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Eating Beijing – Country Kitchen

Aug31

Restaurant: Country Kitchen (at the Rosewood Beijing)

Location: China, Beijing, Fengtai, Chaoyangmen Outer St, 1号京广中心邮政编码: 100020. +86 10 6597 8888

Date: July 31, 2018

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Kitschy kitchen but really good

My research into best restaurants in general (in Beijing) and best Peking Duck in particular brought me (via the web) to Country Kitchen.

Located inside the Rosewood hotel (which looked very nice).

It’s sort of a modern fashionable Chinese take on their own “rustic” kitchen. Sort of like a large “rustic” Italian place here. It’s not really a country kitchen in any way, just the Kitsch of it. As they say on their webpage:

For an exquisite taste of Beijing, Country Kitchen presents an array of Northern Chinese specialties. With an open show kitchen and a wood-roasting oven, chefs demonstrate their culinary art with dishes such as hand-pulled Chinese noodles, Beijing duck and a variety of dumplings. A fine selection of local Beijing and Chinese drinks are also available to perfect the dining experience.

Country Kitchen is a modern tribute to traditional Chinese dining in a sophisticated, yet casual environment that includes an outdoor terrace. The integrated décor features granite, wood, soft red tones, terracotta and oil paintings to embody the charm and simplicity of a village restaurant.

lol. But the food is great. At the helm is Chef Leo Chai.

They have the wood fire oven (BBQ) for duck.

A noodle making station.

And a lovely dining room.

This is actually a “small” menu by Chinese standards so I photographed it. Many are so big that I can’t handle the task.

Attractive sauces on the table.

We preordered our Peking Duck, and so they brought it first. You can see the “raw” ducks aging in the larder.

Then the duck chef moves it to the hook and dresses it.

Notice the drippings bowl. After that they go in the oven where he moves them around perfectly to achieve that golden brown doneness.

At the table our chef gets to work with the carving.

See the crispy skin. Drool.

A bit of skin comes out first for dipping in sugar and eating straight.

Then plates of the meat and skin, sliced in an interesting scallop pattern here.

Some with heads or legs.

The condiment tray is more classic and a bit simpler than at Dadong.

They have just pancakes.

My duck pancake, before rolling. This was seriously good. Maybe the best I’ve had? Hard to say, but really really good.

Young Dylan manned up and sucked the brain from the duck!

Clay Pot Roasted Pork Belly, Sour Cabbage, Glass Noodle. From the “lost recipes” section of the menu. This was like Chinese/German pork and cabbage soup! It was a touch sour and very rich. Quite delicious actually, but did keep reminding me of a German dish.

Because lunch didn’t have enough dumplings. Some pork dumplings.

And a few more veggie dumplings. Not as popular, of course. They had cabbage, glass noodle, fungus, and mushroom.

Zha Jiang Mian. Hand cut noodle, pork belly, fried soy bean paste.

Here is the soy bean pate.

Then you mix it all up. These look better than they taste. The bean tends to be flat in taste and yet dominate. I’m thinking after many tries at many places that Zha Jiang Mian is just not my favorite Chinese noodle (and I love a LOT of them).

Wok fried market vegetables. Pretty good actually — for vegetables.

Clay pot with braised tofu and crab roe. Ordered this dish. Loved it! Really nice savory umami crab roe broth with silken tofu.

Cabbage with pork.

They have a bunch of skewers on the menu, robotoyaki style. In this case mushroom and eggplant.

Pulled thin noodles with egg and tomato. Very Beijing comfort food. We had a lot of kids with us, which is why we end up with so many noodle dishes.

Pulled thin noodles with eggplant and string-beans.

Plain “cat ear shape” noodles.

Country Kitchen was good. Very good in fact. We didn’t have the most balanced order due to our group composition (vegetarian, a bunch of kids, etc), but everything we had was quite good for what it was — and the duck was amazing. We also liked the high production quality kitsch and the service was top notch. Sure it was more than most Chinese restaurants, but it still wasn’t bad (maybe $35 a head).

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese Food, Country Kitchen, Eating Beijing, Eating China, Rosewood Hotels

Eating Beijing – Xian Lao Man

Aug27

Restaurant: Xianlaoman

Location: 252 Andingmen Inner St, Dongcheng Qu, Beijing Shi, China, 100007

Date: July 31, 2018

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: You can never go wrong with dumplings!

