CW Gourmet Month Review: Village Cafe

The Opposite House’s Village Cafe is a participating CW Gourmet Month restaurant and their  Gourmet Month Menu (RMB 99) offers a three course menu with three choices for each course (choice of soup, main, & dessert).

By coincidence, I came to try the menu in a party of three, so each of us chose a different dish for each course and were able to share and sample it all. And of course, all in the name of in-depth LumDimSum reporting.

The beginning of our meal had great potential. The first course was a selection of three soups (Minestrone, Pumpkin and Mushroom) and while all three were delicious, the Minestrone came out on top. I am normally not a big Minestrone fan, but this one was exceptionally good with big chunks of various veggies for a very fresh taste. But all three were very well-made and were complemented nicely with a big bread basket.

The main course selections were a Grilled Rib-Eye Steak in Red Wine Jus, Baked Vegetarian Moussaka with potatoes, eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes, or Grilled and Baked Chicken Breast with curry sauce, pickled vegetables and rice. The chicken was dry, the rib-eye was mediocre and the vegetarian moussaka came out on top with its rich, cheesy flavor.  But alas, the main course was the weakest link of the set menu.

Dessert picked back up again with a choice of Pavlova with fresh strawberries, passion fruit & house made vanilla bean ice cream, baked white chocolate cheese cake with caramelized banana, or a Fruit Platter. The pavlova’s meringue was a bit too thick and to be honest, it pales in comparison to Capital M’s pavlova. However, the white chocolate cheese cake with carmelized bananas was the winner of the meal. This alone made the meal worth the trip.

Review of Village Cafe’s GM Menu:

Best Part:

• Out of the three choices, I would recommend ordering the Minestrone Soup, Baked Vegetarian Moussaka & White Chocolate Cheese Cake with Carmelized Bananas
• A nice, 3-course set menu for RMB 99 is Great Value.

Comments:

• Gourmet Month Set Menu is only available for dinner and they tack on a 15% service charge. Normally I would happily pay the additional service fee, but this was bull considering there was literally 1 staff in the entire restaurant and she was never to be found.
• By 9PM, the entire restaurant seemed to have disappeared with no customers, no waitstaff and no chefs in the kitchen. Very odd.
• Service was a major issue during this meal and the place was just empty.
• The decor of Village Cafe is quite night, but the fact that it was so empty was a buzz kill. Throughout the night, there were only 2 others tables in the entire restaurant (9 people total including our table).
• I am glad I tried this set menu at RMB 99, but I honestly would not return for it again.

Rating: (on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being best)

• Food: 7
• Atmosphere: 3
• Service: 3
• Overall Experience: 5

For a list of all participating restaurants in CityWeekend’s Gourmet Month, click here.

LumDimSummary of NightLab’s ‘French Kiss @ BLING’

An event by Nightlabs, DJ Keza spun BLING into a frenzy this past Saturday, April 17.

A BIG THANK YOU to Comptoirs de France and Catherine de France for partnering this event and rewarding guests with goodies.

LumDimSum Photo Gallery of ‘French Kiss @ BLING’:

Time to Speak Up: theBeijinger 2010 Bar Awards

theBeijinger is switching things up in more ways than one.

Already beginning the initial phases of their magazine face-lift, theBeijinger most recently announced that voting for their 7th
Annual Reader Bar & Club Awards have commenced. This year, they have not only revised their nomination categories, voters can now choose their first, second and third favorite in ranking order (out of 8-13 choices) for every category.

theBeijinger 2010 Bar Awards Categories this year include:

