Capital Bites: Delicious New Duck, But Bogus Beef

Popular but far-flung Beijing duck eatery Xiheyayuan is waddling its way downtown to compete with other notable new Beijing duckeries Lunar 8 and Peking Duck Private Kitchen. The Zhongguancun hotspot will be opening a new restaurant in the IFC Mall adjacent to The Westin Chaoyang. Ducks will cost RMB 138 with all the trimmings, and the mall is scheduled to open in early March.

Though as we know, openings don’t always open like they’re supposed to. I still have the flyer that proclaims "Fatburger Opens January 2010!" It didn’t. It hasn’t. And the reason for this (according to a super-secret inside source) is that the firm has been unable to secure a local beef supplier that meets both their quality and price requirements. Rather than necessarily being an indictment of poor local produce, it might point to the untenably low price of corn-fed ground beef the industrialized US agricultural system churns out. Either way, it means no XXXL Triple Kings just yet.

To wine, and a landmark in the development of the domestic market is the return to Beijing of Jancis Robinson, the “First Lady of Wine”. She’s here for the launch of the inaugural Chinese edition of the famous World Atlas of Wine, a book she co-authored now on its fifth edition in English. She’ll be launching the book at a fancy dinner organized by ASC Fine Wines.

Finally, Scarlett in Hotel G is upping the ante with its food offerings by hiring a battle-scarred French chef. Thierry Danzas has already started working over the menu by introducing rustic chicken pie with sweatbreads, beef cheek stew and more. A smart new lunch offer gets you two courses (including a salad and cold-cut buffet) for RMB 88 between 11.30am and 3pm Monday to Friday.