Beijing

Hengshan Cafe

Hengshan Cafe & Chinese Cuisine is an established Cantonese restaurant chain based in Shanghai. Founded in 2002, it now has three restaurants in Shanghai and six branches in Beijing. Recently it set up a new Hong Kong-style cafe restaurant near its Xiaoyunqiao branch on the first floor of the Kerry EAS Logistics Building. The restaurant offers cafe-style foods as well as Hong Kong-style hotpot. Signature pots of Hong Kong-style based soups are pork bone soup and Chaozhou-style satay soup. Must-order foods to go with the soups are fresh beef, hand-beaten meatballs, shrimp wonton and house-prepared mashed inkfish. The decor of the cafe is bright, modern and comfortable. The design of the food has an emphasis on health as well as a natural flavor of ingredients. Wash down the foods with a cup of milk tea. Finish with one of the restaurant's desserts, such as assorted fruits with sago and coconut juice.

-Ye Jun

1/F North Wing, Kerry EAS Logistics Building, 21 Xiaoyun Lu (Road), Northern East Third Ring Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-6460-8834.

Meizhou Dongpo's winter menu

Meizhou Dongpo, a specialized Sichuan-style restaurant in Beijing, just released its winter menu at its new Shunyi district branch. The use of seasonal ingredients to create natural, delectable taste is the core to the new dishes. One festive dish is "complete family happiness" - a hodgepodge of ingredients in a clay pot. The ingredients are healthy and tasty. They include Chinese yams, carrots, water chestnuts, shitake mushrooms, pork hooves, chicken wings, pork meatballs and duck feet. Other recommended dishes are braised beef chops with potatoes, golden-sauteed buns with jizong, or termite-mushroom stuffing. These can be washed down with a natural-tasting water chestnut and sugarcane drink. The winter menu has a total of five cold dishes, 14 hot dishes, five dim sums and a drink. Many of the dishes are warming and suitable for the cold season, such as lamb soup, and steamed pork ribs with mashed rice. Of course the restaurant makes some spicy dishes. Sichuan is famous for including spicy fish and spicy sausage.

The new winter dishes are available at all chains.

-Ye Jun

Meizhou Dongpo's Shunyi district branch: S1 Business Building, Bldg 17, 8 Yard, Zhanqian Jie (Street), Shunyi district, Beijing. 010-5306-2901.

Food of the gods

First the good news: The Peninsula Hotel has extended its seasonal chocolate tea promotion through March, so there are plenty of weekends left to indulge your sweet tooth in the lobby with a selection of cakes, mousses, bonbons, eclairs, cookies and other delectable desserts from 2 to 8 pm. It's just 158 yuan per person, including tea, coffee and an exquisite hot chocolate. The bad news: The godfather of this repast, uber pastry chef Yannick Oppermann, is leaving Beijing in mid-February for a new gig in Shanghai.

- Mike Peters

2 to 8 pm, Saturdays and Sundays at the Peninsula Beijing, 8 Goldfish Lane in Wangfujing, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-8516-2888.

Hong Kong

New basement hangout

Located on Wyndham Street in an unusual basement location is a new Spanish restaurant, Zafran.

Part of the Aqua group of restaurants, this is definitely a place to have fun. There is a dining area, a tapas bar area and a large area with booth seating and a large floor space for dancing until the wee hours. Zafran serves traditional tapas-sized and larger dishes, including traditional tapas and some more creative reinterpretations, designed to share. A couple of signature tapas dishes include salt cod fritters and gambas ajillo (garlic chilli prawns). For mains, try creations such as the 24-hour boneless ox-tail or the lamb rack with garlic puree and onions.

There is also a large bar where the mixologists make some serious cocktails to please the crowd, and a live DJ in the evenings.

There are two entrances to Zafran -one on Wyndham Street, which you might miss if you're not looking for it, and one down a few stairs from Wyndham from the area overlooking Lan Kwai Fong.

- Donna Mah

Zafran, Basement, 43-55 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong. 852-2116-8855.

(China Daily 02/16/2014 page7)