Supper and a Bath: Unique Dining Concept at Green T. House Living
The time to arrive at Green T. House Living in Shunyi is just before sunset. A cab from the city center is surprisingly reasonable. We were coming from Sanlitun, and the fare ran roughly RMB 70, including a small toll for the freeway – a solid getaway from the city and far cheaper than a taxi to the airport, not to mention a flight.
The grounds are sprawling – there is space for that here. The whole place borders on surreal, but in the best and most magical of ways. A tall white wall separates the parking lot from the property. It conceals a huge expanse of white pebbles, a receiving hall of sorts. We arrived on an early evening on a Sunday in late August, and the waning heat of the day was matched just about right with the dying sunlight.
The Green T. House Living property has two main buildings with small grassy bits, groves of bamboo and a large lake separating them. The first is mainly for events (weddings, performances, etc) and quite the space to behold, the cool marble floors, towering latticed panels, swollen paper lanterns, a ten-foot tall birdcage, all bedecked in white.
The entire room was flooded with evening light from the floor-to-ceiling windows. There is a cavernous space beneath with the kitchen (equipped to serve a good few hundred to a thousand) where we also saw a few home goods from local designers which will soon be sold online by Green T. House.
While Green T. House Living has been around for a good number of years now (previously, with an outlet near Gongti), their bath house dining concept is only a few months old. It's showcased in the back building where a tangle of large, sculptural branches dangles from the ceiling above the bathing pool. While serving as a cold plunge in the summer to refresh one’s self, in the winter, the water is warm and infused with green tea. I imagine this would be the best time to go, particularly on a snowy day when the yard would be blanketed in white.
The Chinese fusion menu is tea-inspired, with a selection of ingredients sourced from their garden in the yard. You may remember “Field of Dreams” (RMB 98) from the Gongti location. The signature dish is an all-season sort of item – round slices of pear piled with goat cheese and Hangzhou walnuts, drizzled with Longjing-honey mustard. A starter of homemade mantou is accompanied by an excellent housemade pesto with notes of green tea (exceptional condiments seem to be a thing recently: Slow Boat Brewery boasts an IPA mustard, and Chef Andreas Block of The Cut makes a wheat beer butter sauce).
The wasabi prawns (RMB 148) have bite and come “dancing to a mango salsa,” and are encrusted in cornflakes. Chicken (RMB 126) is served in an oversized and elongated bamboo cross-section which matches everything else in the room – the daybeds, the chair backs, the distance from floor to ceiling. The dish is a provocative combination: large shavings of Parmesan blanket chicken tossed with fried oolong tea leaves, Sichuan pepper, nuts and curls of mahua, that Tianjin pretzel-like snack food. It may surprise you, but it works.
The vegetarian options are successes with tricolor amaranth (RMB 68) picked from the backyard and lightly sautéed and an unexpected, but delightful tofu risotto (RMB 86).
And to finish? Why not scoops of ice cream (green tea, blueberry and black sesame), dollops of apricot jam and chocolate bark nestled into a giant mountain of shaved ice against a gnarled stump of wood?
Green T. House Living's Bath House Residence is open to the public, but must be booked in advanced. The pool is open for pre- or post-dining dips, and spa/massage services are also available. Overnight lodging can be reserved for up to eight. Click here for pricing and more details.
Photos: the Beijinger
