大笨象西餐厅 The Elephant Restaurant @ Beijing

Near Ritan日坛, there is a Russian food street俄罗斯美食街. Before we leave, we make our first visit here :) Almost the last hunt of Beijing food :)

We went to above mentioned restaurant, as it has quite favorable review. You may find some Beijing food review on:
www.dianping.com (C)
www.thecityweekend.com.cn (E)



Same direction for all pictures below, start from top left, clockwise.



1) "Shouba" Style Herring Salad - This is special. The texture is soft indeed. Frankly, we have no idea what is the ingredient, but it taste just nice.
2) Mint cocktail - As the name says, mint, not surprising but not disappointing.
3) Coffee cocktail - On top is a layer of liquor, the waiter will light up the liquor, then the diner will have to finish the whole cup of drink a.s.a.p. using straw. It's a very small cup, but the liquor effect will come few minutes after *chuckle* my colleague who ordered this turn into tomato red after a while. For sure I won't try, I don't want to sleep in the restaurant after get drunk :p
4) Borscht soup 红菜汤 - It looks like Kim Gary's Borscht soup, but the taste is much better. It really has beet root in it. I always like Borscht soup, found some recipe online and will try to cook some one day (Yes, one day :p)


1) Ukraine style stewed beef - The beef is tender, and the taste is good too. But I still prefer Morel's :)
2) Meat roll - That's the drawback of not writing blog as fast as I can, I forgot what meat is that :p
3) Chicken with mashed potato - Nice.
4) Sorry I forgot what is this. If not mistaken is beef.


1) Fried bun with custard- strongly recommended by the waiter, it is good in such a way that no oily taste, soft but crispy skin. Dip with condensed milk.
2) Fried calamarie ring - Meet our expectation :) The flour coating is not too thick.

埃塞俄比亚 Ras Ethiopian Cuisine @ Beijing

Wondered how is ethiopian food looks like in Beijing? You must not missed this post :D

If not mistaken, this is the only Ethiopian cuisine in Beijing, or if not, it is the first one. Here is the restaurant outlook.



The shop is decorated by an artist, thus the environment is very nicely decorated.


Guess where is the chair and table? The answer will be revealed later :)

We ordered the 'platter' set, which consist of few different kind of Ethiopian food and bread. Flipping through the menu, besides beef/mutton, there are a lot of vegetable choices as well.




The waitress are friendly and spend quite some time to explain Ethiopian food to us. First, they put a very big piece of bread on the table. I hope now you have better idea what is a Ethiopian dining table :D Then hold a roll of bread in such a way that you can roll it and tear pieces easily (I am not superb to figure these on my own, the waitress taught us :p ). Like the hand on the left of the picture. Then use the bread to take the food and eat it, as shown by the hand in the middle of the picture :D

The bread are provided free flow, but you stomach will filled very fast if you eat too much bread. So we conclude that for Malaysian appetite, it is best to have at least 4 persons to finish the set, or you will be 'super' full like we did. On the table, there were beef, mutton, vegetables and dhal. We finally finished the food. Now you understand why my appetite increased after back to Penang. To a Beijinger, my appetite is still considered small haha.



Not forgot to mention, Ethiopian tea taste is special in my opinion :)

This is the picture taken from second floor of the restaurant. If you notice the table at the right, that is our table. We were too full and went to walk around inside the restaurant. Maybe you will wonder the restaurant looks empty. In fact, there were few customers at the other side and outside too.



A very unique switch for...

ceiling fan which is still working.

There are also a lot of nice umbrellas on the ceiling.


As according to the cashier, Ethiopian use these umbrella when they go to church.

Fun Beijing food hunting :D

俏江南South Beauty @ Beijing

This restaurant is recommended by other colleague, and since it has quite good review online among other Beijing food, so here we are. The restaurant environment is good. With less word, it shown in picture below :) This is the first time I see more special table settings like not so typical napkin fold, although I don't know the fold name :p



One of the dishes we ordered is beef cook in oil. Looking at pic below, the top right corner is the raw beef, while the waitress is cooking it in oil (yes only oil, which is around 200 deg C) before serving it to us. Look at bottom right picture, that is oil, not soup :D So the restaurant will provide few pieces of bread, when you eat, put the beef on the bread to get rid some of the oil first.


