Old China Hands 2 June

All away?

The RSVP I received for the lunch of Old China Hands 2 June 2023 revealed so many of our friends were traveling or simply busy. Well, we made it with a total of 24 OCH happily chatting and enjoying the food in Morel’s Restaurant.

See the menu and some of the dishes!

Poor Greg pushing the wrong buttons

Our friend Greg had the disappointing news his video of the Anniversary failed. Well, at least we had the pictures!

Our famous OCH – Renaat Morel

Renaat is always somewhere in the news.

This time he was honored for his restaurant by BRTV (Beijing Radio and TV) in an event on 23 April. You can see the frame in the restaurant.

Other famous OCH

Oops yes this is Raja and myself.
All details you can find in a previous post.

Raja had found an old picture of the two of us, somewhere in the late eighties we guess. Location and exact time unknown…

Brian & Kevin live in Beijing

Dinner in Blue Star

We had a lively evening with Brian & Kevin live in Beijing, in Blue Star Restaurant on 25 April 2023. Pretty good turnout with many friends.
It was an evening of Standup Comedy and Live Music, featuring Brian Nelson and guest starring Kevin Gouldmann. Brian is from the USA and has been living in China now for over 2 years. He received a classical theater acting degree from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and has utilized these skills to enhance his entertainment and business career. Brian shared his Real Lao Wai China experiences and frequent miscommunication challenges. We listened how his life is truly lost in translation. Kevin has been working together with Brian for the past few years, complementing Brian’s presence with solid musical underpinnings.

I personally love their music and whenever possible I attend their performance.
Thorsten of Blue Star did a great job, the spare ribs were really great, Texas BBQ style.

Dinner in Home Plate

Another good excuse to return to Home Plate in Sanlitun to see Brian & Kevin live in Beijing.
We had the pulled pork sandwich and the pulled chicken sandwich, never disappointing. We even ordered a second pulled pork!
As announced by Home Plate: Brian has been entertaining crowds with his music in the USA for more than 20 years. He continues his musical journey here in China and loves connecting with many musicians from around the world.

Kevin studied music composition and guitar in his younger years, and played in numerous bands in America , Germany, and Denmark. He came to Beijing in 2014, working as a master piano maker. He has been working together with Brian for the past few years, complimenting Brian’s stage presence with solid musical underpinnings.

See the VIMEO video.

I was surprised at one point when a pretty girl came to say hi, she knew my food videos on WeChat Channels and loves them. So, a picture with a fan!

 

Ambassador’s Kitchen in Beijing 4

Argentinian fusion

Ambassador’s Kitchen in Beijing 4 tells about our experience with Ambassador’s Kitchen trying to show some Argentinian fusion. On 9 January 2023 Renaat Morel and myself were invited to join their shooting in the Mango TV building where they have an imitation restaurant. Previously we were asked to be jury members for Belgium food.

We were supposed to walk into the restaurant as normal guests and then welcomed by the host who showed the menu. That evening we were supposed to taste “Argentinian fusion dishes”. At another table as it happened a German friend of mine, Georg, was tasting a Belgian dish. Small world!

The dishes were OK but honestly we did not see a link to Argentine cuisine. The chicken tasted a bit like Hainanese chicken. The staff did do their best however. For me the best was to taste again Yerba Mate tea, did not have it for decades. And in the real traditional cup!
Again big Mango TV team to do the shooting…

What is Yerba Mate?

It is a stimulating drink, greenish in color, containing caffeine and tannin, and is less astringent than tea. Mate is especially common in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and southern Brazil as well as in Syria and parts of Lebanon, where it was introduced from Argentina.
Yerba mate is traditionally consumed from a container called a gourd and sipped with a metal straw that has a filter at its lower end to strain out the leaf fragments.
See the benefits here.

Real Argentinian food

I discovered the Argentinian restaurant Malbec & Beef on 24 March 2023, located a bit north of Raffles Clinic, the building with many restaurants such as Bodega, Turkish Feast and others. I found out they were the restaurant where Ambassador’s Kitchen did previously the shooting for Argentinian cuisine.

We opted for the beef, two different ones (sirloin and rib-eye). We were not disappointed.
You won’t find much of a difference between ribeye and sirloin in terms of nutrition, but sirloin does have less fat content as a leaner cut of steak. If you’re watching fats in your diet, sirloin is usually the better option. However, the vitamin, mineral, and calorie content of both cuts are similar.
The small red wine from Argentina was also very good.