• Best Cocktails
• Best Individual Cocktail
• Best Cheap Drinks
• Most Reliable Drinks
• Best Whiskey Bar
• Best Wine
• Best Beer
• Best Bartender
• Best Daily Happy Hour
• Best Ladies Night
• Best Regular Event
• Best Quiz Night
• Best Live Rock Venue
• Best Live Jazz Venue
• Most Beautiful People
• Friendliest Crowd
• Best Service
• Best Place to Find a Date
• Best Place to Bring a Date
• Sexiest Bar Staff
• Best Bar Food
• Best Late-Night Dining
• Best Hotel bar
• Best Student Hangout
• Best Nightclub
• Best Sportsbar
• Best Lounge
• Best Place for Dancing
• Best Business Networking
• Best Hidden Gem
• Best After-Hours Club
• Best Party of the Year
• Best New Bar/Club
• Bar/Club of the Year

Bars/Clubs with most category nominations include:

• Fu Bar
• Punk @ Opposite House
• d lounge
• Xiu @ Park Hyatt
• Apothecary
• Lush
• Centro @ Kerry Centre
• Q Bar

Vote now for your top picks here.

*Voting Ends May 6 & Bar/Club Awards Party Set for May 13 @ Mako Live House

Aussie Aussie Aussie: AustCham Masquerade Ball 2010

The 2010 AustCham Beijing Black & White Masquerade Ball was hosted this past Saturday, April 17 at China World Hotel.

A beautifully decked out black & white ball with even more glamorous guests adorned in some very impressive, done-up masks, the vivacious event featured live music, great acrobatic performances, live auctions, and a big man in an even bigger purple dress singing and running around pretending to be a woman (must be an Aussie thing).

With tickets selling at RMB 1200 a pop, this charity fundraiser event will donate their proceeds to twelve different not-for-profit organizations over the next twelve months, across Micro Finance, Environment, Local Community and Children.

LumDimSum Photo Gallery of the AustCham Masquerade Ball courtesy of EventPod Photography:

For a full gallery of photos from the AustCham Masquerade Ball, click EventPod’s website here.

The Other In & Out

No, I’m not talking about In & Out burger joint.

Instead, I’m referring to the delicious Yunan restaurant, In & Out, located just between Assaggi and Jenny Lou‘s on Sanlitun Beixiaojie. A spacious 3-story restaurant, the decor was modern with comfortable seating in big couches and armchairs, and all the waitstaff was dressed in Yunan minority uniforms, which was a very nice touch. Most of the dishes we ordered all came highly recommended by fellow foodies and they also had a “Top Picks” Menu on the table stand, which made ordering even more convenient.  I would say about half of the menu featured English with photos, but I was left curious by the others only in Chinese text.

For the four of us girls, we ordered the Lijiang Black Bean Jelly (RMB 22), 5 Color Huzhang Black Mushroom (RMB 78), Sauteed Egg with Jasmine Flower (RMB 26), Roasted Java Tilapia (RMB 32), Sauteed Potato Balls Dai Nationality (RMB 28) and Yunan Potato Pancake (RMB 28). The highlights were the mini potato balls with special dipping sauce and the Lijiang Black Bean Jelly, which had the perfect amount of spice, flavor and kick to it.  The 5 Color Mushroom dish was delicious, but quite pricey considering it was about 3 times the price of the other dishes and equivalent in taste and quantity. The Egg dish was light and healthy, but basically scrambled eggs with jasmine buds. The roasted tilapia was quite difficult to eat and share with all the little bones, the tough skin, and much spicier than expected.

LumDimSum Food Shots of Dishes in Order Listed Above:

Review of In & Out 一坐一忘丽江主题餐厅: 1 Sanlitun Beixiaojie, Next to Jenny Lou’s & Assaggi 三里屯北小街1号婕妮璐旁. Tel: 8454-0086, 6467-5235

Best Part:

• Great tasting, quality Yunan dishes for a steal – great value (most dishes are average RMB 30)
• Ordering made easy with list of top-selling dishes on the menu
• Simple, but nice & modern decor with comfortable seating (we sat on the first floor, so didn’t get a chance to check out other floors)
• I really liked that the dishes were simple and light, not overdone with spices and sauces.

Comments:

• I recommend booking ahead for a guaranteed table since they fill up pretty quickly.
• Service was slow, but I forgave them because they looked so great in their uniforms. Very fun.
• For Yunan cuisine, I’d still recommend Middle 8, but this is a nice alternative.

