Spend an Afternoon Sipping Hot Chocolate at Alba

Enjoy a Delicious Cup of Hot Chocolate at Alba Cafe & Bar

There are only a handful of places in Beijing where I’d pick to enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate and Alba Cafe & Bar is at the top of that list.  I used to be a big fan of Colibri in Sanlitun North Village, but since that cat’s out the bag, it’s now jam-packed all day, every day and I really can’t relax in a place so crowded.  Colibri still remains at the top of my list for coffee spots to meet up and have a quick chat, but Cafe Alba is where I prefer to venture to if I want to enjoy my hot chocolate in a laid back, relatively quiet environment with wifi and a book.  The hot chocolate is served hot, it’s served in a big ceramic mug and the top is covered in a layer of whipped cream and sprinkled with cocoa powder. It’s perfect for what it is and Alba should get credit for that.

Hot chocolate aside, Alba is a quaint little cafe and bar on Gulou Dongdajie 鼓楼东大街 just a few hundred meters west of Cafe Zarah (which is also always packed on any given day).  The food and drinks at Alba are generally decent and reasonably priced.  I’ve definitely had better salads, sandwiches, desserts and snacks elsewhere, but it’s a good second option to Cafe Zarah and it’s one of the best cafes in the Gulou area.

I’ve not sat down for a full-on meal at Alba, but I’ve tried a few dishes off their food menu like their sandwiches and pastas. Most recently, I tried their twice baked potatoes, which was delicious and I loved the unexpected side of cooked tomato covered with melted cheese and stuffed with diced veggies and corn. That was very YUM and if I could, I would order just that tomato on it’s own!

Their vegetable lasagna (RMB 38) was decent.  I’ve definitely had better lasagna, but it gets the job done and like I said, it’s decent in terms of portion and value, not bad for what you pay. And beware of burning your tongue, it’s served super hot!

Review of Alba Cafe & Bar: 70 Gulou Dongdajie (west of Cafe Zarah and east of Nanluogu Xiang’s north exit), Dongcheng District东城区鼓楼东大街70号6407 3730

Best Part:

• Nice cafe option to sit back and enjoy a hot cup of cocoa or coffee in the Gulou area
• Reasonable prices – most dishes around RMB 30
• Free Wifi
• While I consider it more of a cafe, they also call themselves a bar and with a massive cocktail and whiskey selection (over 80 different whisky’s both single malt and blended), I guess drinkers should also consider Alba a possible drinking venue since prices are low (drinks around RMB 30) and they’re also open until 2am.
• Most cocktails are shaken/stirred with real mashes fruits
  
• Good selection of coffee, tea, fresh fruit juices and I like that they offer homemade drinks including homemade lemonade and homemade ginger ale. 
• Nice, simple decor with cool photos and artsy paintings on the walls.
• They have a menu full of pictures and English text, making ordering simple. 

Comments:

• A lot of dishes are hit or miss, but most are pretty average.  In any case, it’s good value and it’s a nice place to spend an afternoon!
• I hear they have a nice rooftop terrace in the summer months. 
• It’s a nice alternative to the always-packed-out Cafe Zarah. 

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

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

Saveurs de Corée 韩香馆: Beijing’s Best Bibimbap

‘Bibimbap’ is an awesome word. What’s more fun than saying ‘Bibimbap’ five times as fast as you can is eating Bibimbap at Saveurs de Corée 韩香馆 Korean Restaurant, home of Beijing’s very best bibimbap!

I have actually eaten at Saveurs de Corée ages ago when it was still located on Nanluoguxiang and remember loving their rooftop terrace and thinking the food was decent, but overpriced.

Fast-forward like 5 years and I am now kicking myself for not coming back sooner!  Was Saveurs de Corée always as good as it is today?!? If so, why didn’t someone drag my butt here sooner?? Now, thanks to Sarah Keenlyside, city expert and founder of Bespoke Beijing travel and events company, I have finally discovered Beijing’s best bibimbap, I seriously plan to come here at least once a week.

The restaurant is now split into two venues – a Korean Grill Restaurant on Xiang Er’s and Korean Patio Gourmet at Ju Er Hutong (both located just about a block away from one another). I haven’t been to the Grill, but the Patio Gourmet is a really elegant, beautiful venue and the food is excellent and I love that the menu is filled with words like “organic” and “NO MSG”.

