Capital Mmmm

Back in September, you may remember that Dave and I attended the "soft opening" of Capital M, a new restaurant in Beijing that "overlooks" Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Well, since then I have been back twice - once for dinner with Ben, and once for Sunday brunch with my parents and their friends, Matt, Laura and baby Annabelle.

Here I am with mum on Qianmen Dajie which runs South from where Capital M is located and which has been revamped in the style of a "traditional, grandiose" Chinese street:

Dinner

Ben and I had just eaten at LAN (see previous post) a few days earlier, and were just about ready to eat our fill again when we arrived at Capital M. We had delicious cocktails, and I had a raspberry cosmopolitan which was delicious! Ben had the dubious Hurricane that he always orders, always forgets he's had before, and always enjoys, which is a strange mix of rum and fruit juices. But he liked it. As always!

I didn't have a starter, but I managed to make significant inroads into Ben's parsnip soup to compensate. It was really tasty, which was a bit surprising seeing as I have yet to see a parsnip in China! I had the lamb as a main, and it was tender and juicy, and a huge portion. Ben had the duck, which he enjoyed. It was served as a breast and a leg (v. fashionable, don't you know...).

And on to the desserts! I had tried miniature versions of these at the opening, and was impressed (Lemon meringue pie! Crumble! in CHINA!! Amazing.) Ben had the Tarte Tatin, and it was delicious.

We were particularly pleased by the option to order wine by the caraffe, which meant that we were able to indulge in our individual preferences for red and white, without having to order an entire bottle of each, and then feel obliged to drink them both... (Yes, I know....). It was about GBP including our wine and 2 cocktails each, so better value than LAN, better food and a more enjoyable experience overall!

Brunch

Due to political crackdown (/other miscellaneous technical incompetencies, perhaps on my part....) I have now been to Capital M twice for brunch since I started drafting this post. The second time was less of a success due to a mammoth 5 hour karaoke session with Lisa and Soph (more on this later...), and I only managed to eat half an egg, and I had to give away my cocktail... So - we'll concentrate on the first time!

The Capital M brunch menu is a choice of 2 or 3 courses (c Y218 and Y268 respectively) and includes a cocktail - the Sunday Pimms was refreshing, and perfect for an early Sunday afternoon! The starter of poached egg and asparagus was delicious, although I am not quite sure where they found asparagus over here at this time of year!

There was a good variety of starters and mains on offer, and a nice choice of lunch and breakfast foods. my choice of Chicken Saltimbocca did not disappoint, and I finished up with a delectable Tarte Tatin!

I will be returning, just not with a hangover. That made it a very expensive (half) egg!

I am running a bit out of steam on this already long post, so am going to call it a day for now!

Jimmy Schnooze

Here I am checking out the Jimmy Choo for H&M range, and don't I look excited about it?! One good thing about China is that there is no stampede to snap up all these goodies (not least because queueing overnight in subzero temperatures would be asking a lot....).

In any event, the collection was overpriced, dull and tacky. Come on, Jimmy! Step it up.

Scary hand sanitiser found all over the city...

Spotted by mum and dad: an absolute legend!

GIANT SPACE VEG!

This is amazing. I read about it on the kids' page of the Times 2 that mum and dad brought with them last week (thanks!), and them immediately had to look it up....

It's not news per se, seeing as it happened in May 2008, but the genius Chinese decided to send some vegetable seeds into space to see what would happen (as you do!), and BAM! Giant vegetables were grown. Like pumpkins ten times their normal size, weighing the same as a man! For pics of this, see here.

Read more on the science on this website and this one.

I am troubled that the world food crisis hasn't yet been solved by these gigantic veg, so I will endeavour to find out what's happened since May 2008, and keep you posted....

On the same track, I'm wondering why we haven't taken cloud-seeding to Africa. Maybe we need to learn how to artificially create clouds first - anyone?

Obama in Beijing!

Obama is in Beijing!! This is providing a lot of excitement for the Beijingers and myself, and in some cases, a little confusion.....

Here is the real deal disembarking in Beijing. I'm impressed that he's managed to outwardly suppress any disorientation and bewilderment!

As would be expected, the sun is shining in clear blue skies, so we are enjoying Beijing at its best. The weather forecast even suggests temperatures might rise above freezing, which would be a treat!

In terms of the visit, Obama is visiting as part of his tour of Asia, and is attending a summit with Hu Jintao to discuss trade, climate change and economic issues, among other issues.

