Hit Up NanShan NOW for RMB 20!

With the opening launch of NanShan Ski Resort, they are offering everyone a steal with 90% off the regular ticket price – RMB 20 for a day’s worth of fun! (Regular price about RMB 210.) Special is valid until December 4th and be warned: it’s bound to be pretty packed.

If you want to hit up the slopes in style, here’s your chance to get some sweet gear from Quicksilver/Roxy.

Print out this e-coupon and when you hit up any Quicksilver store, you’ll be set to get 20% off snowboard outerwear and 40% off snowboard boards/boots/sporting gear. Brought to you by the Mellowparks Crew & Quicksilver.

Here’s to the spirit of giving.  You’re Welcome. 

Learn Make-Up Trade Secrets: Holiday Glamour by Meili Autumn

With all the holiday parties, Christmas parties, New Years parties, family reunions, charity events, dinner feasts, and all the random excuses to throw festive get-togethers, there will be plenty of reasons you will want to look your best this holiday season.

Learn beauty and make-up trade secrets of professional MAC make-up artist & stylist, Meili Autumn at her make-up seminar at Kocoon Spa Lounge.

Mark your Calendars for Meili’s Free Make-Up Seminar @ Kocoon Spa Lounge:

• Tuesday, December 1: 7:30-8:30
• Tuesday, December 8: 7:30-8:30

Together with a free holiday make-up seminar, this is your chance to stock up on Holiday Glamour Make-Up Kits featuring eyeshadow kits with golden shades and her secret smudge-proof gel eyeliner will all be up for grabs.

Meili will also be launching her gorgeous feather jewelry/headband/accessories collection!! As this is the first time she is showcasing her new collection, all items will be available for special promotion prices.  ***This is the PERFECT Christmas presents for all your girlfriends!!

See here some photos of a few of her feather headpieces and hats:

She’s the talent behind all the Beijing Fashionistas, so come out with your girls and check out this fun make-up seminar for some quick tricks and tips and your chance to max out your make-up bag.

For reservations, call: 5208-6068

Hotel Outlets: Another Beijing Paradox

Tamarind Indian Restaurant, Marriott Northeast

I had made an exception for Tamarind.

In my list of top destinations for CW Gourmet Month (the two best months of the year for dining in Beijing), I made Tamarind a priority even though it is a hotel restaurant.

I have nothing against hotels restaurants, I just think that for the most part, they don’t work in Beijing.

I’ll break it down for you:

With the exception of very few, hotels have one sole purpose – to provide a nice bed for incoming travelers. Now that the Beijing Olympics is history, we are left with how many ridiculously massive, not mention EMPTY hotels scattered throughout Beijing?  Regardless of the number, it’s too many.  And too many have tried to make up for their lack of occupancy with restaurants and bars targeting the masses…and still remain empty.

I know this concept works in places like Dubai, where the best venues are often in hotels, but Beijing is another animal.  With the exception of Weekend Champagne Brunches, Centro in the Kerry Center, Touch at the Westin Chaoyang and of course boutique hotels like The Opposite House & Hotel G, hotel F&B venues in Beijing are pretty weak.

Just Imagine an Irish Pub in this Hotel

Perfect example: Molly Malones in the Legendale Hotel.  It’s a newly opened, gigantic space with beautiful interior design in a ’5-star hotel’ and it just won’t work. Why? Because it’s an Irish Pub opening in a 19th Century Parisan Hotel serving Japanese sushi.  Confused much?

And from my experiences last Gourmet Month in April, I found that each and every time I dined in a hotel restaurant, it was very, very empty.  It’s just creepy to be the only customers in a restaurant.

And I feel bad because all hotels try really hard – lots of marketing, lots of advertisements, lots of promotions, and often times, they have an amazing product, and yet they still seem to fall short.  Something is missing.  That something is more of than not: People.

Having read so many good reviews about Tamarind (Marriott Northeast), I made it a point to go during Gourmet Month. I read that Tamarind’s Chef Kurly is from Mumbai (interview here), that he is Bollywood’s finest, and that this is Beijing’s best Indian restaurant.

For Gourmet Month, it was a fantastic deal: for only RMB 150 per person, you were served 9 dishes plus nan bread plus rice PLUS dessert. The food quality and quantity was great value, the open kitchen was impressive and service was attentive. But at the end of the day, it was very much a ‘hotel restaurant’ with hotel service and a hotel vibe for a typical, overall unsatisfying hotel experience.

