Food and drinks

Old China Hands Lunch 4 July 2025

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

 

Independence Day

Some patriotic Americans chose to go eat hot dogs for their national day instead of the Old China Hands Lunch 4 July 2025. And yes many were away so we ended up with 23 attendants who had to brave some bad traffic hurdles and the sauna weather. All enjoyed the food and the company.

The menu, see the pictures:
•    one local draft OR glass of house wine OR soft drink•    tomato stuffed with fish salad OR cooked ham roll stuffed with Russian potato salad OR fresh daily soup
•    thin sliced tenderloin with black pepper sauce served with vegetables and Belgian fries OR fricandon of beef served with hot cherry and mashed potatoes OR red snapper mediterranean style served with daily vegetables and mashed potatoesz
•    daily desert
•    coffee or tea

Next lunch is planned for 1 August. Expect real sauna weather!

Baby trafficking denied

Morel’s staff denied they were engaged in baby trafficking, despite the suspicious activities going on.

Chef Renaat was kept company by the miniskirt gang.
After investigation it is said to be a preparation for a romantic Chinese holiday in late August. Stay tuned!

Beijing restaurant battlefield

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A long list

As a well-known food vlogger in Beijing I go around a lot and see the scene as a Beijing restaurant battlefield. Many locations open and then close. Rather few survive for a long time. There are many reasons, often the rent being increased dramatically, quality not kept up to standards, poor marketing and promotion, lack of appeal.

Beijing has seen many starting to make Belgian waffles, most went bust, except for Morel’s Restaurant that has them on the menu and Bewaffle, a small outlet close to O’Steak near Chunxiu Lu, Maison Manneke started with a lot of fanfare, they also joined Belgian embassy events. I tried it a few times but the location in SOHO Sanlitun did not have enough turnover. Sadly very few Belgians supported it. It is now a Chinese restaurant.

I liked a lot the cozy American style restaurant in Chunxiu Lu, food was good but it closed recently for reasons not clear. It is now a noodles restaurant.

Cartahge Restaurant was on Dongzhimenwai, operated by our friend Adele – he has gone through some failed restaurant, It was supposed to be North African cuisine like couscous and other. I tried it a few times. Now gone and replaced by some Pakistani restaurant.

East End was a small restaurant and delicatessen place, very nice and good food, that still stayed some time after its related restaurant Apollo next door vanished, a very nice restaurant that seemed to be doing well. We miss both Apolla and East End,

Orbit was a very nice bar restaurant in front of the Workers Stadium, with impressive decoration and wine selection. But it did not attract customers and it is now a Chongqing Hotpot restaurant “Chunying”.

Next to my home, Julong Garden, there has been an endless series of shops and restaurants in the same location. Seems it has bad karma because nothing seemed to survive for long. Last victim was a Xinjiang Restaurant, Ayisha, pretty good, no idea why it closed. It is now Jiangxi restaurant.

I could go on and on as the list of failed restaurants is endless. A restaurant like Morel’s that has been in operation for 25 years is really an exception.

Pushkin Literature Restaurant

As a last example, this Russian restaurant near Morel’s Restaurant was very popular at some point. They also had Russian staff. With COVID the Russians disappeared, Here some media articles.
Thebeijinger: Pushkin Literary Restaurant, a Throwback Hit? We’re Putin Our Money on It. Borscht, breaded pies, blinis and other Russian classics are available at the Yoolee Plaza restaurant.
CGTN:: Russian cuisine brings Russian literature to Beijin
Global Times:  Russian Alexander Pushkin restaurant gains popularity in China, but not just for food.

I visited several times: 10 June 2021, 27 January 2019, 11 February 2019, 6 March 2019. And one day it closed without much explanation.

 

 

Old China Hands Lunch 6 June

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

After the Dragon Boat Festival

The Old China Hands Lunch 6 June had a turnout of 25, with many members unable to attend due to travel and workload. As usual lively conversation.

See the menu, most dishes in the pictures:

  • ham salad andalouse OR puff pastry with chicken curry Indian style OR fresh daily soup
  • veal sausage with curry sauce served with salad and Belgian fries OR sliced roast beef with gravy served with cauliflower and pan fried potatoes OR pan-fried snapper Meunière served with daily vegetables and boiled potatoes
  • daily desert

Next lunch Friday 4 July.

Renaat Morel, the Chef

Morel’s Restaurant and Café has become a real institution in Beijing, the only real Belgian restaurant and with a solid track record of 25 years.
My first visit to the restaurant was in February 2000, just after returning to Beijing after nearly five years in Shanghai.

Renaat is an incredible story teller with an impressive memory. But writing is not his strong point, so I help him time to time to play secretary and to record bits and pieces of his past.
Renaat has an imposing career and I still record new facts about his memorable adventures as a top chef.
See here my latest update: Renaat Chef
Before landing in China, Renaat worked in major five-star hotels in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Holland such as:

  • Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo – Monaco
  • Hotel Barrière Le Majestic Cannes and Sporting Club of Cannes
  • InterContinental Carlton Cannes – Cannes
  • Le Cap Estel – Eze Bord de Mer (between Nice and Monaco)

He served an impressive list of famous people, see the PDF.
On top of his 3 Michelin Stars he accumulated an endless list of titles and awards and he has been interviewed by many Chinese and foreign media.
Before setting up his restaurant in Beijing Renaat was executive chef in Beijing Air Catering Company, Crown Plaza Xiamen Seascape, Henan Zhongzhou Crown Plaza Hotel and Beijing Kunlun Hotel.

