Beijing restaurants

La Maison Lyonnaise in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

In front of the Brazilian embassy

I finally made it to La Maison Lyonnaise in Beijing, located in the building that has seen so many eateries and more come and go, Hopefully this French restaurant will stay for a longer time. I think they changed little of what previously “Caravan”. Caravan has ceased operations as of February 14, 2020 after 5 years of operation. It served Moroccan and Cajun food. The 2nd floor is now basically vacant, where we previously had a book shop and a (great) Brazilian restaurant. About Caravan, see here earlier post with the details:
“Reality started to sink in” https://www.beijing1980.com/2020/02/28/reality-started-to-sink-in/

I asked the French owner for the special Lyon dishes, and see what he recommended and we ordered. The bread is nice and special. Then Lyon Quenelle, Saucisson de Lyon, strawberry cake. And a Belgian beer. See details about the dishes.
When I was often visiting Paris (for work) I always tried the regional restaurants. Sadly many have closed to make room for something like “Western International Restaurants”… So, good to have this in Beijing.
The service was nice, the food interesting. Not a cheap place. All customers were Chinese… (except me)

Lyon Quenelle de Brochet

See: https://www.regions-of-france.com/regions/rhone_alpes/food-gastronomy/lyon-quenelle#

The quenelles de brochet indeed represent the authentic Lyonnais cooking, made out with really local ingredients amongst which pike, usually fished in Rhône-Alpes streams, and free-range eggs from the neighboring French region of Bresse renowned for its quality poultry.
The well-known quenelles from Lyon are famous for their delicate mousse consistency and subtle taste of fish. The word “quenelle” is believed to originate from the German “knödel” meaning dumpling, but the Lyon recette has actually no equivalent in other countries – and even in French gastronomy.

or in French:
See: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenelle

La quenelle est une pâte moelleuse de forme cylindrique pochée dans l’eau bouillante. Elle est confectionnée à partir soit de farine, de mie de pain, de semoule ou de pâte à choux, mêlées de viande et pochées à l’eau ou dans un bouillon. Elles sont typiques dans la cuisine traditionnelle de plusieurs régions de l’Est de la France — en particulier les cuisines lyonnaise ou alsacienne. Elles peuvent se préparer en incorporant divers ingrédients, généralement des poissons (notamment le brochet), des viandes blanches (veau ou volaille), ou parfois de la moelle ou, en Alsace-Lorraine, du foie.

Saucisson de Lyon

Saucisson de Lyon is a large cured pork sausage in Lyonnaise cuisine. It sometimes includes some beef or a liqueur. It is similar to other large French cured sausages such as those of Arles, Lorraine, and Burgundy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saucisson_de_Lyon

and

Véritable Saucisson de Lyon
https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/lyon-saucisson/
Originally, the Lyon saucisson was a sausage made of a blend of meats: donkey or horse at the beginning, today beef, to which a mixture of lean pork is added (ham, shoulder, etc.). Its uniform, dark red filling, renowned for its delicacy, allows the cubes of lard to remain visible. It’s a lean sausage (only 10 to 12% fat), only consisting of lean trimmings, with the fat provided by the diced lard.

Dinner and show in Mango Restaurant

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Mango Restaurant and Club

On 22 June 2021 I organized for some friends a dinner and show in Mango Restaurant. See my previous post about Mango: https://www.beijing1980.com/2021/06/15/mango-restaurant-and-club/
I prepared the menu and drinks and I think everybody was pretty happy. Very reasonable price!

The show that started 8:30 pm was well received! I had never seen the pole dancing as it comes much later, well after 10 pm, this time a few of us were still there and we could watch it. Pole dancing is now very popular in China and is considered as a new workout, with many gyms organizing lessons. Years ago I was in the Hilton Hotel where I watched a pole dancing competition. It is certainly not easy and requires dexterity and a flexible body! At one point belly dancing also became very popular, even our daughter took part in it in the gym. Others prefer flamenco,  salsa, tango and other dances. Often just as a pleasant way to exercise. Sadly many people look at it as “sexy stuff”. Chinese don’t. In Mango many families with kids come to watch the shows…

Our musicians

I could organize the floor for our two musician friends. Great performance by Kevin and Brian, real professionals. It took some work to get them wired but they brought most of the equipment so, all went perfect. They got an extra pizza to reward them.

See a few short clips of our musicians and of the late-night pole dancing. Need VPN in China to access Vimeo.

Mango Restaurant and Club

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Normally called “Russian”

Mango Restaurant and Club, aka Golden Mango Russian and MangGuo EShi Restaurant is located at 6 Ritan Beilu (Chinese: 金芒果餐厅俱乐部 – 日坛北路6号).
Serves Russian food, with a drink list including Baltika, Russian sparkling wine and various bottles of vodka and wine.
Besides the basement there are 3 floors: the 1st floor with the bar and the dance floor for the shows. The 2nd floor has several semi-private areas with large windows that give a good view of the dance floor. The 3rd floor is the open terrace with several nice corners plus another bar.
The menu is extensive, with Russian and Mexican dishes plus pizza, hamburgers, steaks, pork knuckle and more. The Russian honey cakes are really nice. Water pipes available (hookah, here often wrongly called “Shisha” being the tabacco, not the water pipe).
Prices are reasonable. I like the Russian beers.