Review of Tamarind: 2nd floor of Marriott Northeast, 26A Xiaoyun Lu,Sanyuanqiao 海航大厦万豪酒店, 霄云路甲26号, Tel: 5927-8888

Best Part:

Tamarind's Open Kitchen

• Fresh Quality & Generous Quantity of the dishes: I recommend their Mushroom Kurkure (Spring roll stuffed with finely chopped and sautéed mushroom, served with spicy tomato chutney) and Butter Chicken (Juliennes of Tandoori chicken, finished in creamy tomato gravy, flavored with dried fenugreek leaves)
• Massive Open Kitchen (pretty unique to an Indian restaurant)
• They have hired a chef from Mumbai and this is the first Marriott Indian restaurant outside of India
• They cater to vegetarians with half of their menu meat-free
• Prices are reasonable with a kebab bar special (all-you-can-eat kebabs for RMB 140, RMB 100 for vegetarian kebabs)

Comments:

• Even if the food was excellent, it was pretty empty on a Sunday night, which I guess is expected considering the Marriott Northeast is out in the boonies (North of Nuren Jie)
• I really think that if Tamarind was in Sanlitun and not in a hotel, it would do really well.

The service was attentive, but similar to most hotel service, its quite overdone and forced rather than comforting. Also, at the end of the meal, the restaurant manager Sudeep Menon was about to only give my friend his business card until I shot him a glare and even after that, he proceeded to only ask for my friend’s business card upon leaving. Not Cool.

Big Ups to the 2009 Rotary Club Charity Bazaar

A BIG Thank You to everyone who came out and supported the 2009 Rotary Club Charity Bazaar at Beijing Marriott Northeast this past Saturday.

To the 60 various Christmas shopping stalls, from Shangri-la Farms Coffee to Yellow Valley Dutch Cheese, La Place Chocolate Collections and Comptoirs de France’s Chocolate Santas, all of these unique stands sold quality products for a good cause and raised over 100,000 RMB!

And once again, EventPod was there for non-stop live photo broadcast throughout the event.

Some photos from this weekend’s Rotary Charity Bazaar Event:

To view ALL 1085 photos taken from the past two weekend’s Rotary Bazaar events, see Eventpod’s database of photos on this website here: www.eventpod.smugmug.com

A Day of Thanks, Giving, and Turkey

The history behind America’s Thanksgiving is pretty messed up. The first Thanksgiving was historically a religious observation to give thanks to God for helping the pilgrims survive the brutal winter, comprised of a 3 day feast to feed 53 pilgrims and 90 Indians, which was then followed by Indian massacres and decades of war and violence.

I just painted a pretty grim picture huh?

But in today’s day and age, Thanksgiving, above all else, is a time to give thanks and a gathering of friends and family over an incredibly good feast – good enough to be ingrained in our memories to last the year and good enough to make our mouths water at just the thought of Thanksgiving.   Traditionally, the feast is inclusive of a massive turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, corn-on-the-cob, pumpkin pie just to name a few of the staples.

But more than the turkey feast, today is a day to be grateful.  I guess we should express our love and gratitude to all of our loved ones on a daily basis, but the truth is that we don’t.  So I think it is a wonderful thing to have a holiday like Thanksgiving to get us into gear and remind us to take the time to reflect on the wonderful people in our lives and express thanks.

So to all of LimDimSum’s readers, friends and family, I want to sincerely say thanks.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your support, your care, your words, your feedback, and for all your love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

One Night Only: Qbert @ BLING! Wednesday, December 9

One of the best DJ events I’ve ever witnessed was DJ Qbert & DJ Wordy battling it out at the original ChinaDoll in Tongli 2 years ago. It was packed, it was hot, it was old skool.

See the turntablist god in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL7TgWc7C5w

And now the mixmaster himself is coming to the one and only – CLUB BLING!

Event Details:

DMC World Champion Scratch Artist, DJ Qbert is playing @ BLING

The legendary ‘Grandmixer’ DMC World Champion turntablist is back in Beijing. Revolutionizing hip-hop with two Technics turntables and his Vestax mixer, Qbert is set to rock BLING for one night only.

Date: Wednesday, December 9
Time: 9pm
Cover: RMB 50 at the door

FYI. Qbert is also playing at Yugong on December 10 (the next day), but the cover is RMB 80. No one wants sloppy seconds, Be there to see him bring it to BLING first.

Worst Pick-Up Line EVER

Working in such popular venues like Hatsune, Karaiya and Bling, I meet a lot of people ALL the time.

