EAT: Hainan Chicken Rice Pop-Up, Restaurant Week, Obentos End-of-Summer Dishes

EAT: Your bite-sized guide to the best eats to be had in Beijing this week.

Hainan chicken rice pop-up at Kup Kup Kup

We're always on the hunt for good Hainan chicken rice (pictured above) and it looks like we might be in luck this month thanks to a limited-time pop-up at Kup Kup Kup by Singaporean Hainan chicken rice specialist restaurants Koo Kee and Dong Dong Hainanese Chicken Rice. Basically considered to be Singapore's national dish (although chili crab or laksa fans might disagree with you), chicken rice was taken to Singapore by Chinese immigrants from Hainan, based on a popular dish there called Wenchang chicken. During the pop-up at Kup Kup Kup, you can get a chicken rice set meal for RMB 78 per person, including chicken, rice, soup, and all the trimmings, plus a drink. You can also purchase additional quarter chickens for RMB 88 each. The pop-up runs until mid-September.

Restaurant Week returns, Aug 22-Sep 1

Dining City Restaurant Week is back for another edition, running from Aug 22-Sep 1. If you're into food (or bargains), we expect you know the score by now but if not, during Restaurant Week venues around the city offer special three-course set menus starting from RMB 78 for lunch and RMB 118 for dinner. A recent development is that you can now book your seats via a WeChat mini-program (WeChat ID: DiningCity鼎食聚). New restaurants joining this edition include KOL-favorite Taikoo Li north bar and grill Akatoao, new Groupe Flo concept Cocottine (pictured above), and the Mandarin Oriental's Mandarin Bar and Grill.

Weekend semi-buffet brunch at Nadaman, China World Summit Wing

Japanese restaurant Nadaman at China World Summit Wing, Beijing, has launched a new weekend semi-buffet brunch that looks to be a good option for those interested in something a little different from the standard hotel brunch buffet. The buffet features unlimited appetizers, salads, desserts, sashimi, and teppanyaki dishes. The teppanyaki station includes a wide choice of fresh ingredients, such as large prawns, scallops, snow crab meat, squid, salmon, and New Zealand tenderloin beef. Guests will also be served an assorted tempura platter upon arrival. This buffet is priced at RMB 380 per adult and RMB 128 for children over six years old.

New end-of-summer dishes at Obentos

Freshen up your palate after a couple of long, hot months with a few new end-of-summer dishes at Obentos. They've added updated side dishes, including cucumber and wakame salad, Korean daikon and carrot salad, and spiced eggplant and rice noodles, to their bento boxes and also introduced a brand new salad, Ho Chi Minh's Go-To Summer Salad, which features rice noodles, greens, coriander, and mint, among other veggies, topped with lemongrass grilled prawns, and finished off with their version of a Vietnamese dressing.

READ: Make your next weekend away a gourmet break in KL

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Images: Tastemade, Cocottine, China World Summit Wing, Obentos