While many of the dishes may seem a bit pricey, they have some fantastic deals including the Chef’s Classic Set (RMB 59) which includes assorted Korean appetizers, Dubu Buchim – crispy, sauteed tofu with special Korean onion sauce, their Classic Dulsot-Bibimbap – organic rice with mixed vegetables, minced beef with a raw egg and Korean chili paste in a sizzling stone bowl and Korean traditional cinnamon iced tea. That’s an amazing deal for all that goodness!

Saveurs de Corée 韩香馆 Chef’s Classic Set:

Assorted Korean Appetizers 

Dubu Buchim – crispy, sauteed tofu with special Korean onion sauce

Classic Dulsot-Bibimbap – organic rice with mixed vegetables, minced beef with a raw egg and Korean chili paste in a sizzling stone bowl

What it looks like all stirred up

Korean Traditional Cinnamon Iced Tea

Next time I make a trip to Saveurs de Corée 韩香馆, I’ll be keen to try their Chef’s Tasting Set (RMB 159) which includes assorted Korean appetizers, kimchi jeon – Korean style pizza with homemade kimchi, Japchae – stir-fried sweet potato glass noodles with julienned vegetables, Bulgogi – grilled premium beef with lettuce OR Gochujang daejigogi – Grilled pork shred marinated in Korean chili paste, Korean signature soyabean paste soup with vegetables, mushrooms, seafood and tofu with organic rice and Korean traditional cinnamon tea.

Chef’s Tasting Set (RMB 159)

Delicious bibimbap aside, Saveurs de Corée 韩香馆 is a lovely restaurant set in a hutong courtyard with an open courtyard, which will be perfect during summer time.

LumDimSum Snapshots of Saveurs de Corée 韩香馆 Korean Restaurant:

The owner is Korean and just so happens to also have a British accent, which is kind of adorable.  He was excellent – really friendly, really helpful and attentive.  Unfortunately, the rest of his staff seems utterly lost and hopeless.  When the owner wasn’t around to tend to us, we found ourselves helping ourselves to our food coming out of the kitchen, our own water refills, extra napkins and everything you’d normally ask of a waitress.  Even just asking for the bill was a 20 minute wait, which is ridiculous because we were one of the only tables in their restaurant.

Overall, in spite of service issues, this place is fantastic and I already can’t wait for my next trip to Saveurs de Corée 韩香馆. I anticipate many future ‘LumDimSum Discovery’ posts featuring more dishes from Saveurs de Corée 韩香馆!

Saveurs de Corée 韩香馆:

KOREAN PATIO GOURMET AT JU ER’S

• Address: 20 Ju Er Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing (Near Nanluogu Xiang’s north end) 
• 菊儿胡同20号
• Tel: +86 10 6401 6083

FINE KOREAN GRILL AT XIANG ER’S

• Address: 128-1, Xiang Er Hutong, Jiaodaokou, Dongcheng District, Beijing (5mins walk from Bei Xin Qiao metro, exit-D)  
• 东城区香饵胡同128-1号
• Tel: +86 10 5741 5753

Emergency WHALE! at 4corners! Tonight!

Blue Alert! It’s a WHALE! Emergency TONIGHT!

WHALE! is holding a last-minute emergency party tonight, Friday, January 27, 2012 at the newly opened 4corners肆角餐吧 bar by the Drum and Bell Tower in Gulou.

Previously, WHALE! parties were rocking Beijing with monthly gigs around town, but since winter hit, it’s been a few months without some WHALE! fun.

So what calls WHALE! out of hibernation?  A member of the WHALE! family is leaving Beijing for a few months and this is his unofficial leaving party.

Who is leaving you ask?  Well, they are all masked by alias names, but here’s one hint: It’s the only DJ who changes his alias name every WHALE! party. This time around, his name is DJ No Requests.

Who is WHALE!?  Check out CW’s article on WHALE!’s DJs here.

If WHALE! is a new concept for you, the best way to sum it up quickly: WHALE! is “200 tons of danceable rock and electro in the deep, dark hutong”.  

And the eclectic music mix will be played by the regular WHALE! DJ Line-up featuring DJ Assassin Eyes, Bobby Dropper,  DJ Fun Party, DJ Dirty Pirate and our beloved DJ No Requests.