And I don’t mean for this to sound pretentious at all, but it’s quite common for people to come up to me and remember me either from frequenting the venues I represent or maybe having seen my Fashionista feature in CW a year back or who knows where.

But yesterday was the first time someone shocked me speechless.

I got a random message from a stranger on weliveinbeijing.com who sent me a message that read:

“you didn’t by chance used to sing at Banana Leaf because you look like a girl there”.

WOW. Obviously this girl made such an impression on the guy that he thought to ask a stranger on the internet if she was that same girl in Banana Leaf. My immediate reaction was speechlessness followed by fury followed by irritation that someone would be so bold and mindless to even make such an assumption.

He obviously has not read LumDimSum’s review of Banana Leaf.

I probably would have taken it as a compliment if it were ANY restaurant other than the cheesy, wanna-be-Thai-food Banana Leaf who’s musicians and entertainment are the only thing worse than the food.

LumDimSum’s Words of Wisdom:

Good Sense: “You look familiar, have we met before?”

Bad Sense: Assuming someone is a singer at Banana Leaf, which is never a good thing…or in this case, flat out offensive.

First of all, if you do want to make contact with someone you find on an online networking site, then at least take ONE minute to look at their profile for background info, work info, whatever.  99% of the time, this one minute will save you a lot of time and embarrassment.

From Snow Bunnies to the Pros: Time to Hit Up NanShan!

Winter = Snow = Mountains with Snow = People Flying Down Mountains with Snow = FUN in Winter

Growing up in Sacramento, I was lucky to spend every winter skiing the mountains of Lake Tahoe, and I am just as thankful Beijing is within such a short distance to China’s finest snowpark – the Quicksilver Nanshan Mellow Park Ski Resort.

Lucky for all of you, Nanshan has now officially opened to the public since Saturday! With two main runs already open and a snow park in the works, there is plenty of play room for everyone – whether you’re a snow bunnies or busting backside flips, Nanshan is hands-down China’s finest terrain park.

For more information and future updates, I recommend signing up here for hook-ups to Mellowparks, the source to China’s Finest Snowparks (Quicksilver Nanshan Mellow Park & Burton Qiaobo Mellow Park) and the team behind the internationally recognized snowboarding event of the year: The 8th Redbull NanShan Open. Offering up US$25,000 prize money with 500 TTR points, and was most recently announced as the  largest Asian competition confirmed on the Swatch Ticket to Ride World Snowboard Tour.

Upcoming Dates:

December 26: 8th Redbull NanShan Open National Qualifier

January 9/10: 8th Redbull NanShan Open

January 23/January 30/Feburary 6: Fat Saturdays @ NanShan

Here is a map to NanShan Ski Resort:

‘Tis the Season

For those of you who want to avoid scrambling for gifts the week before Christmas, I have the perfect solution!

The 2009 Rotary Charity Bazaar, at the Beijing Marriott Northeast will be featuring over 60 Christmas Shopping Stalls, with all proceeds going to charity.

Some of the great stalls include Shangri-la Farms Coffee from Yunan, Yellow Valley Dutch Cheese, Secrets from Africa (African coffee, oils, herbs, etc.), free back and neck massages and consultation from Beijing Huangshu Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Shayne’s Treasures (gem, stones and jewelry), among other unique stands selling quality products for a good cause.

So here is a beautiful opportunity to pick up some unique gifts and enjoy a Christmas tree lighting at 18:00 this Saturday, November 28!

Enjoy Good Food, Shopping, Kids’ entertainment, and… EVENTPOD (one of this event’s sponsoring, featuring a live slideshow of all photos throughout the event!)

I will be there all day, would love to see you, snap your photo, and enjoy yumminess and shopping!

Please feel free to pass this on to any and all fellow Beijingers!

Some photos from last week’s Rotary Charity Bazaar Event:

One of Beijing’s Old-Timers: Morel’s Restaurant

Morel’s is one of Beijing’s oldest Western restaurants, established in 2000, long before Beijing’s dining scene blew up with the high standards of the Legation Quarter and the populated, trendy Sanlitun restaurant selection.

And you’ve got to give credit to the old-timers still standing.  I’ve driven by both Morel’s outlets thousands of times, seeing the bright green “Morel’s” sign bordered with white Christmas lights, I’ve always been curious to try out the goods, considering they have a reputation for good steaks and Belgium beer.

With the great value of CW Gourmet Month menus, I took this opportunity to hit up Morel’s for the first time. Morel’s Gourmet Month menu looked pretty enticing with 4 courses (soup, appetizer, entree and dessert) for a reasonable RMB 150 per person.

