Beijing : Great Hall of the People (人民大会堂）and Diaoyutai State Guest House (钓鱼台迎宾馆) in Beijing

This post is way overdue - I was in Beijing a few months back and attended 2 meetings held at official State buildings; one was the Great Hall of the People, or the 人民大会堂 just adjacent to Tiananmen Square - the parliament house of the PRC, and the other was the Diaoyutai State Guest House out on the western side of the city.

We were there for a pre-dinner courtesy call and dinner afterwards, so the building wasn't all that busy. But it was huge - this was one of the staircases leading to goodness-knows-where...

And this appeared to be one of the main entrances coming in to the dining area - there must have been at least 4 huge dining rooms off this foyer.

The set up was quite interesting - although in typical Chinese fashion with appetizers and different glasses for different types of drinks. The amount of crockery they use is amazing. There's a wine glass, a baijiu glass and another glass for juice/water, plus little plates for appetisers in front of each person. Not to mention all the cutlery and plates used during the course of the meal.

The Great Hall of the People even has its logo on the crockery.

Rather interesting fusion dish -some sort of potato/carrot salad with a scallop and various vegetable sticks all placed randomly. Not very yummy at all.

A clear soup to start with.

This was a very exciting buddha jumps over the wall - with heaps of sharks fin and various dried stuff like dried scallops and dried abalone. Quite yummy : )

Spiny sea cucumer - not that exciting at all actually. It wasn't very tasty, and was rather rubbery.

Beef ribs. We were starting to get really full around this point. I can't even remember how this tasted because I know I didn't eat very much of it - thanks to standing around, talking and drinking with various people that I can't even remember the names of.

The only shot I managed to get of the outside of the building - many many vehicles and many many people.

The next day, we were at the Diaoyutai State Guest House (not to be confused with the hotly disputed Diaoyutai Islands) in the western part of Beijing city. Again, nicely done in terms of table layout, complete with nameplate, various types of cutlery and various drinking glasses. Food was better than the Great Hall of the People although there wasn't enough time to take photos.

Longest dining table ever!

Beijing: Maison Boulud

On one of my recent work trips to Beijing, a colleague and I managed to squeeze in some time to try out Maison Boulud. Located in Qianmen, it's fairly near Tiananmen Square but dificult to get to by car because of restricted turning along JianGuoMenWai/ChangAn Jie. The restaurant is located in ChienMen 23, the former US Embassy complex consisting of a mix of historic/new buildings around a central open space.

The entrance to the complex along QianMen DongDaJie.

The restaurant is located at the far end, housed in a building with an old facade but completely new interiors.
We were seated in the far end of the restaurant, and because it was relatively empty at 12 noon, I was quite surprised. After a while, I realised we were right next to the serving station, and the clatter of cutlery, opening and closing of drawers and conversation between serving staff got a bit too much. So I asked for a seat change. Points deducted here.

I suppose it's also the norm to be asked whether still, sparking or mineral water is preferred - and this being China, tap was definitely not an option. So we went for still - at RMB 90 (S$16), Evian certainly didn't come cheap. More points deducted.
The amuse bouche consisted of jellied ham with gherkin in a shot glass, and salmon and cucumber topped with dill. Nothing terribly exciting here.
My friend and I had the summer lunch menu for RMB188 (S$38) per person - apparently they change the menu every 2 weeks. I had the cuttlefish and chick pea salad with basil and lemon with a yogurt and cumin dressing. The cuttlefish was battered and lightly fried, and was very tender, while the cumin, basil and chickpeas were a pretty good combination.

My friend had the DB (I suppose it stands for Daniel Boulud) Caesar Salad with romaine lettuce, anchovies, avocado topped with Parmesan and croutons. Ordinary but enjoyable.
For her main course, my friend had the bread-crusted snapper with a sauce consisting of stewed mussels, tomato and fennel. The fish was very nicely done - crusty on the outside, soft and firm on the inside. Unfortunately the sauce turned out to be something that we could have had at Pasta Mania, and it left us wondering what the chef was trying to do.
I had the DB Burger, which consisted of minced sirloin with braised short ribs and foie gras served with fries. This came with a RMB35 (S$7) supplement.
This was an EXCELLENT burger, and done to perfection.
The meat mix of minced sirloin and braised short rib added texture and flavour to the patty

Fries with parsely, spring onions and garlic, which were very nicely done - crispy on the outside, hot and fluffy on the inside. Top marks!

There were 2 dessert choices: My friend had the black forest consisting of brandied cherry biscuit, chocolate shavings and cherry sorbet. The cherry sorbet was slightly tangy, and went quite well with the cherry biscuit (which was more like a cake). This was quite pleasant.
I had the Raspberry and Lychee, which was raspberry chiboust(??), caramelised puff pastry and lychee sorbet.
This was also quite pleasant, but I thought the pastry could have been served a bit warmer, since it was quite dry and flaky.
Maison Boulud is meant to be fine French dining in China at what I suppose must be its best, but there were so many silly serving flaws - the waitress banging into the bottle of Evian, seating us (initially) at a terrible table, and not being attentive enough to the needs of the diners. It was also sad that tea and coffee were not part of the lunch set - these cost us RMB50 (S$10) and 45 (S$9) respectively.

