website for more details. And you can also start that petition for Sherpa to start doing the same ...

Padang is a new Indonesian restaurant at Shimao in Sanlitun. We'll be checking it out and will have a review for you soon.

Annvita Tea House is finally open in Sanlitun Village South, above Uniqlo.

There's a new spot near Gongti 100 (on the west side of the Worker's Stadium) called Sweet Dynasty ("Tang Chao" in Chinese ... get it?). Seems like it'll be serving Cantonese food, so we'll scope it out for you as soon as it opens.

We tried to visit the Moroccan restaurant Ibn Battouta last week, but alas, it seems the China View restaurant had just shut down. Now it looks like Cu Ju really is the only place in town to get some good mint tea with your tagine (or merguez sandwich, more like).

Stay warm: Eat some ginger. Or try the caramel apple cider at Ahava Bistro + Cafe (pictured, top). Gotta get those novelty winter drinks while you can.

Photo: Marilyn Mai