Life in the city

Blue Star Restaurant featured music and Stammtisch

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

German Stammtisch

Beijing Blue Star Restaurant featured music and Stammtisch. For the music usually a large German crowd attends.
I have been made member of the German community since last year. usually a modest but nice group, all enjoying Blue Star Restaurant with the friendly service of Thorsten and his staff.

The special was “Berlin Night” with pork liver Berlin style, on 22 February 2023. The dish is pretty much the same as my mother used to prepare!
The clip I made for WeChat Channels that evening beat all the records with over 70.000 likes!

Brian and Kevin

On 17 February 2023 another evening of food and music in Blue Star.

I tried and loved the special dish “Kohl & Pinkel” (kale with pee) and the usual Flammkuchen, I also call it “German Pizza”.
The duo Brian and Kevin plays the type of music I love…

Old China Lunch 3 March

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

What is a normal attendance?

Our Old China Lunch 3 March saw a modest crowd of 28 members. Yes China is getting back to normal which also means people are busy traveling again or simply working! Still hoping we can go back to our pre-COVID figures of around 35. Slowly friends are returning to China.
Anyway we had some interesting guests who were very happy networking.

As always great food and lively chats.

The missing ones

Mark Levine and Peter Ritzen could not make it due to their busy schedule.
Both were all over the news, Mark with his mega birthday part on 18 February (I need to make a post about it!), and several interviews. Peter busy in Chongqing with his concerts, getting nationwide attention.

Hoping to see them again!
Next lunch: Friday 7 April.

Old China Lunch 3 February

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Beijing getting slowly back to normal

Our Old China Lunch 3 February 2023 marked the start of the post-COVID misery, with still a number of members waiting to return. Several members were still away on vacation so our total of 30 was pretty good.

Morel’s Restaurant did its best for the service as several of the staff have not returned yet.
Susan Morel had a gift for all attendants: a small cute rabbit to mark the Year of the Rabbit, it was a real pleasant surprise!
I am the lucky owner of both rabbits they gave out, the bigger one was for Chinese New Year. They keep me company at breakfast and lunch!

Good food: Oeuf en Meurette

Finally the restaurant had to increase the price for the lunch as all ingredients have seen a stark cost increase. But we still get a great deal.
See the pictures of some dishes, and the menu.
A real hit were the poached eggs, the first time they were served as far as I know. Done by Chef Renaat personally.

It is actually called as follows:
Oeuf en Meurette (Poached Eggs in Red Wine Sauce)
Or:
This classic Burgundian dish of poached eggs in rich, flavorful red wine sauce served atop garlicky toast.
In French:
“Œufs pochés sur du pain grillé aillé accompagnés d’une sauce meurette, composée de vin rouge de Bourgogne, de lardons, d’oignons et d’échalotes revenus au beurre.”

Next lunch is planned for Friday 3 March. I am curious if we can go well over 30 guests!

Old China Hands lunch 6 January

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Lunch is back!

Due to the COVID-19 situation in December we had to cancel the monthly lunch. With the Old China Hands lunch 6 January 2023 we started again, entering our tenth year!
We first remembered our friend Hartmut Heine who suddenly left us on 4 December. Our friend Kent, now in the USA gave us a short speech by video call to remember Hartmut, followed by a moment of silence.

I personally knew Hartmut for some 40 years. I discovered these pictures of Hartmut attending my office party in my Beijing Hotel office on 22 November 1982.
With the virus tsunami in Beijing and with a number of members abroad for the holidays we had a modest crowd of 21.

Moldova wine

Our member Lydia surprised us bringing many wine bottles from Moldova and our special guest, the ambassador of the Republic of Moldova.

See the dishes I chose and one of the weirdflowers chosen by Susan “zombie flower”. Always something new!
Many happily tried the wines!
Thanks to Lydia whom I had met in a Moldova Wine Tasting on 25 October 2022.

Moldova Wine Tasting

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Moldova-China Economic and Cultural Exchange Center

On 25 October 2022 we were invited by Max Yang and Lydia Long in the Center on Chang’An Avenue. They had organized a VIP wine tasting event to introduce the rich variety of wine from Moldova.
I had quite a bit of wine that day, a nice discovery.

I took some of the leftovers to Morel’s Restaurant to continue the tasting with Renaat.
See some of the wines we had the pleasure to explore.

Moldovan wine

Fossils of Vitis teutonica vine leaves near the Naslavcia village in the north of Moldova indicate that grapes grew here approximately 6 to 25 million years ago. The grape growing and wine-making in the area between the Nistru and Prut rivers, which began 4000–5000 years ago, had periods of rises and falls but has survived through all the changing social and economic conditions.
Moldova has a well-established wine industry. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldovan_wine) It is the 11th largest European wine-producing country.

White varieties: Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, Aligoté, Pinot gris, Pinot blanc, Riesling, Traminer, Muscat, Silvaner, Müller-Thurgau, Rkatsiteli.
Red varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot noir, Malbec, Saperavi, Gamay.

See: “15 Fascinating Facts About Moldovan Wine That You Never Knew”.