Old China Hands Lunch 9 May

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

May 1 holidays

As the first Friday was 2 May, the Old China Hands Lunch 9 May was a week later to avoid the overbooking in Morel’s Restaurant. Still, many of our members were on the road or tight up in meetings. Anyway the 22 participants were happy as always, despite the rainy day. We also had the honor of having our Belgian ambassador joining us.

See the menu, most dishes in the pictures:

  • ham salad andalouse OR puff pastry with chicken curry Indian style OR fresh daily soup
  • veal sausage with curry sauce served with salad and Belgian fries OR sliced roast beef with gravy served with cauliflower and pan fried potatoes OR pan-fried snapper Meunière served with daily vegetables and boiled potatoes
  • daily desert

Next lunch Friday 6 June.

Gilbert, a rising star in the Chinese media

It all started not long ago when I tried to post my restaurant videos as a food vlogger on WeChat Channels, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu (Red Book). The feedback was better than expected and many people I meet talk about my videos.
Just recently I also started posting on TikTok and Douyin. I am also active on Dianping, the famous platform for restaurants, where I am Level 7, one of the highest.
I love food and exploring the cosmopolitan food scene of Beijing is fascinating.
But a very few days ago we had a shock. A new post became a huge hit.

I made a short video about the story of my four “Green Cards”, and a look back to earlier documents for foreigners in China. Posted on Douyin (Chinese Tiktok), WeChat channels and other, the results were astonishing. As for now way over 200,000 hits on Douyin and way over 70,000 on WeChat, and growing. See the impressive progress over time. Hundreds of comments on Douyin, many praising my track record, many digging up stuff about me and posting it. Comments on WeChat were mixed, a bit more silly and many asking me to help to get the Green Card, now officially called the Five Star Card. And none clever enough to identify me. If interested, you can watch the video on TikTok.

Some people ask me, why I do it. Not for money, I refuse payments from the restaurants.
Many are asking to post more about my China stories. I started to make some videos, tried to post on Douyin but all got censured. Welcome to China. The videos cannot mention the names of high Chinese officials, cannot mention the word “Chinese government”, and so on. As such Douyin and Deepseek share the same automatic draconian censorship. I cannot say “This is Beijing Mayor XXXXX giving me the Great Wall Friendship Award. And of course I cannot show his picture.
So sad. The video could not be used. I plan to upload it to TikTok and YouTube. We started making “cleaned up videos”. Self-censorship.
King Kwesi interviewed me in my office with me showing the pictures. That is not allowed on Chinese media. This is the link to the office video.

SOCIETE TRANSVINS sells fake Languedoc

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

 

Fake Languedoc

SOCIETE TRANSVINS sells fake Languedoc in China?
Chinese friends gave us a very nice (and expensive) box with a bottle of red wine from France, Languedoc.
We were immediately a bit suspicious about the name: “Dragon Boat Sait”. Or is it Sail…
There was also another obvious spelling mistake.
We tried the wine in Beijing, two wine specialist said it was a fake, poor quality Chinese wine. Not drinkable. We then had a real Languedoc, as a test of what a real Languedoc wine is.

See the fake Languedoc, a real Languedoc and the contact form on the French website.

Fake French company?

A google led to:

SAS, société par actions simplifiée
SOCIETE TRANSVINS
20 CHEMIN DES PRES, 30260 VIC-LE-FESQ
https://transvins.fr/
contact@transvins.fr

I checked the website and tried in many ways to fill out the contact form, address in Beijing, address in Brussels. I never succeeded, it was said there was something missing… Obviously they don’t want you contact them.

I sent the email below, sent from different email addresses. They were all returned as “rejected”.
I contacted their LinkedIn site. Zero answer.
So the company has zero customer service. What a shame.
Sadly many European companies have non-existing customer service.
That gives Chinese companies an open road to whatever copy they can make.
Sadly I had also bad experience with a Belgian company. I post later.

My email

Subject: Votre soi-disant Languedoc
9 April 2025
To: contact@transvins.fr
SOCIETE TRANSVINS
Bonjour,
Des amis chinois nous ont fait cadeau de ce vin dans une très belle boite (probablement chère). Le nom nous semblait suspect…
Nous avons goutté le vin avec deux spécialistes de vin, ici à Beijing.
Leur verdict: pas buvable, pas de Languedoc. Vin chinois de qualité très douteuse.
Voir les photos. Les étiquettes semblent “OK” mais il y a une belle faute d’orthographe,,,
Nous pensons donc une  arnaque à la Chinoise.
La bouteille est chez nous, ma femme pense l’utiliser pour faire la cuisine.
Pour nous faire plaisir on a pu boire un vrai Languedoc…
Vos commentaires?
Bien à vous,