Eat Up: Five New Ways to Get Full This Weekend
There's always something to eat in this city – a special promotion, a new dinner event, a one-off brunch – and this weekend is no exception. If you want to stuff yourself straight through to Monday, that's certainly possible.
Start your weekend on Friday night and dine at the first installment of The Hutong's Dinner With New Friends series. The idea is to bring a group of 24 strangers (or rather, "new friends") together for a six-course meal and the story of a transformative moment. The first speaker to share her story in this series will be Noch Noch Li, who will share her story of how she went from very high (as a finance executive) to very low (due to depression) and then climbed back up to equilibrium.
Cherry Li of ABC Kitchen will be behind the stove, serving up a range of dishes including a tricolor salad of beet, melon, and pink radish carpaccio, a grilled filet mignon with sweet ponzu glaze, and plum-mango cigars with jasmine rice sherbet flambé.
The main mission behind ABC Kitchen is to use food as an entry point to introduce people to new cultures and experiences by way of taste and to foster the community around the table, so this seems quite fitting an event for them to help host.
On Saturday, head over to Jing at The Peninsula where they've just kicked off a new champagne brunch. At RMB 458+15%, the pricing is quite reasonable for unlimited Perrier Jouët Champagne, wine and cocktails.
In addition to drinks, you can order a la carte from a choice of lamb plus half a lobster, steak plus half a lobster, chicken plus half a lobster or pork plus, you guessed it, half a lobster. As you should expect there's a full buffet spread as well.
The food quality is definitely up there, and I'd say worth taking the chance on a new player to the brunch game if that's your jam on a Saturday. My lamb was quite good (though my companion's pork was dry) and the sashimi selection is stacked. My hint? Just eat unlimited amounts of the caramel lemon tart; it's out of control.
When you're properly tipsy, get over to BCIS in Shuangjing, because if you haven't heard (or seen the giant flashing banner at the top of this page), there's a burger cook-off happening. I promise after your second bottle of champagne, you'll just want to eat a burger ... and drink beer, right?
The gorging continues with The Cut, Fairmont Beijing and Great Leap Brewpub's Sunday morning meal, The Chef and The Brewer Brunch. It's served family-style and they promise generous portions, so for RMB 300, a bit of elbowing and memories of beating your siblings for seconds, I imagine you'll leave quite sated.
Chef Andreas Block will be cooking up a selection of brunch items including (from a long list of others): banana pancakes with wheat beer butter sauce, honey and beer glazed bacon, stout-flavored chili con carne with nachos, sweets like a beer yeast cake with cherries and honey crumble. Brewers Carl Setzer and Tobias Palmer will be on hand to make sure you are proper sauced with each course.
Finally, Sunday evening, roll yourself south to Moishe House near Parkview Green for a post-BarCamp dinner prepared and hosted by Fatface Dining. This one is BYOB so if the rest of the weekend has you tuckered out, no pressure. Sign up here.
Photos: ABC Kitchen, the Beijinger, Great Leap Brewing
