Food reviews

Feeling ducky

When Peking roast duck meets Cantonese cuisine, the result is a better looking and more enjoyable meal. Quanjude's Qianmen branch, the group's oldest branch established 146 years ago, recently introduced 10 new dishes, with a Cantonese twist, both in terms of presentation and a healthy, light taste.

A platter of cold appetizers features smoked salmon, bean curd roll, spinach roll and prawn salad, beside traditional boned duck feet with mustard.

A braised "dragon and phoenix" soup using diced cobia and duck tastes fresh, flavorful and slightly sweet. Another dish has cobia roasted with cream and cheese, and is presented in a bowl of beautiful-looking green spinach soup. The fish is tender, while the soup has a healthy, milky taste.

The new dishes also include shredded mushroom fried with foie gras sauce and slices of bell pepper. The sauce, although you can no longer tell it's from foie gras, was really tasty, adding flavor to what might otherwise be bland ingredients.

In a "two-way cooked duck", there was a deep-fried mashed duck cake, and two pieces of duck breast with crisp sesame skin. The restaurant's vegetarian soup, with five ingredients, such as black and white fungus, mini-cucumber, and sour pickled cucumber, was great to refresh the palate. Finally, a purple taro mousse dessert was quite enjoyable.

The Qianmen branch of Quanjude has made a bold and creative effort revamping its cuisine. Average cost is 150 yuan ($22) per person.

Daily 11 am-1:30 pm, 4:30-8 pm. 30 Qianmen Dajie, Chongwen district. On the Qianmen Pedestrian Street. Tel: 6511-2418

DIY fire-eating

The Exquisite Fire is an emerging hotpot chain. The restaurant's Asian Games Village branch has 10 sauces on the menu. There are many more ingredients available at a bar at the center of a public area, where people can enjoy DIY sauces. There are about 30 kinds of meatballs and mashed meats. Besides the ordinary pork, beef and seafood, there are even mashed venison and foie gras.

They also have plenty of options for meats, freshly cut or frozen, seafood, mushrooms, dim sum and Chinese-style cold appetizers. The menu has a long list of drinks, wines and white spirits.

Each customer is offered an individual small stainless steel pot, to be heated by an electromagnetic stove inset in the table beside their hands. That is a lot more hygienic than a traditional hotpot restaurant and makes the operation much easier.

The restaurant is decorated in a modern fashion, with black stone tabletops and milky white chairs. There is a big public dining area, as well as soft-cushioned sofas and private rooms. However, the general impression of the decoration and service is only average. The menu is only in Chinese, with some dishes illustrated. The average bill is 60 yuan per person. The restaurant is offering a 23 percent discount until end of April.

Daily 11am-10 pm. 4/F, F Zone, Jinquan Square, 301-317 Datunli, Asian Games Village, Chaoyang district. Tel: 8487-4816

Park and eat

Located in a vast park in Yizhuang Economic & Technology Development Area, Lan Yue Hua Chinese Restaurant is 15 minutes' drive south of the South Fourth Ring Road. That is quite a way out. But if you consider it as a spring excursion, it is nearer than any other scenic sites on the outskirts of the city. And with its huge patches of grassland, lakes and fishing ponds, the park gives the impression of a destination for a weekend outing.

The restaurant is beautifully designed, one side has a good lake view and it is well decorated and spacious.

Start with peanuts that are deep-fried, poached and peeled. Bean curd slices with fragrant toon sprout salad and braised pig feet are two other good cold appetizers.

The prawns in chicken broth was very flavorsome, while the sea cucumber in clear seaweed soup tasted light and healthy. Another "big dish" was the assorted seafood, such as abalone and fish meatballs, boiled with a giant fish head in soup. The restaurant also features a tasty and spicy braised farmed wild goose, the soup of which can then be used to boil bamboo shoots and wax gourd, like a hotpot. For other game meats, the restaurant has hare, pheasant and venison. As summer approaches, the park is a great place for a stroll after, or before, a meal. The average cost is over 150 yuan per person.

Daily 10 am-9:30 pm. Yizhuang Park, Lin No 9 Wenhuayuan Xilu, Beijing Yizhuang Economic & Technology Development Area. Tel: 5802-5288

(China Daily 04/24/2010 page16)