Delicacies
Local dishes: Beijing and Hong Kong
By Ye Jun and Donna Mah (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-09 15:17
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Beijing
A nice, comfortable restaurant offering safe home-style food may be a better place to celebrate Mother's Day than an expensive posh five-star buffet. At least, you won't have your mother nagging you about the costs. Take her to Kai Xiao Zao - a little restaurant that's just opened, and whose owners are very modest about delivering the goods.
"If you expect gourmet treats, you'll be disappointed," says Jin Pengyuan, one of two owners, whose last job was deputy general manager of a financial website.
"Instead, we hope to become a home kitchen, where people will feel comfortable, and can visit perhaps four or five times a month."
The main reason Jin and his business partner opened this small eatery which seats only about 30 is their personal concern about food safety.
"Restaurants today put too many additives in their food," he says. "Ingredients are often not fresh, and the oil and condiments they use are suspicious."
To prove his point, Jin takes pictures of the oil, vinegar and soy sauce his restaurant uses and posts them on the walls. All are decent, known brand names, if not the most expensive, and the restaurant does not use monosodium glutamate (MSG) or "chicken essence" in stir-frying.
Only live, fresh fish is used, and even the staple steamed rice is sourced from Northeast China, priced at 3 yuan a bowl.
That persistence in food quality does raise the cost a little, according to the manager.
"We make our food with conscience and quality," declares a notice next to the oil pictures.
And Jin adds: "We believe it is possible to make money with a good heart."
Although the current menu leans towards Sichuan, Hunan and Cantonese cuisines, Jin prefers to define his dishes as "home style". His idea is to offer the taste of mom's cooking.
The chef comes from a village in Hunan, and according to Jin, once catered banquets for "red and white" events, referring to weddings and funerals.
He certainly has a lot of experience, and though the dishes are not the best-looking, most live up to the promise of tasting good, retaining the original flavors of the ingredients. You may find the food a little bland, but it leaves no unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth, and it sits comfortably in the stomach.
Popular dishes are dry-fried cauliflower in an iron pot, dry-preserved spicy small fishes, and braised tender wax gourd. You can also find the signature Hunan chopped chili fish head and the hotpot bullfrog here.
Most dishes cost between 12-35 yuan ($1.80-5.40), and there are about 80 to 100 dishes to choose from. The restaurant is located on the second floor beside a pizza shop, within a quiet residential estate.