This has been something in the works the past weeks, but they’ve only just announced it and as this is the unofficial leaving party of DJ No Requests, there will also be an unofficial dress theme: Cardigans.

I was hoping to find some quirky picture of a whale wearing a cardigan, but I guess it figures the reverse is more likely.

So here you have it: Whales knitted onto a cardigan.

Close enough.

…or perhaps you prefer this knit WHALE!?

OK. Enough fun for now.

Time to WHALE! at 4corners! TONIGHT!

Click here to see pictures from previous WHALE! parties:

• WHALE! on a Rainy Night in the Deep, Dark Hutongs
• “W” is for WHALE!
• A WHALE! of a Good Time

Event Details:

• Date: Friday, January 27, 2012
• Time: 10PM-late
• Location: 4corners 肆角餐吧
• Address:  By Drum and Bell Tower on DaShibei Hutong 西城, 大石碑胡同27号 (See map below)
• FREE ENTRY 

Beijing Art: At the Stroke of Midnight, CNY 2012

Beijing at the Stroke of Midnight: Chinese New Year 2012 by Tom Pattinson

For the past six years, I have been in Beijing during the Chinese New Year holiday and although I’m kicking myself each year for not pre-booking a tropical getaway to some sunny beach far away from this city turned ghost-town where the majority of the population evacuates, streets are empty, everything closes down, taxis are impossible to comeby and temperatures drop to -17 degrees Celsius.

In spite of these downsides of Beijing at this time of year, I also love being in this city at one specific moment – when the skies light up with firecrackers.  I’m not talking about the loud firecrackers that start at the crack of dawn or the ones that are just plain loud and cease to stop even days after new years day, but the hour where all the best firecrackers are simultaneously fired into the sky at one go.

Every year, and without fail, at the stroke of midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve, the dark skies of Beijing are illuminated at every angle with the most brilliant, vibrant firecrackers. It truly is a magnificent sight.

And although there are plenty of awesome parties happening all across town (in the restaurant, bars and clubs who chose to remain open), who wants to be indoors or in a dark basement and miss this special moment? For me, that would defeat the whole point of ringing in the Chinese New Year in Beijing. This glorious hour of fireworks should be the main event of the week-long holiday. Whether you’re firing them off yourself or just happy to watch, it’s a sight no one should miss if they are among the few stragglers who chose to stay in Beijing this desolate time of year.

There are many excellent vantage points to view this extraordinary display of extravagant fireworks, and one of my personal favorite places is on the rooftop of a tall building in the Gulou area. Normally the square between the Drum and Bell Towers is a choice pick for a great view, but fireworks have been forbidden here the past few years. Fair enough, as fireworks are often a terrible accident just waiting to happen and probably best to steer clear of any cultural and historical relics.

So with that option ruled out, we did the next best thing: bundle up and head up to the rooftop balcony of their apartment off Nanluoguxiang and watch the fireworks display until we couldn’t feel our fingers (it was a cold night) and honestly, after an hour of listening to fireworks booming into my ears, I feared the possibility of also going deaf if I didn’t head back indoors.

Spending the new year with close friends, this Chinese New Year was one of the best I’ve had and I’d like to thank Tom Pattinson for capturing the moment with his perfect picture.

Wishing you all a healthy, happy and prosperous Year of the Dragon!

Yummy Yunnanese: Ai Mo Town 埃蒙小镇 Take Two

Once, twice, three times…still can’t get enough of Ai Mo Town 埃蒙小镇?

Populated by regulars, Ai Mo Town 埃蒙小镇 is a favorite for Yunnanese cuisine in the Gulou hood..and for East-siders like me, that trip over the hill (more commonly known as the 2nd ring road) is well worth the trek.

The food is quality, portions are generous, the taste is fresh and authentically Yunnanese, their menu options are plentiful, and just admiring the the visible effort spent on the detail of their interior decor speaks volumes for a local Chinese restaurant (tucked inside Fangjia Hutong) with reasonable prices and a lively, yet cozy atmosphere.

Ordering is made easy with their appetizing photo-menu, but unfortunately everything is written in Chinese characters so I am unable to re-write the dishes we tried below.  Apologizes to all without a photographic memory, but if you can’t access LumDimSum on your phone, at least remember these two words  – “wet beans”! (my most favorite Ai Mo Town dish). Other menu hits include their fresh mint leaves in sesame oil, grilled fish and green veggies.  Their mashed potatoes are also a popular menu item, but it was a bit too oily for my taste.   