I’ve never been to Belgium before, so I’m not sure the standards for a typical Belgium-style restaurant, but the inside interior of Morel’s is pretty old-fashioned and honestly, quite lame with the green and white checkered table cloths and all their staff wearing bright orange uniforms.

We were greeted and served by one of the most impressive waiters I have ever encountered in a Beijing restaurant.  He spoke fantastic English, he was incredibly polite and extremely knowledgeable and informative of the menu and answered all of our questions (such a rare find).

The quantity of the food was plenty, quality mediocre. The bisque of crayfish soup was too salty, but it was served piping hot and was good to dip the toasty, warm bread. The foie gras was good, but served on standard salad greens (they were out of endives) and the two grilled beef medallions were ok, served with Belgium Frites (typical fries). For dessert, the chocolate fondant was firm throughout (no oozing chocolate coming out of the center) with vanilla ice cream on top.

Overall, it was good value for RMB 150, but considering the tacky atmosphere and average food taste, I most likely will not be returning. For a quaint restaurant serving European cuisine and good steaks, I’d recommend Chef Too, Alameda or SALT.

Review of Morel’s Restaurant: Gongti Bei Lu, opposite Workers’ Gymnasium North Gate, northwest corner of Chunxiu Lu 工体北路 朝阳区工体北路春秀路西北角工人体育馆北门对面 Tel: 6416-8802

Best Part:

• Our waiter spoke amazing English, was incredibly polite and extremely knowledgeable and informative of the menu
• Easy to find location, across from Gongti North Gate
• One of Beijing’s oldest standing Western restaurants (respect for old-timers)
• Good Belgium beer & Belgium waffles
• Decent food for a reasonable price

Comments:

• Tacky interior design and mediocre food quality (reminded me of Brasserie Flo in terms of overall dining experience)
• The place would be a million times better if they redesigned their outside sign, updated their menu, fixed up their interior design and had more promotions of their Belgium beer.
• It’s a decent place, but just nothing to write home about. I probably won’t return considering the vast selection of amazing restaurants available in Beijing, but I would not be against giving them another try.

Rah Zel @ Bling Party Pics

RAH ZEL & DJ JS-1 Kicked @$$ at BLING

Check Out LumDimSum’s Photo Gallery Highlights Here:

Mama Mia! La Pizza

Everyone always says ‘Quality over Quantity,’ but sometimes a lot of quantity is all you need.

La Pizza’s Gourmet Month Set Menu for RMB 99 is for TWO people.  Not one, but TWO.

For 99RMB, you get:

• 4 Arancini Fried Sicily rice balls
• 2 generous bowls of soup (1 pumpkin & 1 tomato)
• 50cm-long Pizza Marinara Napolitana! (I recommend to add cheese for RMB 20, which is SO WORTH IT)

SUCH GOOD VALUE!! Aside from All-Star’s Gourmet Month menu (3 course menu PLUS drink for RMB99), big ups to La Pizza for not skimping and providing a great set menu for gourmet month.

Review of La Pizza: Building No. 3, 1F, SA-48, SOLANA Commercial Center, 6 Chaoyang Park Road, Chaoyang Park 蓝色港湾国际商区, 朝阳公园路6号朝阳公园西北岸边  Tel: 5905-6106

Best Part:

• Serves very authentic thin-crust Italian Pizza, straight from wood-fired oven
• The place was completely packed on a Saturday night
• Casual atmosphere
• Great value with huge proportions (the 50cm pizza is their medium size, so just image how big their large is! – enough to serve about 6 people)

Comments:

• Service was chaotic and not very attentive (but in their defense, they were very busy)
• Regular menu’s prices are not cheap. If you just want quantity with good value, I still would choose Kro’s Nest’s pizzas.
• They had run out of tomato soup, which we switched for a mushroom soup

In ordering the gourmet month menu, you should be prepared to expect a marinara pizza -no cheese.  If you are a cheese fanatic like me, I highly recommend to add cheese for RMB 20, which makes a great difference

RESPECT for RAH ZEL

Going all out with an almost 2 hour performance, RAH ZEL killed it @ BLING last night. Destroyed.

DJ JS-1 & The Champ Himself, RAH ZEL

People go nuts when they see his famous youtube video clips of “If Your Mother Only Knew” – see here. And unless these people have seen RAH ZEL live, they have no idea. For those who witnessed his performance last night, you can all agree that the videos do not do him justice.