The rest of the food we ordered. The hedgehog-like bread is not as tasty at Shang Hai Ding outside of Queensbay Penang (There are good food in Penang too :D ). The vermicille tasted not bad. Because of camera macro feature, the portion looks big but in fact it is just 1 small bowl for single serving. The pork rib is special and quite nice. Then follow by the delicious bitter gourd soup :D


For mushroom soup below, it doesn't looks big in picture but in fact it is in very big bowl :D It looks delicious isn't it? But actually the bitter gourd soup taste much better, surprised eh ;)




Before end, the actual pork rib and the bread with left over oil :p

Sai Gon @ Beijing

If you know there is one Sai Gon at E-Gate Penang, there is one Sai Gon in Beijing too. Both of them selling Vietnamese food.

I falled in love with pho (Vietnamese noodle similar to kuey teow) when I first tasted it in US. Ever since then, I couldn't find any that satisfying, mostly is because of the noodle. The one I had in US is kind of 'chewy' ('QQ' in Hokkien) but the rest I'd tasted here in Malaysia and Beijing are not. Well, there could be possibility that the one I'd had in US is localized, but I love those :p If I ever have a chance to go to Vietname, then will know the original Vietnamese pho :D

Here are what we'd tasted:



1) The rice paper spring roll. Unfortunately the sauce is not good, or else this could be very nice :)
2) Stir fried sliced beef with chillie, taste good.
3) Papaya salad, I think it taste good also. Probably can try to make some one day :D


For the pho, we ordered two. One is beef and one is vegetable. You can tell which is which from the picture, it is very obvious isn't ;) As for the vegetables, I am a bit disappointed not seeing basil. I think a good taste pho must have basil unique taste to make it more fragrant. The top most sauce is fish sauce, just pour into the pho. Oh well, Vietnam and Thai fish sauce are in good quality and always make the dishes more fragrant. I am a bit surprised the chilli sauce taste good too :)

This restaurant has the highest feedback score in www.dianping.com in terms of Vietnamese food. The waitress said some competitor tried to copy their menu, so I was stopped by them when I would like to take the menu photo to capture what I'd ordered. Well, I told them I am from Malaysia and the answer was a lot of other people did try whatever way to 'steal' their menu, it indirectly means they don't trusted me and I was not allowed to take more photo on the menu. Hmm, should have not speak so well Mandarin but Malay language instead ;p

Enjoy Beijing food? ;)

Sureno @ The opposite house, Beijing

If you have been to Penang G-hotel, you might probably impressed by its lobby. If you have not know, G hotel is a boutique hotel. It's my first time to hear the term boutique hotel when I first stepped into The Opposite House. For more information on the hotel design, room design and room rate, please visit their website. The room rate can fluctuate from RMB 2k to 5k per night depending on the season *sweat*.

There are few things impressed me:
1. The hotel staffs are friendly, they introduce their hotel concept, design and room decoration to all guest either diner or hotel guest. They think everyone is their potential customer in the future :)
2. The hotel is nicely decorated, with a lots of art deco. The hotel lobby looks more like living room :)
3. It doesn't looks commercial hotel but more like apartment :)

After that, the hotel staff bring us to the restaurant.


From right to left, bottom to top:
1) Mushroom risotto. Quite nice.
2) The best pizza I'd ever eaten. The crust is so thin and crispy :) The only food that will make me revisit the restaurant.
3) Wagyu beef, we think it taste normal only :p Maybe we do not know how to appreciate wagyu beef.
4) Seafood soup. The seafood is separately cook with the tomato soup base. So there is very less seafood taste in the soup, which make us think it is not complete :)

Le Petit Gourmand, Beijing

Look at picture below, would you think it is a library?



It's a French restaurant called Le Petit Gourmand. The restaurant is full with books rack, with systematic book organization using book title. Well, their food is nice too, let's take a look :)


1) Fresh and huge portion salad.
2) Nice mushroom soup, fresh mushroom taste and creamy.
3) Seafood platter. The sauce is special.
4) Beef soup.