See the pictures of the three floors, some of the dishes I had and some pages of the menu.
First floor is usually packed with Chinese, including families with kids. Third floor mixed public, Chinese and foreigners. Often private parties on the 2nd floor.

The show

See some pics of the show.

Tuesday to Sunday performances (8.30 pm the most popular) from Cuban and Russian singers and dancers. Looks like always the same group but with different costumes.

See the short clip on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/563062594)(need VPN in China).

Exploring Encuentro replacing Red Rose

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Again a change

On 4 April 2021 I went exploring Encuentro replacing Red Rose. It’s the new restaurant on Beijing Gongti Bei Lu, Encuentro, basically South American food. Just in front of the North Gate of Worker’s Stadium, in the small alleay. Our friend Rtn Jose had suggested it, the place had just opened on the location of a former Muslim restaurant, then followed by another restaurant, Red Rose, American cuisine.

I tried the ensalada de tofu (nice), the ropa vieja cubana (very good) and the picarones peruanos (can be improved). Rather soft opening without a full a la carte menu.

The former Red Rose Restaurant

Beijing is not a good place to run a restaurant. Sky-high rents, unreasonable landlords and annoying government “inspections” to make life miserable – often only targeting foreign restaurants: reason why restaurants open, go bust, other open, restart the cycle. Chinese restaurants generally less bothered. Inspectors always find a new reason to mess: need other electric plugs (the safety ones have the wrong color), the gas pipes should be moved and painted in a different color, the trash cans are not OK (while a few hundred meters away trash litters the street with stinking trash. (un)Welcome to Beijing.

See a visit to the former Red Rose Restaurant with friends, July 2019. The place was actually very nice, food at first so-so, later improved a lot and I started liking it. A pretty ugly kind of bulldog was always around to check us out, in a very friendly way. I guess it closed, victim of the virus economy.

I fail to understand why new tenants always must break down everything and remodel. Like in this case, there was nothing wrong with the design. Screw the environment! (see my book Toxic Capitalism).

Beijing Rotary in March

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Wine Tasting Party

Beside our regular meetings, Beijing Rotary in March had an exciting party in ROOTS on 23rd of March.
Cassidy, one of the only five Wine Masters in China gave us an introduction on new world versus old world wines.
To make the concept real he brought a Pinot Noir from New Zealand (cheaper and screw cork) and another one from France (more expensive and real cork) and explained the intricacies of each type of wine and wine processing; key aspects are acidity, transparency, alcohol content, body, hint of earth, hint of oak, hint of berries, tannin content and aroma.

Cassidy also gave a historical overview on how “Wine Masters” are selected and appointed worldwide and how they have to pass theoretical exams along with rigorous tasting tests.
We received two nice wine glasses marked I and II to taste (blindly) the two Pinot Noir wines and to give our opinion.

Good attendance, with members of the Rotary Club of Beijing and Rotary Club of Beijing East, along with visiting Rotarians and guests. It was a fantastic fellowship, a delicious dinner, high quality wine tasting. Zeyu Zhu, a cellist from the Juilliard School (New York famous school) entertained us with a nice classical music.

Kempinski 30 March 2021

Acting President Didier chaired the meeting and gave an update on the upcoming events of the club.
Our latest member was inducted, Kevin Gouldmann. He received his certificate and pin from Didier.

Kevin was also the speaker of the day, to tell us about his unusual profession as a “Klavierbaumeister” (master piano maker).
Kevin studied piano and music in USA but left for Germany when 21 because he felt he was not good enough to play piano. Instead of playing the piano he later chose the guitar instead.

What makes a good piano? Design, choice of materials and workmanship are the key factors. He learned the different aspects to achieve the right result, first as an apprentice in Berlin for over two years. He then moved to Hildesheim, for several years. Later he followed the complete Ludwigsburg Master Program as a master piano maker. He graduated successfully after a second tough exam.

He worked in a piano factory until he was recruited by a Danish company where he became owner and partner. Later he moved again to Germany and then to China. In China he is one of the only three master piano makers. He is still active with manufacturers in Europe and also did a stint in Abuja (Nigeria), where he lived colorful experiences.
He explained some of the key issues in making a good piano and also explained the different piano types.
He had to field many questions from the audience.

Gilbert let our visitor Sarah Wagner announce the publication of her book “Unleash Today”, that came out exactly on this day in all the major Amazon shops. We look forward for Sarah to give us a talk about her book that she wrote together with Kate Surala.

I already bought the Kindle version!