At one point, the next course arrived before we were done with our earlier course, which shows a huge problem with timing and how the staff in the dining hall communicate with those in the kitchen. In my view, a large part of the fine dining experience is the service, and if that is not properly done, I can easily spend my money at another equally-good-or-equally-expensive place.

Bottom line: Impressive location and decent food, but let down by poor service.

Final price for 2 people including taxes = RMB685 = S$137.

Lunch: Mon to Fri from 11.30am-2.00pm

Dinner: 7 days from 6-10pm

Address: Chien Men 23, Qianmen Dongdajie (前门东大街)

Tel: 65599200

Website: http://www.danielnyc.com/maisonboulud.html

Belgium: Mussels (and Waffles) in Brussels

The husband was craving Belgian waffles (not the Liege ones with sugar) and managed to convince me to take a side trip to Brussels so he could satisfy his craving. It was a lovely day : )


We arrived in the Grand Place and after a bit of sightseeing, started looking for lunch. Being rather tired, we took the easy way out and went for the tried and tested....Chez Leon, which despite its mainstream reputation, turned out to be a pretty good choice. Starting off with Belgian beer - I had the dark beer while the husband had the lager.

The husband had a mix of prawns, mussels, and calamari cooked together in a tomato concasse sauce, which was extremely flavourful. This was amazing! The sweetness of the fresh seafood coupled with the tomato-garlic-onion-parsely sauce was drink-worthy...we slurped up every last drop. This cost about 24 Euros or so.

I had the relatively more boring set lunch of mussels in white wine, which came with fries and a beer for around 12 Euros. The belgian mussels were sweet, tender and extremely succulent.

After lunch we spotted this rather exciting shop along one of the back alleys...unfortunately there was no space left in our tummies!

After a bit more sightseeing, we went to Wittamer for afternoon tea at the husband's request. This entailed walking about half an hour across town to another more quiet corner, away from the rather touristy Grand Place. We had a chocolate sundae and a hot chocolate which cost us about 17 Euros all in.

The hot chocolate was the best ever....better than Max Brenner and Hediard! Drinking it brought about memories of Roald Dahl's description of the chocolate waterfall in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...it was rich, sweet, and absolutely decadent and made us both very very happy.

Before leaving Belgium on the train back to Paris, we found Mort Subite - cherry beer! This was really yummy. Cost around 3 Euros.

Also ordered the trappist dunkel...but the cherry beer was more exciting.

The outdoor seats were packed....it was a lovely ending to a lovely 24 hrs.

And the husband found his Belgian waffle : )

Mort Subite: www.alamortsubite.com

Lufthansa - thumbs up!

I've only flown Lufthansa once during a work trip 3 years ago between Frankfurt and Stockholm, and have never thought much of the food nor service. This time, when I was flying between Porto and Frankfurt, I was pleasantly surprised by (1) being upgraded, and (2) by the excellent food on board.

This was breakfast: a cold platter of ham and cheese, a Portugese egg tart and a hot breakfast.

The hot breakfast had something similar to a vegetarian lasagne and a grilled steak. A bit odd at 7am, but it was still pretty yummy with the meat nice and tender.

What got me slightly disappointed was the realisation that despite having flown on Singapore Airlines almost once a month - sometimes twice - for the past 3 years, I have not been upgraded a single time despite earning literally hundreds of thousands of miles. It's sad that other Star Alliance carriers treat Krisflyer members better than SQ does : (

Frankfurt: Bratwurst and Roast Pork

I had a 12-hour layover in Frankfurt and happily decided to go into the city to sightsee instead of waiting in the airport, which would have been incredibly boring. Bought a day ticket, hopped on a train and was in the heart of town in less than 30 mins. According to Wikitravel, the Zeil and Romer areas were supposed to be fairly interesting for an afternoon out, so I hopped off at Hauptwache station and started walking around the area. Most of the streets were pedestrianised so it wasn't too hard finding the most tourist-friendly routes.

Around 11am, I came across a shop selling sausages and grilled meats between the Zeil and Romer just across the square from the Liebfrauenkirsche and the fountain, and decided to give it a try.

So much to choose, so little stomach space

Nothing like a dark beer (2E), and bratwurst and sauerkraut in a bun (2.50E) to start the day. Total cost = 4.50 Euros - a pretty good deal!

I tried the roast pork at another shop later in the day - there were several branches of the Schlemmermeyer shops around Frankfurt city. This was the shop located near the Alte Oper, along a street called Kalbach G. full of wonderful deliccatessens (which I was too intimidated to go into, since they looked expensive and non-English speaking.)
The pork looked so good, I couldn't walk away without giving it a try.

Check out the crackling

Sauerkraut

Dinner - this cost 7.60 Euros, and while it was pretty tasty and crispy, wasn't as good value for money as the bratwurst.