Xianlaoman apparently translates as “our fillings are big” or something like that, referring to the apple stuffing of their dumplings.

Located not far from the Forbidden City, it’s a small chain of very Beijing style food.

The frontage is just across the street from an old Hutong area.

They pickle garlic!

The interior is typical of contemporary mid-level Chinese places, with a bit of actual decor, but not over the top.

Nice wood chairs.

Our guide in Beijing, Dana, was vegetarian (unusual for a Chinese) and kept — to my annoyance — taking over the orders and trying to make them all vegetarian. Boring! Although we did have 1-2 in our party who needed it, but the rest of us wanted the meat.

In any case, this spicy cauliflower was actually very good. Nice crispy texture to the plant and a salty heat.

Vegetarian egg noodles with celery. The noodles didn’t have egg, but instead there is egg in the dish.

Fish flavored pork. I managed to get this one in, although she tried to cross it out. It isn’t actually “flavored with fish” but instead “fish flavored” means something (like pork or eggplant) cooked in a prep traditionally used for fish. In this case a sort of tangy/spicy/oily sauce I love. This was a great fish flavored pork with good textures and lots of subtlety.

Steamed broccoli. Why, Dana, why?

Boiled Fish dumplings, I think. These were okay.

Pork and shrimp dumplings. Excellent, and the only one I was “allowed.” It was finished in 2 seconds and half the table was complaining that there were no other meat dumplings.

Vegetable dumplings. 2 X double order. Notice there are twice as many — and she ordered 2 plates. Stuffed with spinach and garlic. They were ok for vegetable dumplings but they are still kind of like spinach balls and we had lots uneaten at the end.

Vegetable pies. I ordered the classic Beijing pork pie but Dana switched it to vegetarian in Mandarin. More spinach. Just not as good as a nice steamed pork ball!

Xianlaoman was good, particularly the meat dishes (wish we had more). This is well done Beijing comfort food and pretty similar (but better executed) to the fare in Northern Cafe here in west LA.

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beijing, Chinese Food, dumplings, Eating Beijing, Eating China, Xianlaoman

Eating Beijing – 3.3 Noodles

Aug24

Restaurant: Noodles at 3.3

Location: No.33 Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China +86 10 6417 3333

Date: July 30, 2018

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Noodle fast casual

I’m not sure what this place is actually called, but it’s the noodle joint at the top of this building (nearly 90% sure).

If any of you read Chinese you can tell me the actual name. We stopped in here for a quick late night bite.

It’s popular. A little like a fast casual noodle bar that might be found on Sawtelle or something, just more Chinese. And actually the waiters take your orders — China has no labor problem — but it’s still sort of fast casual.

The menu is simple. Basically stuff on the same noodles.

Plum juice. I love these Chinese plum juices, but this one wasn’t very good. Not very sweet.

Spicy pork and egg noodles. Red and green chilies, shredded pork, omelet, and a bunch of thick noodles underneath. Not bad. Not complex or anything, but greasy and excellent post drinking food.

Pork and mushroom noodles. Same, but less spice, more shroom.

Spicy chicken noodles. Cleaver-ed chicken (with bones, and feet, and beak) with the peppers and the noodles. I’m sure you are sensing a theme.

Shrimp noodles. Shrimp and well… noodles. There seamed to only be one type.

Pea tendrils. In case noodles don’t leave you regular.

This place was quick and had a sort of greasy yummy factor. Not bad for a quick stop but fairly one note — definitely for the youngish crowd.

For my catalog of Chinese restaurant reviews in China, click here.

Doing it Gavin Style!

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Chinese Food, Eating Beijing, Eating China, noodles

Eating Beijing – Xiao Long Pu

Aug20

Restaurant: 晓龙瀑

Location: Near the Mutianyu Great Wall, Huairou District (近郊怀柔区慕田峪长城环岛南). Tel: 010-61621322, 61621922

Date: July 30, 2018

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Just ok — near the Great Wall

Our guide, Dana, took us here on the way to the Mutianyu Great Wall.

She described it as “fancy.”