Above is couscous with meat and vegetable soup. It is special but not my cup of 'rice' :p



The left is chocolate Opera is nice I think. It melted in mouth, but can feel the caramel layer.
Guess what is the dessert at the right? I can't remember the name :p Stiff beat egg white on custard. Until our last bite only we realize the sweetness come from egg white but not custard.

Feeling hungry? Get something to eat ;) Some Beijing food?

Another roasted duck in Beijing for last dinner

It's Friday :) Let's relax with some roast duck from Beijing :D

Before we left, we went to 全鸭季Duck de Chine for last dinner in Beijing. Similar to Da Dong roasted duck, they provide wrapper and biscuit for the duck also. Here how those looks like:



My personal preference, I prefer Da Dong's, because Da Dong's wrapper is thinner, its biscuit is thinner and more crispy, its duck meat and dip sauce are better in taste, its duck skin is more crispy :) Well, I guess it summarizes the food in picture above :p

Nevertheless, some dishes here are quite nice. From top left, in clockwise direction:



1) Mongolian mutton - This taste good, really, it really taste good.
2) Scallop - Hmm, ok lar :p
3) Tofu and vege soup - Special.
4) Belly pork meat - Although the oil layer is quite thick, but surprisingly it doesn't taste oily, and in fact very nice :)

Have a nice weekend ahead friend.

恭王府 Mansion of Prince Gong

After Forbidden City 紫禁城, Great Wall 长城, Summer Palace 颐和园, Temple of Heaven 天坛, the priority list will go to Lama Temple雍和宫, Mansion of Prince Gong 恭王府, Hu Tong 胡同, Qian Men前门，后海 and etc.

Entrance fee to this mansion cost RMB 40, which is the same with MuTianYu Great Wall. If you are interested to read some historical story, here is the best place http://www.pgm.org.cn/ :D

This mansion can be divided into two parts in general. Buildings and room in front, garden and some bedroom at the back.



Of course it is not as large as Forbidden City, but I do agree that this is a well preserved mansion. Similar to Forbidden City, most of the building are locked. Some of the building is used for exhibition, and no photo allowed. So I am not able to share them, most probably I myself will forgot about those after a certain number of years too :p but I think the exhibition hall is more exciting than that in Forbidden City, like below. More decoration and well preserve ceiling and furniture inside the hall.




This seems to be a very popular spot for local tour. 10 minutes after I enter the mansion, I seldom had chance to enjoy the calm and quiet environment. I have pictures as proof, before and after:




After this tour group left, another will come within few minutes :)

Another uniqueness is on the building window. Like picture below, there are around 44 windows like that on top left of the building, and only few of them are duplicated designs/shapes. If you ever have chance to come here, remember to look up at the window of the long building in front of the garden entrance :) I took all of the window picture, only half way through my neck started to get tired :p





The garden is green and nicely design, with pond, small pavilion, stone and even a mini Great Wall :D





Overhearing some local tour agent explanation, in feng shui, rock and water represent power and wealth. In ancient rich man or royal residence, these can be seen everywhere. The mansion owner tend to believe bat bring good luck to him, as a lot of the things are named with bat, and even some design are origin from bat. Another is the corridor and door. All doors/corridors are narrow and long, to bring good meaning in chinese 长寿. Well, I looks thin but not too' long' is 长瘦, could I be long life also? :p　此长瘦非彼长寿，哈哈

As for food, there are stalls selling snack, water and instant noodle only. Luckily there is still a SiChuan restaurant which is accessible from inside/outside of the mansion for my lunch.



I finish all foods above by myself, I need energy to continue walking :D A waitress asked if I dine there very frequently. I told her this is my first time and asked why she has that query. She explained there was a time a female undergraduate always dine there alone, and she thought I am the one. Well probably there are some stories about that lady so she is curious to know. Anyway, I can still 'tipu makan' by telling people I am still in university :p *chuckle*

One improvement of culture I see from this trip is, they are more polite in taking picture, give way and block people view less. Fast learner eh.

