The Urban Edit
We have now seen and, most importantly, eaten everything. Because high-end Peking duck restaurant chain DaDong has just opened a new venture here in Beijing.
Behold Dadong Duck (大董鸭), a take on Peking duck so casual that it comes in a sesame-seeded bread bun. Before we go any further (and we ordered the entire menu), we would like to point out that the duck burgers contain a big piece of duck meat, complete with its crispy skin, and not some monstrous reconstituted duck meat patty.
The opening of TRB Bites@The Courtyard marks a rare double win: not just an excellent dining experience, but a genuinely useful location to boot.
Attempts at Chinese fusion cuisine often feels forced, but if there was ever an appropriate location for it it would surely be Shanghai’s former French Concession, where a small patch of China was inhabited by citizens from all over the world. Madame Xixi, we’re told, was a celebrated Chinese resident of the era, who enjoyed noting more than socializing with the city’s elite foreign crowd.
This new restaurant then, named Xixi Bistro in her honour, has been opened by the hospitable team behind Jing’an wine bar Uva. Its quickly making a splash on booming Wuyuan Lu, a street that was, until the opening of Senator Saloon a couple of years back, more of a passageway to other buzzing locales than a destination in itself.
La Cevichería at Migas offers a slice of history, along with a serving of ceviche and a pisco sour. Did you know that Peru and China are united by a fusion cuisine? This fusion is called ‘Chifa‘, a term derived from the Mandarin word ‘chifan‘ which literally means ‘to eat rice’, and began in the late 1890s when many Chinese migrated to Peru after slavery was made illegal.
After a hard day’s work on the sugar plantations, the Chinese workers would crave the comfort of their food from back home. In their own kitchens, they experimented with recipes and combined local Peruvian foods with traditional Chinese ingredients, and the Chifa cuisine was born. Today, there are more Chifa restaurants in Peru than ceviche restaurants.
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It’s not often a space opens that we find it hard to tear ourselves away from, but FNJI is just such a gem. Located half way down the city’s leafy Guozijian Street (by the Confucius Temple), this furniture and lifestyle boutique also houses one of Beijing’s best-kept secrets – an ultra stylish café with a fancy drip coffee machine and a serene courtyard.
So beautifully decked out is the space that if it weren’t problematic we’d attempt to move in tomorrow.