Described as creating his own ‘orchestra’ creating individual musical sounds with his mouth, he truly is the beatbox champion of the world.

Even after all the hype around RAH ZEL coming to Bling, last night’s performance still exceeded my expectations.

And it wasn’t just RAH ZEL.

DJ JS-1 was just as impressive, what you call a technician artist.  DJ JS-1 is the world famous turntablist for the rock steady crew, the original, first-ever breakdancing crew.

Solo, JS-1 was cutting with both hands, his feet switching the mixer, and even cutting with his hands behind his back -Making something insanely difficult look so easy to the untrained eye.

Check out this video clip:

Once JS-1 got the crowds pumped, RAH ZEL took over each song that played – solo.

Alone, he performed, “Drop it Like it’s Hot”, “React” by Eric Serman, Wutang Clan’s “36 Chambers” getting everyone in the club to yell: ‘Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing Ta Fuck Wit’, Kayne West’s “Gold Digger”, and of course “If your Mother Only Knew”.

RAH ZEL video clip performing “If Your Mother Only Knew” @ BLING:

Crowd going nuts for RAH ZEL

Beijing Hot Tips: Hot off the Press

I may have grown up in the US of A, but I after living in China for over 3 years, I have become such a sucker for discounts. Whether I’m bargaining at Yashow or scheduling a regimented plan to hit up as many possible restaurants as I can during CW’s Gourmet Month, I have come to accept that I am indeed a sucker for discounts.

It’s become an addiction in all of my purchasing habits.  I refuse to purchase without a discount or I find myself over-buying because I got a good discount and end up spending more than I ever intended to.

A perfect example: Yesterday was my mom’s last day in China before flying back home to Cali, so I booked us two facials at the most pampering spa in town – Kocoon, who happened to be celebrating their 1 year anniversary (Nov. 17-20) with some killer deals on facials, massages, pedicures and manicures, see here. After an hour and a half of soothing comfort with a facial treatment that made us spoiled rotten, my mom insists that I sign myself up for my next appointment, which is when we stumble upon Kocoon’s treatment series specials, and I end up with a massive package deal purchasing 11 facials for the price of 8 (which includes 2 free back relaxing massage treatments and 1 eye-puffiness treatment). As much as this is an awesome deal, in retrospect, we went a little overboard.

If you are not into some pampering love treatment, your stomach should be happy to hear that All-Star‘s got a new Winter Menu starting next week!  Print out this blog post on Beijinger and you’ll get 20% off the new menu items (special discount available from Monday, Nov. 23- Thurs, Nov. 26).  My personal new favorites on the new menu are All-Star’s Southwest Tortilla Soup, Steakhouse Burger, Blue Cheese & Bacon Burger, and California Cobb Salad to name a few.

For those with a sweet tooth, the new Sequoia Cafe next to Papa John’s at the Kerry Center is giving out free muffins until the end of November!  Sweetness!

All About Rah Zel

Bling’s brought some pretty sick DJ’s over the past year from DJ Spider, DJ Dopey, DJ Shortkut to DJ Mixwell, but this Friday, Bling’s about to bring its most highly-anticipated guest yet: RAH ZEL, known as the “Godfather of Noyze” aka The Human Beatbox.

With such a superstar coming to the Jing, Rah Zel’s been bringing the heat to Bling with publicity and extra coverage left and right:

Xiao Bizzle gave Rah Zel multiple shout outs on his new blog, YouCallThatHipHop.com

You can check out Xiao Bizzle’s Interview with Rah Zel here:  http://www.youcallthathiphop.com/2009/11/18/interview-rahzel-da-godfather-of-noyze/

Plus another shout out: http://www.youcallthathiphop.com/2009/11/18/rahzel-bling-friday-nov-20th/

CityWeekend‘s interview with Rah Zel: Beatbox Mastermind Rahzel Tells Us How to Master Our Anatomy http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/articles/blogs-beijing/the-beat/interview-beatbox-mastermind-rahzel-tells-us-how-to-master-our-anatomy/

Time Out’s Interview with Rah Zel: http://www.timeout.com/cn/en/beijing/aroundtown/feature/9058/boxing-clever-rahzel-at-bling-nov-20.html

WeliveinBeijing’s Interview with Rah Zel: http://www.weliveinbeijing.com/groupnews/news2.rails?Nid=1000001107

Rah Zel on CityWeekend: http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/events/53704/

Event Breakdown:

As this event is bound to be a quickly booked out show, I HIGHLY recommend to all Rah Zel fanatics to haul ass to Bling before 11pm.

Get on it.