Not the words I would use, particularly with regard to the 2 star bathroom and the in-corner AC.

Dana, unusually, is actually a vegetarian Chinese. Now this was convenient because my wife, who is also a vegetarian and determined to avoid the “sneaky meat” (which you will hear about many times in these reports) but for me, Dana’s passive aggressive tendency to order up too many vegetables and ignore the meats was a mild bummer. As a Mandarin speaker, she had the upper hand too (in ordering).

Anyway, string beans. Better with pork, but we had to live with the essentially soy prep. Not too bad actually.

Mixed peppers. I’m not used to seeing these type of peppers in China.

Eggplant. A bit mushy, but nice sauce.

Kung Pao Chicken. A bit of a white boy Beijing version. No bones, minor heat, and only a touch of the sour quality it should have. Not bad though.

Grilled trout with sweet and sour sauce.Nicely cooked and pretty tasty.

Sadly, my son is very picky. He went for mein. Yeah, plane noodles. These are actually kinda hard to order. The Chinese don’t want to bring something so plane.

They had to include some tomato and egg sauce (on the side).

Scallion pancake. Heavy, but fine.

Mean pie. Very salty and (temperature hot). Could have used more savory pork flavor.

Xiao Long Pu was fine for lunch but it’s nothing special. I’ve had much better Chinese food in the SGV. Flavors were a bit monotone.

For my catalog of more Chinese food in China, click here.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: Beijing, Chinese Food, Eating Beijing, Eating China, Xiao Long Pu

Eating Beijing – Dadong

Aug17

Restaurant: Dadong Roast Duck (Nanxincang)

Location: 1-2 Nanxincang Guoji Dasha, 22A Dongsishitiao, Dongcheng district, Beijing 100007, China. +86 10 5169 0329

Date: July 29, 2018

Cuisine: Beijing Chinese, specializing in roast duck

Rating: Superior (and lean) duck

Our 15 day trip to China begins auspiciously (in Beijing) with a trip to a branch of the granddaddy of serious Beijing Roast Duck places, Dadong.

This is the Nanxicang branch. I was at Dadong in 2008, but it was definitely a different (less modern) branch. Or they redid considerably.

The decor is very contemporary and everything is “fancy.”

Down to the duck chopstick holders!

Salad. Not sure I’ve ever had a salad in China before, and this one was some kind of dandelion leaf and radishes. No dressing really too. Sort of bracing.

Asparagus. Pretty much what it looks like.

Then comes the duck, along with the professional duck carver. He even had an assistant in tow.

Close up on the lovely bird which was puffed with air, lovingly basted, and fire roasted.

The guy knows how to carve.

Beijing duck. We got 2 platter of meat and skin.

And heads and legs (not pictured).

At Dadong, everyone gets their own condiment tray.

Plus there are pancakes.

And sesame buns. They showed us how to dip the skin in sugar and which condiments to put in which carbohydrate. Although the bun is good, I prefer the pancake, as it distracts less from the duck/hoison awesomeness. Dadong’s duck is crispy and ultra lean. Really perfectly cooked and delicious, but not fatty.

Duck soup. Not the biggest thrill. It never is. Just a bone broth.

Bean sprouts. Looks boring, but these were actually excellent. Must have been the perfect amount of oil.

This trip included A LOT of dumplings, so we had to get started right away with some steamed vegetable dumplings.

And cabbage and egg fried rice.

Plus a fresh whole fish in brown sauce with garlic and mushrooms. I’ve never had this exact sauce before and it was a little like a tangy gravy. Quite good actually but unexpected.

Mysterious bland sweet Chinese dessert soup. No thanks.

Dry ice fruit plate looked cool.

Beijing embraces the 21st century

Now-a-days in Beijing and Shanghai there are a lot of restaurants that have modernized their look and feel while staying fundamentally Chinese. This is certainly the case with Dadong and its lavish plating and epic sized picture menu. But the execution was also very good — particularly on the standout item, the Beijing Duck. This and Country Kitchen set my new standard for Peking/Beijing duck. If these are now a 10, the best places in the SGV are mere 7s. I wish I’d had a few more days in Beijing just so I could try 1949, Duck de Chine and a few other top duck places. We managed 2 in 3 days.

For my catalog of more Chinese in China, click here.