China Daily reports that it's all going well (natch!), and that an agreement has been reached between the two leaders on many issues already, as per this newspaper article. Further, it has been cited that Obama fully supports at one-China policy, in respect of Taiwan, and that he believes that uncensored internet access for all is a "source of strength" to all nations. Whether his comments will have any effect on the availability of certain internet sites, including Blogger and Facebook, in China remains to be seen....

A lot of these issues were raised on Monday during the "town hall meeting" (a traditional Chinese-style meeting) that Obama held with top university students in Shanghai, where he fielded questions from the floor. In this meeting, Obama stated that the purpose of his visit is largely to help him better understand China and the Chinese people. Commentary suggests that Obama is trying to win over the Chinese youth in a similar way to that which won him the US elections, using his skills as an orator and "natural performer". I hope his visit achieves both of these objectives! In the meantime, I'm staking out the Forbidden City in case he pays it a visit...

LAN Club and Restaurant

Ben and I booked a table in the restaurant at LAN, after hearing about its renowned Philippe Starck design and having read some interesting and mixed reviews.

We went on a Thursday evening at about 7.45pm, and on arrival the first thing that struck us was the decor - it's completely unlike anywhere else I have seen in Beijing: over sized thrones, a ceiling littered with huge, horizontally-hung portraits, an array of velvet-covered furniture and a selection of gigantic, ornate mirrors. You can get an idea from the pictures on the website, but decor and the lighting create a decadent and plush atmosphere in this enormous venue. Sweeping curtains create several smaller rooms within the club, which is fortunate seeing as when we arrived there were about 10 people there in total. Even with these divisions, the dimensions only served to highlight the lack of clientele, and this is probably LAN's most trouble. It is near Yonganli subway station, which is nowhere near any other evening venues (erm, i.e.: nowhere near Sanlitun), so that's a pretty big hurdle to start with....

First, we had a cocktail in the bar. I have developed a penchant for apple martinis, and this one did not disappoint (but at Y70+ I would have hoped for nothing less...). When we moved through to the dining area, we were pleased (and relieved!) to see that the restaurant was about two thirds full. The decor in here was much the same, the only thing that wasn't over sized, was the table, which meant that there was not much room to wield the cumbersome menu. Not only was it unwieldy, it was also very confusing. I had to worry about whether I was going to knock over my wine glass, while trying to decipher how much it would be appropriate to order.

Ben and I chose an appetiser each, and decided to share a prawn dish (Y100), a lamb dish (Y100), some vegetables and rice. This seemed a sensible choice, so I was quite surprised when we were advised to order two of each of the lamb and prawn dishes - especially given the price.*

In the end our starters and desserts (chocolate fondants) were delicious, but the mains were average and, disturbingly, served one after the other in quick succession, on plates so enormous that you had to finish the first before the second could be placed on the table. This was irritating, but not quite as irritating as the lack of free water served (I firmly believe this should be available in all restaurants and bars) and the small bottles of water priced at Y60+ a go. *grr* The total bill was Y1,400 for two, on top of our cocktails. However, the toilets were pretty cool - each one is an individual, mirrored room, complete wing back chair and free-standing dressing table housing a sink, whose taps cleverly turn on when you step in front of it.

The bar livened up after dinner with a jazz band playing in one section and a band playing covers in the main bar area, and this was by far the most enjoyable part of my evening. Overall, I can see the appeal for entertaining guests or for a fancy night out (drinks only), but I imagine it does not get many repeat visitors - especially to the restaurant. Apparently, it cost RMB300 million to set up and open LAN in 2006, and I wonder how long it will last given the prime real estate it occupies and lack of customers to fund ongoing expenses....!

*In China, this is very expensive!

Ben's visit!

I have out up a couple of posts about Ben's visit, but also wanted to write a little about the rest of our week in Beijing...

Luckily for me, Ben is a sucker for teen drama, and wholeheartedly embraced my new found Gossip Girl addiction - to the extent that we finished off season one and ploughed through all of season two during his time in Beijing. We might have felt a bit guilty, were it not so cold outside!

Ben also became the third member (yes, Dave's the other....) of my "I love Xiao Wang" fan club, and we ate there, or ordered in from there, regularly.

On these two counts, it seems that Ben will be very well suited for life in Beijing, so it bodes well for his 11 week sabbatical starting in February next year! :-) Very exciting.

