Chinese New Year is always all color, movement and the best eats. And always SO much better than that January 1 business, which always sees me holed up on the couch watching fireworks rather than actually getting out and about. Chinese New Year menus often contain similar, traditional dishes or a chef’s interpretation of them. the theme is always around celebration, so you will find food with symbolism (good luck, prosperity) and also dishes with lots of color. The most common Chinese New Year foods includes dumplings, fish, spring rolls, and niangao (glutinous rice cakes). You will also find abalone (good fortune) and pomelo because it is thought to bring “continuous prosperity…
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Wok and Roll – A Review of the Shanghai Club
It’s very rare that I would go to a restaurant “cold” – that is with literally no idea what to expect in terms of food or experience. Usually Doha-based foodies would have swarmed a new venue, picked it apart and shared it on social media. Or, the fooderati (I say that with my tongue very firmly planted in my cheek) would have been invited and posted glowing reviews. The Shanghai Club at the Shangri-La Doha opened a few weeks ago with a glitzy party. Then…silence. No reviews. No chatter. Only online ads. With AZ out of town, I rounded up Alicia and we headed to the 43rd Floor to see what the big…
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Rubing it In – Eating Cheese in China
Chinese food and cheese are not necessarily happy bedfellows. Asian flavors do not lend themselves to cheesiness and for good reason. My main experience of cheese in China consisted of hotel cheese platters on their buffets. But I had heard that some regions in China, namely Yunnan, used goat cheese in their cooking. There will be a longer exposition of my recent trip to Shanghai in future posts (you have been warned) but I was determined to find this elusive fusion. Actually I didn’t have to search too far. One of the best known restaurants in Shanghai, Lost Heaven specializes in Yunnan cuisine. I found one item on the menu – a…
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Make It Tso – Four Days in Beijing
Note to self. When a Chinese person says something is “walking distance”, what they actually mean is “It’s around 8km away”. I learned this the hard way on my recent trip to this fascinating country. Let’s just say it involved the Forbidden City and my quest for dumplings. Lesson learned. I booked my trip to Beijing on a whim. Lured by the said dumplings, Peking Duck and the Great Wall. I wasn’t disappointed. The Chinese love food and as they say, the food is far, far more complex than the sweet and sour takeaways from the Happiness Inn. But first to the touristy stuff. I did it all and saw…
