Capital Bites: Dating and Cooking, Tavalin Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches and All-You-Can-Eat Mini-Pizzas

On this Saturday July 27 (4-5.30pm), C!Talk Beijing is hosting their sixth event, "Cooking Passionista." This installment in their series of talks on various cultural topics (see past events here) features a few Beijing chefs telling the stories of how they fell in love with food and cooking. The four speaker have quite varied backgrounds and include Amber Deetlefs of Pinotage, Cherry Li of ABC Kitchen, Hsu and Eric Li of Fatface Dining, and Jerry Guo of 3sums.

It should be an interesting afternoon, offering some insight into the backgrounds of a broad spectrum of Beijing's current dining entrepreneurs. A donation of RMB 30 will be collected at the door and all proceeds will go to support C!Talk's "One Event Per Child" campaign which collaborates with the Dandelion School to provide cultural opportunities for underprivileged children.

Hsu and Eric Li are keeping busy with Fatface. They might be discussing falling in love with food at C!Talk on Saturday, but on Sunday afternoon, they'll be trying to get people to fall in love over food. "Cook with Love" (July 28, 2-5pm) will take eight participants (four men, four women – all unattached) and randomly match them with one to three "very attractive (and nice)" members of the opposite sex several times during the multiple stages (prepping, producing, plating, and tasting) of making a four-course meal. For more details and to register yourself or a friend, see here.

Before the weekend, look to a final, one-time-only Farewell Dinner prepared by Chef Martin Brock of Gary Danko (San Francisco) this Friday (July 26) before he ends his month-long stint at Temple Restaurant. Seats for six courses plus wine pairings are RMB 888+15 percent. RSVP to meet@temple-restaurant.com or 8400 2232.

If you're farther from the center of town, Flamme Indigo is worth checking out Friday evening. The Wine Republic is hosting a Chablis wine tasting at 6.30pm. They will serve four wines accompanied by six types of canapes by Flamme for RMB 120/person.

3sums is formally launching their mini-pizza menu with a tasting party on Thursday (6-9pm). In what seems to be 3sums tradition, the evening will be all-you-can-eat (RMB 88/person) from their selection of nine kinds of mini-pizzas plus fries, tater tots, and house-made chips. Drinks including Tsingtao and alcoholic fruit punch will be free-flow until 10pm. Post-launch, mention the Beijinger and get 50 percent off the standard price (a set of three will be RMB 30 with the discount, this Fri-next Thu).

On the breakfast front – which judging by the number of reads on this piece, might be the most interesting to many of you – Modo Urban Deli is offering a late morning special (10.30am-noon) of half a sandwich with orange juice and a coffee for RMB 42.

And finally, more thrilling early morning news is that by the middle of next week Tavalin Bagels expects to be offering sausage, egg and cheeses. Sausages will be supplied by their neighbor and fellow food entrepreneur Andy Horowitz of Andy's Sausages. The exact launch date is unconfirmed, but I'm certainly psyched as the breakfast sandwich concept was definitely the best thing that the East Coast ever gave to me.

Photo: Fatface Dining