Having fun

Legend Beer and Laburnum Thai in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Legend Beer: not just food

Having fun at Legend Beer and Laburnum Thai Restaurant (they are in the same building) is not only because of the food and the beer.
People play darts, snooker and table football. When I was young we used to call that “kicker” instead of table soccer or something.
See here some of the crowds, from all corners in the world, and also a fellow Rotarian.

Laburnum Thai

At first the building hosted only the Thai restaurant. After massive renovation and construction Legend Beer with its microbrewery was added and now the Thai section is upstairs, so it’s Legend Beer and Laburnum Thai.
Food is nice – I can judge because I lived in Bangkok for four years.

 

See some of my dining experiences.
On 21 December we had our board meeting and dinner there, of SEDF (Sino-European Development Foundation, based in Vienna, Austria). I am director of the Board.
See: http://www.sedf.org
Nearly all are old friends. Two are former ambassadors (EU / China).Great food, lots of Gongti IPA beer. Thanks to Adam who took well care of us.

CCTV shooting with 6renyou at Morel Restaurant

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

CCTV invades the restaurant

On Sunday 18 December a complete crew of CCTV (Kids) invaded Morel’s Restaurant in Gongti Bei Lu for a CCTV shooting with 6renyou to introduce Belgian food. The restaurant is by far the most authentic Belgian restaurant in Beijing, not to say in China. It is frequented not only by expats but also by a number of top Chinese officials.
The website www.6renyou.com is in Chinese only and targets Chinese to travel abroad; they also showed cuisine from Israel in the restaurant Biteapitta (Tongli Studio, Sanlitun). See http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/directory/biteapitta
The idea behind it all is to show on CCTV several types of foreign cuisine, also to prepare Chinese tourists who are to travel and visit Belgium, and other countries.

It took more than a half day as CCTV takes it very seriously, preparing all in detail, installing the proper lighting and sound system.
The stars were obviously Renaat and his wife Susan who explained in great detail the history of the typical Belgian dishes.
I also came on for a short while to give some comments.

The dishes at Morel’s Restaurant

See some of the dishes: fish soup (with croutons, garlic, chees,…): tomato filled with grey shrimp from the North Sea; steak tartare (raw prepared beef); Belgian beef stew (prepared with beer); Brussels pepper steak; endive with ham gratinated; mussels; blood sausage; waffle with whipped cream and ice cream.
Renaat also received a big birthday cake from CCTV.
My favorite dish? Well, all of the above but in my opinion the signature dish of Morel’s is the endive dish (chicon as we call it). There is no restaurant in Belgium that makes the dish as good as Renaat. Except of course for my late mother!

The chef celebrates his birthday

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Chefs also celebrate!

On Saturday 17 December Renaat Morel organized a great lunch for some friends, yes the chef celebrates his birthday too. He is the owner of the Morel’s Restaurant on Gongti Bei Lu, with his wife Susan.

I found him a real special red wine, from my collection:
CHATEAU SMITH HAUT LAFITTE 1947
GRAND VIN MARTILLAC

Happy birthday to our friend Renaat!

Beijing Tai Koo Li Fantastic Beasts

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The movie

On 7 December I visited the exhibit Beijing Tai Koo Li Fantastic Beasts, the promotion house for the movie.
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is a 2016 fantasy film directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. A prequel of the Harry Potter film series, the film was produced and written by J. K. Rowling, in her screenwriting debut, and inspired by her book of the same name. It is the first instalment in the Fantastic Beasts series, and the ninth overall in J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. (WIKIPEDIA)
The year is 1926, and Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident, were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
See the pics of the house inside and outside.

The promotion exhibition

Pretty nicely done. As the master Wizard of the location I instructed my new students in the art of wizardry. And then my magic.

4

The funny thing is: the clip is sent to your email address, all free of charge. But you can’t see it without a VPN… So downloaded it.

2016 German Christmas Charity Bazaar

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A yearly grand event

I have been trying to visit it yearly. The 2016 German Christmas Charity Bazaar was as always a blast. This time I bought the entrance ticket in advance, at the German School. Good because otherwise it is near impossible to enter. I understand last year there were 5,000 visitors, most being Chinese and not just foreigners.
I arrived too early, 10:30. It opened 11 am. The good things was, I was quickly inside and could try some of the food with queuing. The VW curry sausage was great.

Rotary present

Rotary had again its coffee corner. I met a number of Rotarians and Rotaractors and it was just great fun for all.
We were lucky with the weather, not so cold nor winday and even the pollution levels came down a bit.
The 2016 German Christmas Charity Bazaar has a great marketing machine; the British Bazaar instead was left unnoticed by most.