Updated: 2006-03-29 09:38

The New Year means a new beginning for everyone and restaurateurs are no exception. The year 2006 heralds many new trends in the dining world. Here are some of them:

1. Combining traditional stories and cuisine

Mocuomen Tripe Hot-Pot Restaurant is one restaurant following this trend. This restaurant is named Mocuomen after a story about a new soldier, and its special dishes all have anecdotes relating to them. Its specialty 'tripe pieces hot-pot' in the Ning style is historically rooted, and its ugly fish dish is based on recipes from past times. Another well-known dish here is 'bean curd skin hot-pot', known for its mild and mellow flavor.

Mocuomen Tripe Pieces Chaffy Dish Restaurant
Address: No. 19, Dachenglu Xisihuan, Fengtai District

2. Specialist restaurants

Absent Club, situated on Yabaolu in the Beijing-Russian residential area, is one of the latest specialist restaurants. The manager has a good reputation for running restaurants selling authentic Russian dishes. Its 'western toasted fish' dish served with "Absent" vodka, imported from Europe and only available at Absent, is a unique combination with a genuine Russian flavor. Each night at 9:30 pm dancers from Russia and Brazil give an innovative performance combining traditional ballet, samba and modern street dance. Absent Club's unique cuisine and colorful entertainment make it a place you shouldn't remain absent from for long.

Absent Club
Address: B1 Huasheng Building, No. 12, Yabaolu, Chaoyang District

3. Trendy cafe style fusion cuisine hits traditional restaurants

Yijinyuan is a Chinese mansion style restaurant serving traditional Chinese dishes. Its specialty dish is whole male lamb from Lanzhou, in Western China, which is said to invigorate diners. Besides being a traditional Chinese restaurant, Yijinyuan also offers various hot-pots of eastern Asian flavor using Cantonese inspired cooking methods.

Yijinyuan
Address: Eastern end of Yuan Capital Site Garden, Taiyanggong, Chaoyang District. (300 meters east of University of International Business and Economics southern gate) 

4. Infusing traditional dishes with traditional culture

In ancient China, a traditional vessel called a ding was used by emperors to symbolize their majesty. Keding hot-pots feature at Yuhai Longyinge and are used to cook high quality healthy meats and seafood like abalone, shrimp, etc. At Yuhai Longvinge, you too can dine like an emperor.

Yuhai Longyinge
Address: No. Yi 1, Zuoanmen Neidajie, Chongwen District

5. Home cooking favors innovation over quantity

Chulaoguo Wangjing Restaurant features Hubei home cooking style dishes. Its farmhouse dishes, stir-fries, distinctive hot-pots, and specially processed turtle are big attractions for diners.

Chulaoguo Wangjing Shop
Address: No. 3, Heyin Xilu, Wangjing Xincheng.

6. Making dining a more aesthetic experience

Meilihui is a new restaurant which is sure to satisfy your urges to over-indulge in fashionable and delicious food. Its dishes combine the best of traditional cuisine from Taiwan, East Asia and Shanghai with modern Sichuan styles. The décor is stunning, with red and white crystal lamps offsetting the black marble floor. Miniature lamps light up the wine shelf, and bottles of aged Scottish whisky twinkle in the lamplight. Meilihui also offers delicious coffee and refreshing ices and can accommodate up to 200 patrons.

Meilihui
Address: No. 8, Gongti Xilu, Chaoyang District

7. Adapting favorite traditional dishes

Fish hot-pot has been very popular in the café scene for years. The earliest version of 'Sichuan Suancaiyu' (a pickled fish and vegetable dish) uses a kind of black wild fish weighing only 200-300 grams. Its meat is lean and it has few bones that separate from the flesh naturally when it's cooked. Yuehao Shifu Restaurant serves a dish based on this old recipe, but with some adaptations. The main ingredient is fresh caoyu fish from Minjiang River in Sichuan. The flavor of the sauce is predominately Sichuan pickel and preserved ginger, combined with Thai fresh pepper sauce, soybeans, sesame, etc. The dish combines the traditional method of cooking 'suansaiyu' with Sichuan and Guangdong cooking methods, creating a unique and delicate flavor.

Yuehao Shifu
Address: 3rd floor, Pacific Inter-Continental Hotel, Guanchengyuan, Beisanhuan, Haidian District.　　

8. Refining popular dishes

It is not common to find Sichuan restaurants in good hotels, because Sichuan cuisine is usually regarded as every day food. In hotels with Sichuan restaurants, the chefs offer a more refined version of Sichuan cuisine. At Xiangxinyuan Restaurant in the Capita Hotel, the familiar hot and spicy flavor common to Sichuan dishes is given a light touch. Pickled and peppered shrimp balls, frogs and farmed fish are its specialties.

Xiangxinyuan
Address: 1st floor, Capita Hotel, Qianmendong Dajie