Morel Restaurant full house

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Old China Hands

Morel Restaurant full house started on Friday 2 October with our monthly Old China Hands lunch. Right in the middle of the October 1 holidays we attracted over 30 people in a full restaurant. Happy to see some of our friends coming back from abroad.
A film crew was there to make a movie about our Belgian friend Wilfried and his China story.
Again a nice mix of nationalities. But we need more ladies!

Next lunch Friday 6 November.

We had to wait

I went back to Morel’s Restaurant for dinner, finding a totally full house. Even our usual table was taken, by some American friends from Amcham. So we had to camp outside waiting for our turn, to have a table and to be served dinner. Yeah tough as we had to compensate with great Belgian beer and French rosé.

 

Most of us went for the famous Martino sandwich, my one with the extra anchovies. Delicious! This sandwich, as some other ones are not yet on the menu. Only on demand and prepared by chef Renaat in person.

Great to see people again resuming normal life in Beijing, the safest place to be!
Morel’s did not close during the October 1 holidays and has seen full house most of the time. Interestingly, most of the customers are now Chinese, except for some groups.

Social event for Beijing Rotary

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Didier is our PE

Our Belgian friend Didier organized a major social event for Beijing Rotary Club on 22 September, in his nice villa in Shunyi. Didier is our PE (President Elect of the club) for next Rotary year (2021-2022).
President Danny organized a bus to go and return, that was pretty cool.

Buffet

Over 40 guests had a wonderful time, enjoying the buffet (nice paella and sausages, among other), and many bottles were emptied (I took care of the bar). Catering was done by some very creative French cooks.
At the occasion our newest member Michael received his pin and read the Four-Way Test.

We had visiting Rotarians, Rotaractors and potential new members, along with representatives of some NGO we work with.

Great many thanks to Didier, his family, Rob, Danny and all who made it a great get together.

Cold pink soup and mooncakes

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Cold pink soup

While Morel’s Restaurant and Café has a pretty standard menu over the years, cold pink soup and mooncakes were very recent surprises.

The cold soup is simply delicious, called Šaltibarščiai, or cold borscht with kefir. Lithuanian Cuisine. It is not yet on the normal menu.

Kefir or kephir, is a fermented milk drink similar to a thin yogurt that is made from kefir grains, a specific type of mesophilic symbiotic culture. The drink originated in the North Caucasus, Eastern Europe and Russia, where it is prepared by inoculating cow, goat, or sheep milk with kefir grains. It’s made by pouring milk over kefir grains, which are a cluster of bacteria and yeast. After about 24 hours, the microorganisms inside the kefir grains multiply and ferment the sugars in the milk.

Šaltibarščiai – cold pink soup
Kefir is not available everywhere, buttermilk with a little bit more lemon juice is a good alternative, or any mix of yogurt, buttermilk, and sour cream. This soup is best made ahead, as it needs a few hours to develop more flavor.
Ingredients

  • 1 liter kefir
  • 2 medium red beets, cooked
  • 2-3 green onions, chopped
  • salt and pepper
  • fresh dill
  • 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into ½-inch pieces
  • 4 hard cooked eggs, peeled
  • 4 medium potatoes, cooked and peeled

It is one of the many recipes on the Internet. More, see:
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/recipe/milk-kefir-recipes/cold-borscht-kefir/
and
https://myfoododyssey.com/2013/09/21/lithuanian-saltibarsciai-cold-beet-soup-recipe/

Special mooncakes

I was a bit surprised to learn that Morel’s is making mooncakes. I checked the packing, pretty ingenious and efficient, two per box. I tasted one of the different varieties and it was a pleasant experience. The outside is not so dry and hard as the normal Chinese ones, it is a bit like croissant, the filling is soft and moist.
A new type of mooncake, approved! For sale, two pieces for RMB 28.

NVP Garden Buffet

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Netherlands Embassy

On Sunday 13 September 2020 we had the NVP Garden Buffet as a “welcome back” event, in the Dutch embassy. I am a member of the NVP, the “Nederlandse Vereniging Peking“, some other Flemish friends are also member.
The NVP has been very active and once again the buffet in the garden of the embassy was a success, with some 100 people participating, including many children who had a great time.

It was also the last event with our friend Willem as the president of the NVP. He has done a wonderful job and hopefully the new incoming team can continue the good work.
Catering was by Morel’s Restaurant, a guarantee for good and copious food to satisfy everybody. As our friend Renaat needed help, I happily volunteered to help Willem and Renaat.

It is always an interesting experience to see how much preparation and work is involved to set up a buffet and make the guests happy. Willem thought of everything for the setup, Renaat and his team was efficient as always. A great experience!

Belgian buffet

Thanks to the Dutch ambassador for letting the NVP organize the buffet in the embassy, that also has a nice big kitchen. In his speech, the ambassador thanked Willem for his work with the NVP.

We were lucky with the weather: not too hot, blue sky, a nice sun.
See the pictures of the preparation and of the buffet.

Beijing birds visiting

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A visitor

I already wrote about Beijing birds. Now it’s about Beijing birds visiting.

We heard noise in the ventilation shafts, in my bathroom and in the kitchen, the exhaust for the gas cooker. I said to my wife, yes, that’s the noise they make sitting on the chimney on the roof, the first chimney installed in our compound (my idea) so all exhausts from the bathrooms and kitchen really go OUTSIDE (and not to the attic, no joke).

After coming back from a quick bike tour my wife had a story to tell. Well, the birds were making a LOT of noise. So she took about the exhaust pipe from above the kitchen fan. And a big magpie came out, obviously a bit lost and in panic.

She tried to grab it but the bird was full of oil (from the kitchen exhaust). She opened the window and managed to guide the magpie back outside. I wonder if the bird could have made it back outside through the chimney…

Ruckus on my balcony

Sparrows can make a real ruckus. They fight, mate, play. The doves fight little but love to mate and groom themselves. They are acrobats doing it all on the railing.

Not sure what was their game here. The fight looks ugly at the beginning but they end up flying away in good condition…