This new pizza restaurant takes over from twice-unsuccessful Hungarian restaurant Budapest (and Norwegian flop 66 North before that) on the second floor of China View at Gongti Donglu. Go there at the first opportunity you get.

When I contacted Lee Chang-Ju of the Korean Cultural Center, the cultural wing of the South Korean Embassy, I anticipated a trip to Wangjing. Or at least Wudaokou. Instead, he took me to Gaon, located just across the road from Phoenix City. That was one preconception destroyed – apparently, there is good Korean food inside the Fourth Ring Road.

Love is … in the air, although you might not be able to see it among the particulate matter.

Who do we want to be our Valentine? Take a guess.

We Heart Beijing. How do we love thee? In our Cover Feature we count the ways.

Gung Ho! Pizza launched their online ordering service this morning (January 31). You'll still be able to call up to place your order, but the online site looks like it will be a massive innovation once the inevitable early-days teething issues are straightened out.

“Last Orders” is a regular magazine column in which we ask noteworthy Beijingers to imagine their final meal before leaving the city for good. This month’s host: Will Yorke, Owner, Vineyard Cafe and The Vineleaf

The venue
A mianbao taxi from 1997. The driver is happy and there would be a hole in the floor and the rear might open up and lose diners at any moment.

The starters
Meat-filled pancakes (roubing 肉饼) from Ping’an Roubing Dian on Ping’an Dajie, just west of Dongsishitiao. These would be served with ma doufu (麻豆腐) and guanchang (灌肠) (potato starch sliced, fried and served with a bowl of smashed garlic in water). Not because I really like guanchang, but just because the characters for the dish are the same as “enema.” Some restaurants translate it into English as “fried enema,” which is surely a unique dish.

Popcorn chicken in spicy soup? Beans in a sesame and garlic sauce? Err, ‘Zinger’ tofu? Has the whole word gone crazy? Yes, actually. By next week, Little Sheep, the hot pot chain with 458 restaurants in China and a scattering in the US, will be a “93.2% wholly owned unit of US-based Yum! Brands,” the Louisville Kentucky based owners of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. The takeover deal, ongoing for some time and valued at around USD 580 million, apparently represents the first time a US company has purchased a Chinese food brand.

“Wokipedia” is a regular magazine column in which we introduce aspects of Chinese gastronomy, one letter at a time.

… vegetarian 素食
Arguably, being vegetarian in China is actually quite easy. With an established religion (Buddhism) paving the way for traditional vegetarian temple cooking and the prevalence of tofu, there are quite a number of options for the meat-averse. If you’re looking to eat out, try places like the Veggie Table, Pure Lotus, Vegan Hut and Cai An Xin.

Bianyifang might be Beijing’s oldest duck roasters, but long have they lurked in the feathery shadow of another time-honored brand. One hundred and fifty years ago, Quanjude took the former’s fowl, crisped the skin over a fruit-wood flame and rolled it in pancakes. They haven’t looked back since.

Perhaps they ought to, for the granddaddies appear to be making a comeback. This shiny new branch of Bianyifang can seat around 400 diners (and that’s less than half the capacity of the restaurant they opened at Qianmen last year).

If landlords explained rent increases as being directly related to the number of new restaurants opening in a given area, the residents of Xingfu Ercun could hardly complain. Shimao Department Store has added a dozen new (mostly Chinese) options just a few minutes’ walk away, and this small Vietnamese spot brings further variety even closer to home.

It doesn’t seem that long ago I was making wildly enthusiastic faces about Dali Renjia (my mouth was really full). But in the breakneck world of Beijing chow, chefs move on, places are sold, prices and salt levels rise. Soon enough, your order of tudou wan comes daubed in ketchup.

Thankfully, you can’t keep a good idea down. Wen Juan, one of the former Dali Renjia owners, has opened Haney right across the street.