Where tiny diners rule the roost

German inspired by life as a parent opens restaurants in China with special menus catering to children

Dining out with babies and children can be an adventure if you're not prepared for it.

These days, most restaurants offer children's menus to fill those tiny tummies, but it takes more than food to keep a child quiet. Often, parents need to ensure they don't run about the place or cause a din and upset other diners.

Some theme restaurants cater to those at the hyperactive end of the spectrum by providing a children's play area, but the food is usually mediocre.

So, the other day, when I accidentally wandered into Bistro Blu in Beijing, a child-friendly eatery with a play area that was part of a shop where I was shopping for baby products, my instinct was to immediately head for the exit. Yet my curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to have lunch there and find out a little about the place.

One of the first things that caught my eye was that the owner is German. I also found the place to be amenable to both children and parents. The children can play, the parents can shop and, above all, they can all enjoy gourmet cuisine.

But my curiosity was only slightly satisfied, so the next day I returned and approached Nils van Doorn, the owner, who told me about his views on children's dining and his experience as an international parent in China.

Bistro Blu, which has branches in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu, specializes in German and Italian cuisine, with dishes for babies, toddlers and older children, with a focus on fresh ingredients and nutritious elements.

"Kids love ice cream and french fries," Van Doorn says. "They have a tendency to go for unhealthy food. This is a universal pattern regardless of nationality, and what we're trying to do is raise the level of the food they are eating; for example, to use frozen yogurt to replace ice cream because it has the same great taste but with a lot fewer calories and sugar."

Not content with keeping young palates satisfied, Bistro Blu also offers weekend cookery classes, with the aim to show children that you can have a lot more fun cooking at home than in fast-food restaurants.

"These are little steps," Van Doorn explains. "If you try to change kids all at once you will fail. It just builds up resistance. If you try to go step by step, though slower, you will make an impact."

I tried a dish made of alphabet pasta in tomato sauce that is intended for babies aged 7 to 8 months. The salt-free dish was slightly aromatic, perhaps due to the fact the pasta was freshly made with barley flour, oil, eggs and water.

There is also a low-salt, low-oil fusilli dish with a cute layout of fruit and vegetables, and smiley potato pies. The pasta is deliberately cooked to be soft so it's not chewy, making it palatable to toddlers.

While children eat or enjoy the swings and slides in the play area, parents can enjoy treats such as schweinshaxe, a German dish of roasted pork knuckle, and sauerkraut.

The cracked skin is a delectable crust, and the meat inside butter soft, almost falling apart at the mere touch of a fork. This dish takes time: Once the marinated pork knuckle is put into the oven it is sprinkled with beer every 15 minutes over two hours.

Van Doorn says the idea for the restaurant as well as a shop selling baby products came from the joys and frustrations of being an international parent in China.

"When my son was born in 2008, I found it hard to find high-quality baby products in shops in Shanghai," he recalls. "They didn't meet my requirements in terms of quality, safety and design. So I ended up bringing back most baby products - food to strollers to car seats - from Europe whenever I went back to Germany, or whenever my wife and I had a friend coming from Europe.

"Eventually, we were on the verge of losing all our frequent-flier friends," he jokes. "Having to bring kilograms of baby food back on every trip to Europe can get in the way of friendships."

So, he and his wife, Chen Lian, decided to find a solution, not only for themselves, but also for others in their situation. They set up Baby International and began to import quality baby products to China.

"We first created an online shop. I did all the deliveries, carrying orders all over Shanghai, and met customers who in turn introduced us to their friends," Van Doorn says.

The idea of dining for children came later, after the couple almost lost their son while out for a family dinner. Why not set up a restaurant next to the store, where children can play and parents can eat good food, he thought.

Bistro Blu also hosts seminars on child health issues and parenting. "Our goal is to bring people together," Van Doorn adds.

He says he hopes to expand the business further, with plans for a new store and restaurant in the eastern city of Hangzhou this year.

dongfangyu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 09/30/2016 page20)