Rating: (on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being best)

• Food: 8
• Atmosphere: 7
• Service: 6
• Overall Experience: 7

Hutong Spring Fayre

This Sunday, April 18, The Hutong’s Spring Fayre will be a great chance to spend the day checking out cooking demonstrations using seasonal organic produce, health talks, a ‘swap shop’ to trade unwanted goods (books, DVDs, clothes) and a host of stalls for you to stock up on all kinds of homemade/organic goodies including everything from cheese, coffee & teas, baked goods and clothes from local designers and groups.

The beautiful and talented Meili Autumn will also be displaying her original and hand-made collection of MeiMei Accessories including her beautiful headbands and earrings all selling at special price!

Check it out here!

French Kiss @ BLING

NIGHTLABS & BLING presents FRENCH KISS, the most glamorous night in town, coming straight to you from Paris.

Traveling from Paris’s deep & sexy beats to St-Tropez’s soulful tones, enjoy a night of luxury and seduction, driven by DJ KEZA’s magic skills behind the decks.

For this exclusive event, focusing on the “French touch”, our partners Catherine de France and Comptoirs de France will reward a few lucky  guests with some special treats.

Enter the contest before midnight to get a chance to win a prize! (Couple or Single registration)

Date: Saturday, April 17

From 9pm – Midnight drinks are buy one get one FREE!
Cover : 50RMB
Reservations for table bookings are highly recommended: 132 4011 4868

LumDimSaying: Courtesy of Alice Chen

“Boys are like dessert.

You don’t need them and you’re probably better off without them, but at the same time, you’re always craving them.”

- Alice Chen

*Note: The same goes for girls if you are a boy.

…On second thought, I take it back. This is probably just a girl thing.

*Definition of a LumDimSaying: A quirky, random quote worth noting. And sharing.

Hoodrat Hoodrat Hunan Mountain

Hunan Province is surrounded by mountains on three sides and with hills and mountains covering 80 percent of the province, it makes sense that this Hunan favorite is named Yue Lu Mountain Restaurant.

The restaurant’s over-sized menu includes a wide range of great finds from their Phoenix Style Smashed Eggplant appetizer (RMB 26) and served cold in a mortar and pestle to grind and mix at your will, Dumpling Pot filled with zesty broth, Nanyue Style Crispy Bamboo Shoot (another great appetizer), 3-Kind Vegetables in Fire Wok – potatoes, radish and melon marinated in a savory sauce, Spicy Baby Cabbage in Clay Pot, and Pan-fried Vermicelli (RMB 28).

Review of YueLu Mountain Restaurant 岳 麓山屋: Located down the alley behind Hotel G, across from Gongti Bei Men 朝阳区工体西路 （工体一百宝林球馆对面的路口内100米）

Best Part:

Happy Birthday C-Dice!!

• Generous portions and great tasting Hunan “mountain” dishes
• A wide variety available on the menu from fish head to roast pork brisket, mashed eggplant and dumpling pot
• A generally clean, spacious, and pleasant dining environment
• Lots of veggie options

Comments:

• Most dishes were not as spicy as I expect Hunan cuisine should be.
• As is the case with most group dinners, ordering was on the conservative side so no bullfrog or very “local” dishes – we mostly ordered veggie dishes, which were all excellent, but it was not a well-rounded selection from the menu.
• Service was slow, staff were not very attentive and no English spoken (but I judge it to be average service standards for a Chinese restaurant).
• For Hunan cuisine, I’d much prefer Karaiya Spice House or a spicier, more local Hunan joint.

Rating: (on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being best)

• Food: 8
• Atmosphere: 7
• Service: 5
• Overall Experience: 7

Wokai’s Drinks for a Better World

Join Wokai in their “Drinks for a Better World” event tonight (Tuesday, April 13) @ d.lounge.

Drink specials begin at 7:00 PM accompanied by heaven-sent mini cupcakes sponsored by Lollipop Bakery!