Turkish food

In a raining like cats and dogs evening, we went to Turkish Mum for dinner. This is the only Turkey restaurant in Beijing, as advertised. We met the chef, she probably is a Turkish. After we finished our dinner, a lady looks like restaurant or owner came to our table with the chef, asked if we like the food. They talked to us in English as the waitress know we are from Malaysia. We all gave the same reply that we loved the food, it was really great.

After long talking, here is the food. All description from top left corner, clockwise:


1. Turkey bread with lentil soup. The lentil soup taste is similar to dalcha we used to eat with roti canai except additional fragrant taste, not really sure what taste it that though.
2. Lemon lime mint juice, kind of nice, surprisingly taste similar to Penang 'ketla sumboi' :p
3. Sultan Delights - Very tender mutton with mashed potato. I wish I can find similar mutton in Malaysia :D The best dish of the day.
4. Some appetizer: Minced parsley + onion + don't-know-what-rice, mashed chickpea (if not mistaken), cucumber + cauliflower pickle, salsa-like tomato + onion.



1. Turkish dumpling with yogurt. The dumpling is very small, there are 2 in the spoon, with 1 opened.
2. Beef curry + fragrant rice. The taste it is good. SH said similar dish can be found at Penang padang famous kambing soup.


1. Rice puree with milk. Smooth and nice.
2. Puff, we think this is normal, maybe puff is not so common in Beijing.
3. Turkey red tea, normal red tea.
4. Turkish coffee. Wow, the taste is special, a little bit sour and a little bit of herb taste, best fit for black coffee lover like me. When drink it, have to drink slowly and carefully, to avoid the coffee powder which usually sink at the bottom, more story about this later.
5. Pumpkin pie, can taste it has less flour/cream and more pumpkin natural taste :)



There is some believe about Turkish coffee fortune teller. After finish the coffee, capsize the coffee cup, after a while, your fortune can be read from the coffee powder stick on the coffee cup. Well, we just do it according to the menu instruction. The chef was surprised when she saw this and she thought we know how to tell the fortune. We told her we just follow the instruction and the chef said we were doing it wrongly :p Anyway, just for fun :)

By the way, our stomach is full so we did not order kebab. By the way, the waiter still think we did not order enough and keep asking if we need more. This situation happened at almost all other restaurant where the waiter will said the food we order is very less. Haha, now you can imagine a Beijinger's appetite :)

McDull 麦兜

McDull new movie is on show in Beijing cinema, but I won't watch because it is in mandarin. If it is in cantonese I probably will :D

Jul 22 Solar eclipse

Before we start, let's take a look a real sunny day view from my office :D




Nice sky eh :D
Well, this is how it looks like on Jul 22 ;)



So this is the only eclipse I manage to see, it appears less than 1 minutes :) Other than that, greyish and hazy sky.

The olive italian food

Guess what is that? It is a bottle for olive oil and vinegar. This is my first time seeing this 2-in-1 liquid bottle :)

One thing I would missed about Beijing is the food. There are just so many restaurant around, with more variety of foods, eastern, western, european, italian, french, russian, japanese, belgian, deutch, korean, thai, singaporean, indonesian, (of course we seldom eat thai/msian/singapore/indonesean food here :D ), vietnamese, turkish and etc.

There is a restaurant called 'the olive'. It is quite nice decorated. The picture on the wall are specials made up a relaxing dining environment.



Here we go for food :D



For soup, we have the mushroom soup and pumpkin soup. The pumpkin soup taste is very good, natural pumpking sweetness, no added cream and thick. The mushroom soup is a bit localized we think.

I always like to try risotto, and the pumpkin risotto is just unique and enlighten my taste bud. Different from the normal seafood/mushroom risotto always appears on the menu. The pesto pasta taste good as well. The chicken sandwich is okay, fresh and not disappointing.

The New Orlean cheese cake at the left is the best among the three. The tiramisu cheese cake taste like normal cheese + chocolate layer cake, and it doesn't has any alcohol taste at all. The blueberry cheese cake at the bottom is not in our favor that night :)




After dinner, the rain stop, which make some trees body looks even darker and nice looking scenery.