I took Ben to Yaxiu market, which I regularly frequent for extra layers to fight the freezing temperatures. Ben splashed the cash on a variety of items, including a jacket, a coat, 4 tshirts, loads of DVDs, a hat, 4 belts and more, all for less than GBP 140, aided by my haggling. Now - a word of warning for any future visitors to Beijing - if someone else (ie: ME) is haggling on your behalf and secures a (if I may say so myself) fantastically low price, please do NOT add an extra Y10 to it after negotiations have closed - if you want to pay a higher price, you can haggle yourself!! I'm not sure what it is that compels Ben to pay over the odds for something, but it seems to be in his genes.....

We also treated ourselves to a few fancy dinners (more on these later), manicures and massages, and visited several other markets and the 798 art district (more on this later, too). A great week, all in all. Thanks for coming, Ben, and I'm looking forward to February!

X-O-X-O!

Red Capital Ranch

Ben and I took a trip to Red Capital Ranch near the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall (see here for hotel review). It turns out that this is VERY DEFINITELY a warm weather getaway, and it was simply too cold for us to fully enjoy the hotel (hence we cut our stay to one night....). This is partly due to the cloud seeding and huge snowfall on Sunday 1st November - see my other post about snow.

Despite subzero temperatures, we had beautiful weather and a fantastic time. They say a picture tells a thousand words, so prepare yourselves for a pictoral thesis....:

Beijing's first snow of winter 2009/10 - updated

Updated: I'm pretty sure you will have heard about the cloud-seeding and weather-fixing that is all the rage in China, so I thought I would update this post and include some info/links. The snow I posted above was Beijing's earliest winter snowfall since 1987 - and an unusually heavy one at that. The Times had a pretty interesting article which you can access here, and Time.com wrote with a slightly more techy focus - see this link.

Inevitably, there is a lot of controversy and debate (both informed and baseless, as far as I can tell) about the safety and morality of inducing rain and/or snow and playing with the weather in general. Silver iodide is the chemical of choice, though any of you trying this at home could substitute this with dry ice or salt, and then just find yourself a passing plane or rocket to do the business. Wikipedia doesn't say it's toxic, and I can confirm that the snow is white and does not glow in the dark or have any other peculiar qualities. I have a tendency to believe that such experiments are safe, or they wouldn't have been done... Any chemists want to offer enlightenment or invoke fear?

I understand that the 1st November snowfall was manufactured in order to combat Northern China's drought problem. However, I also heard that the snowfall was meant for the area northeast of Beijing, and the intention was not for the city itself to be covered in half a foot of snow, so maybe some fine-tuning still needs to be done. However, from past experiments, artificially inducing bad weather can certainly be effective in producing brilliant blue skies - for example, just look at the 2008 Olympics and this year's National Day celebrations!

More snow fell yesterday and still more is forecast for tomorrow, which is obviously pretty strange for a city that usually sees only 3 to 4 snowfalls per winter. However, word on the street that the government is keen to show off Beijing at its sunny best when Obama arrives in town on Sunday….. Oh to have that kind of influence when I go on holiday! Check out this weather forecast if you still aren't convinced - a coincidence? I think not.

Race of Champions

This year was the first time that the Race of Champions took place outside Europe. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's some kind of race between top F1, rally and motocross champions (and perhaps others) in which the drivers all race buggies and strange car-type-things to discover who is the champion of champions. As most of it was in Chinese, I still don't really know what it is after despite having sat through 4 hours of it, so your best bet is to check out the link above...

On the plus side, it was held at the Bird's Nest Stadium, which I hadn't been to before, and which is pretty cool, though no beer and too many pot noodle stalls!
Here is an action shot of a buggy and the track... It may or may not be Michael Schumacher (see the flag): Schumacher was a bit of a hit with the crowd, although I was cheering for Jenson Button all the way. In the end, after 3 round of heats, a semi final, an art auction, some enthusiastic but mal-coordinated student cheerleaders (see below), and a tense final with Schumacher, Mattias Ekström was crowned champion (for the stat-seekers among you, that's the third time in his career).

Tour Groups

I papped these unsuspecting souls outside the Chaoyang Theatre, where there is a good acrobatics show on twice a day. After the show, Ben pointed them out and said: "Hey, I spotted those people earlier. Do you think they're all wearing the same hats because they're in a tour group?!"

Spotted in Sanlitun: a very lost black cab!