Ciro’s Pomodoro (波莫多洛)

This Italian restaurant is a London chain with branches in Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Bucharest, Athens and Thessaloniki.  It is located in Sanlitun at the back of The Village.  They have live music every night, long extended bar and alfresco dining.

The walls in the restaurant are filled with photos of stars who ate in their branches worldwide.  The bar has floor to ceiling cabinets filled with liquor and wines.  The food is fantastic and I’ve eaten a fair share of Italian food in Beijing.  They start you off with free bread with 3 different dips (olive paste, tomato, cream).  I ordered a pizza (RMB 85) which is a favorite of Faye Dunaway.  The pizza is filled with mozarella cheese, tomato sauce, ham, olives, anchiovies and pepperoni.  The pasta (RMB 80)  was heavenly especially the ravioli.  The sauce was creamy and tasty.  A can of coke is RMB 25 each.

Kempi Deli (凯宾美食廊)

Kempi Deli is located at the 1st floor of Kempinski Hotel in Lufthansa Area. This deli is well-known in Beijing for its cake, pastries and bread. As a cake lover in Beijing, it’s quite difficult to find a cake which is delicious, not too sweet, not filled with lots of fruits and affordable.

My journey to Kempi Deli was due to my colleague’s birthday. At first, I was planning to purchase a cake from the Landmark Hotel but they didn’t have one readily available. I was contemplating going to Ritan Park area to purchase my favourite cheesecake but it’s just too far. So, I ended up walking to Kempinski Hotel from my office.

Duck De Chine (全鸭季)

Located in the hidden courtyard at the back of Pacific Plaza in Sanlitun. Duck De Chine is one of the new Peking Duck restaurant which opened up in Beijing. Ken, Bianca and I ate there after attending a birthday drinking session.

The area where the restaurant is located is quite nice and perfect for a garden wedding. It has a homey feel and serenity that is hard to find in a bustling city like Beijing. The ambiance inside the restaurant is one of elegance and quiet beauty. Brown bricks, red lamps, champagnes in cabinets and black cloth tables. It’s a good place to impress your friends and enjoy Beijing’s famous duck.

As for the food, it was superb and perfect! A gong sound accompanied the start of the duck cutting. They have several fill-ins to put along with your duck which wasn’t oily and was cooked just right. The sweet and sour pork reminds me of my mom’s cooking. The only downside is the rice we ordered never came out.

Beijing’s Cultural Marvels

If Shanghai is considered as the financial capital of China, Beijing is considered as the cultural capital.  Beijing is in northern China surrounded by Tianjin and Hebei.  It is the seat of the national government and has been the capital of numerous dynasties.  That’s why, wars were fought in Peking, former name of Beijing and numerous cultural structures abound in this municipality.

Here’s a list of the cultural marvels which you can visit while you’re here in Beijing.  I will be posting the most frequented spots which tourists visit.

1.  Great Wall of China (长城) – “He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man”.  This is one of the famous sayings which is associated with this landmark structure.  This wall is a must-see place and what’s the point of going to Beijing if you don’t visit the Great Wall.  There are 4 parts of the wall which you can visit: Badaling (tourist bus aplenty), Mutianyu (fewer compared to Badaling), Jinshanling/Simatai (hiker’s haven!) and Huanghuacheng (with a lake view).

Milk.. Tainted or Not?

Milk is an important source of calcium which is good for our bones.  Babies can consume several bottles of milk a day as it’s their source of food.  So, when the news reported that some of the milk are tainted with melamine, first thing which came into my mind was, here we go again.

Melamine is a chemical used to produce plastic, inks and fertilizers.  If added in food products, it will increase the protein content.  If ingested, melamine may lead to reproductive damage, bladder or kidney stones and bladder cancer.  To date, 4 infants in China already died due to drinking tainted milk.   Over 12,000 children with more than 90% of them younger than 3 years old are hospitalized due to symptoms of drinking milk with melamine.