As a special gesture from the manager we were treated with a “provoleta”, gratinated cheese, delicious. It is a famous dish as explained here:
“Provoleta is melted provolone cheese, served hot from the BBQ or oven, with a variety of toppings.  Provoleta hails from Argentina. Traditional Provoleta is made with a unique Argentinian type of provolone cheese.”

Ambassador’s Kitchen in Beijing 3

Competition

In Ambassador’s Kitchen in Beijing 3 I show the cooking competition organized by Mango TV, see the previous post.

Two teams were to compete preparing Belgian dishes, one team headed by Ms. He Chaolian, (Laurinda Ho, youngest daughter of Stanley Ho) and the other with Li Chen, Superstar, famous Chinese actor and director. Location: the Mango TV building north of Taikooli, on 20 December 2022. The Belgian embassy provided a translator.
Jury members were Renaat Morel and myself. They got my Chinese name wrong but that was our mistake. Right is 范克高夫.

Ingredients, cutlery, and other were provided by Morel’s Restaurant.
In a limited time the teams had to make some famous Belgian dishes: Belgian fries, mussels, endive and ham (gratinated), pears in red wine. The pears (“Conference pear”) are from Belgium and have a unique and delicate taste. Some supermarkets in Beijing sell them.

Hands up for the two teams

We were a bit worried how the teams would handle the challenge.
As it turned out, they both did a great job.

It was difficult to nominate the “winner”, we finally awarded the prize to He Chaolian as she opted for the more difficult dish, the endive au gratin.
Again the organization and team work of Mango TV were impressive.
Yes, Beijing life is never boring!

Ambassador’s Kitchen in Beijing 1

Ambassador’s Kitchen is a top-ranked program

In Ambassador’s Kitchen in Beijing 1, an introduction to the program, the actors and how Belgium cuisine was in the focus.
Mango TV (芒果TV) is a Chinese media company controlled by state-owned Hunan Broadcasting System. Mango TV specializes in creating online videos and is an online platform providing content that is presented in TV channels from Hunan Broadcasting System and Hunan Satellite TV. Its current headquarters is located in Changsha, Hunan. Mango TV provides audience with diverse content including films, TV series, music, cartoons and entertainment.

The program was featured in this China Daily article dated 29 December 2022:
Ambassador’s Kitchen, a TV program aiming to embark on an “exotic” journey through mouth-watering foods, recently began shooting in Beijing.
The show features four celebrity hosts: actors Li Chen; Wu Chun; Laurinda Ho, the daughter of late Casino King Stanley Ho; and singer Liu Wei, as well as two guest stars, actress Sun Yi and singer Liu Wei. They will take Chinese and foreign cuisine as a “bridge” to exchange cultures.
Before the launch ceremony held in Sanlitun area in Chaoyang district, the six celebrities were divided into two teams and sent to the embassies of Argentina, New Zealand, Turkey and Thailand in Beijing, to shoot some footage.
Propelled by the stardom, the show’s hashtags have generated around 36 million “clicks” and drawn 119,000 netizens to discuss the related topics on Sina Weibo, an indicator for popularity in the showbiz industry.
Coproduced by Global Times Online and Beijing WiaoE Technology Co Ltd, the TV show was aired on Jiangsu Satellite TV, CCTV and Mango TV.

See other article:
“The ‘Ambassador’s Kitchen’ program warmly launched the re-enactment of exotic cuisine to integrate hospitality”

Belgium in the spotlight

There were several shootings done, in Morel’s Restaurant, in the residence of the Belgian ambassador and a “chef’s competition” in the building of Mango TV next to Taikooli North in Sanlitun.
Some of the stars who joined were:
Ms. He Chaolian, the youngest daughter of Stanley Ho (Laurinda Ho). When Chao Lian was born, the gambling king Stanley Ho was 70 years old.
Li Chen is a Chinese actor and director born in Beijing, known as a Superstar. He is known for being a member of the variety show “Keep Running!” since Season 1. Born on November 24, 1978. Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing shocked millions of fans when she revealed that she is breaking off her engagement with fiancé Li Chen. However, the story is not yet concluded…
All of them were very relaxed and friendly. Chaolian impressed us as she was not only pretty but friendly and a good cook.
Our Belgian ambassador H.E. Jan Hoogmartens joined most of the shooting, with an impressive cool and patience!

Morel’s Restaurant becomes a studio

On 20 December 2022 the massive crew of Mango TV transformed the restaurant in a studio with ceiling, outside and inside lighting. I don’t know the exact number but I guess over 15 camera were filming… Very impressive and so professional.

In this first post see some of the pictures taken in the restaurant and screenshots of the program. The staff was super excited to take a picture with the Superstar!
More to come in other posts.