Wokai will provide a brief introduction around 7:45PM followed by a short presentation from guest speaker James Flanagan from the Beijing Rotaract Club.

I encourage all LumDimSum friends to come out tonight and enjoy good drinks, good cupcakes and good company all in the name of a good cause.

Click photo here for a link to Wokai's Website

AM774: My Life in Beijing

Last Tuesday, candy&caviar and LumDimSum were both featured guests on AM 774 Radio Talk Show’s <My Life in Beijing> with hosts Beijing Playhouse Executive Director Chris Verrill and radio interview veteran JinJing.

A lively conversation inclusive of very entertaining and slightly awkward/embarrassing moments, Candy & I discuss a range of interesting topics from our backgrounds coming from California, how we ended up in Beijing, candy&caviar’s origins and its collaboration with LumDimSum on putting together their first fashion show, educating Chris Verrill on fashion lingo & the advantages of having jacket thumbholes, Project 141, celebrity sightings during Beijing’s 2008 Olympic games, purse & food obsessions, and even my very accurate imitation of a “man-model catwalk strut”.

If you have about an hour to kill, you can watch the entire video segment from the radio interview by clicking on the photo below.

candy&caviar and LumDimSum on Radio AM 774

Karaiya Wine Tasting Dinner: Session 2

Buddha-licious

There are many reasons why Fu Bar stands out among Beiing’s over-abundance of bars:

1. It’s a cozy, little speakeasy bar with a nifty, secret hidden door behind the bathroom of a hot dog joint.
2. It’s conveniently attached to Stadium Dog – great hot dogs to accompany your cocktails
3. Happy Hour drinks are almost half-off (6-9PM)
4. Great atmosphere on weekends. Ladies should be happy to find the ratio of guys to girls is about 5:1.

This weekend, I found another reason to go back to hang out at Fu Bar:

5.  Served in the cutest depiction of a big-bellied Buddha, their “Dizzy Buddha” cocktail (¥100) is a sweet, tropical concoction with lots of coconut rum and juices. The best part, you get to take home the ceramic white Buddha as a great souvenir.

Fu Bar also serves shots in these little guys, which is hilarious to watch grown men downing these:

Pretty in Black: “Crystallized” by Swarovski

Bling-Blingin'

Swarovski hosted a glamorous cocktail party last night at the Museum of CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Arts) in Wangjing to exhibit 22 iconic little black dresses “Crystallized” as part of an international fund-raising initiative.

Last year, Swarovski commissioned 22 of fashion’s most talented designers from Jean Paul Gaultier, Philip Lim, Vivienne Westwood,  Valentino, Fendi, Lavin, Givenchy, Donna Karan New York and Giorgio Armani Prive, etc. to each design a one-off dress to be auctioned in September 2010 in New York City after its tour around the world. 100% of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the American Cancer Society and la Ligue nationale contre le cancer in France.

The event was spectacular – fashionable socialites everywhere (and even I saw Russell Wong again – last spotted at Versace Fashion Show), great production of lights and staging, well-strategized displays of the iconic black designer dresses on both mannequins and live models (poor girls, they sat still on black display boxes for about 3 straight hours), and you can’t complain about the free flow Moet & Chandon champagne with pass-around foodie goodies generously given out throughout the event (I wish I knew who the caterer was).

LumDimsum’s friends at Swarovski party:

Bend it Like DJ Bento

DJ Bento @ BLING

Smashing apart genre classifications, DJ Bento specializes in mixing hip hop, house, electro and rock.  Co-Creator of Hollywood, Japan’s premier all mix party, DJ Bento is resident for 55 DSL, Red Bull Japan and Ed Hardy Japan, bringing old school crowd control with a unique vibe and intricate mixing skills.

Exclusively @ Bling!

Date: Saturday, April 10

Time/时间: 9pm-late

Cover: RMB 50 (free entrance before 11PM)

Reservations for table bookings are highly recommended:

132.4011.4868