In any case, I recommend hitting up Ai Mo Town with a group of friends so that you’re able to try a wider selection of their dishes and go wild with the menu because you really can’t go wrong.  The majority of the dishes are all fantastic and be sure to order their Dali beer – it tastes like sparkling apple cider!

LumDimSum Snapshots of Ai Mo Town’s Yummy Yunnan Dishes:

LumDimSum Snapshots of Ai Mo Town’s Interior Space:

Read LumDimSum’s first review of Ai Mo Town.

Although Ai Mo Town is among my favorites, my choice pick for Yunnan cuisine in Beijing is still Yun Er Town 云洱小镇. (click for review)

Wo Ai “Ai Mo Town” (我爱 “埃蒙小镇”)

For months now, Ai Mo Town has been on my list of top restaurants to visit.  Having heard multiple raving reviews and a known favorite dining destination for many in and around the Gulou hood, I finally ventured over the hill (aka inside second ring road) to satisfy my curiosity.

Tucked away in Fanjia Hutong, this hidden gem is a two-story restaurant with a spacious balcony and a vibrant and colorful, welcoming interior with walls lined with Yunnan photos and decor.  A great place for a dinner date or a casual group dinner, Ai Mo Town is popular among locals and foreigners alike and a legit dining recommendation for visiting tourists who are curious to sample local flavor in an authentic hutong neighborhood.

My only gripe was that as a table for two, there are only so many things you can order before it becomes unnecessary excess.  As with most Chinese restaurants, I recommend going in a bigger group to sample more menu items.

Nonetheless, the dishes I tried were each uniquely delicious and memorable. Oftentimes, a lot of Chinese food can taste the same as any other local joint, but these dishes stood out to me. I’ve been to other Yunnan restaurants (I love Middle 8 and In & Out) and yet, this was fresh to my palate.  We started off with fresh mint leaves in sesame oil – bohe ye (RMB 18), which was such a refreshing appetizer and perfect for a hot summer evening.  Next came an order of spicy stir-fry pork (RMB 22) and dry kidney beans (RMB 18), which was actually meant to be an order of wet kidney beans, but I thought the dry version was fantastic nonetheless. The highlight of the meal was the grilled fish (RMB 6 each), which were crispy and full of flavor. Served on a wooden skewer stick, nibbling on the whole fish just added to the dining experience.

In short, not only was my curiosity more than satisfied, so was my tummy and my tastebuds. I already can’t wait to return and sample more off their menu.

Review of Ai Mo Town 埃蒙小镇 : Bldg G, 46 Fangjia Hutong (just south of Guozijian Jie), Dongcheng District 埃蒙小镇. 东城区方家胡同46号艺术园区(国子监南临)G座; Tel: 6400 1725. Hours: 11AM-10PM

Best Part:

• Truly a Hidden Gem – everything from the surrounding area to the interior decor of the venue and authentic Yunnan cuisine makes Ai Mo Town a unique dining destination
• The food is delicious and the prices are very low (dinner for two under RMB 100)
• I highly recommend the mint leaves as a starter and trying the grilled fish.  Both dishes are guaranteed to please your palate.
• Service was decent and food came out very quickly

Comments:

• Although there is no English written on the menu, there are photos for all dishes so you can still pick and choose without much difficulty.
• I recommend going in a group so that you can sample more of a variety.

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

• Food: 8
• Atmosphere: 9
• Service: 7
• Overall Experience: 9
  

I’m Hooked

Top Spots to Work with Wifi

1. Bookworm: Spacious, nice rooftop, best book selection to dive in, a lot of natural light
2. Le Petit Gourmand: Cozy, plugs everywhere, great crepes, but a little dark for my taste
3. All-Star Sports Bar & Grill: a lot of lights, super fast wifi, favorite burger (Californian Guacamole Bacon Cheeseburger) and milkshakes
4. Café Zarah: Cozy, relaxed little coffee shop with great wifi and a nice people-watching perch.  See posting for details.
5. Vineyard Café: Their brunch is reason to go alone
6. e.a.t. (Gulou): Cozy cafe with good sandwiches and salad options