the Beijinger

Not long after the avuncular owner sits you down on traditional rosewood furniture, you’ll be rooting through their signature hot pot for chunks of dark, succulent goosemeat. Choose either potato or taro as an accompaniment; watch it all bubble in a rich hongshao gravy or a light clear broth. The small hot pot (RMB 58) feeds 3-4, while the large (RMB 88) will satisfy a crowd of 5-6.

Hotel G’s 25 Degrees has been revamped as a European-style wine bar. The essence of the decor has been retained – the central bar, plush booth seating and luxuriant red wallpaper – but there are also long wooden tables to stimulate conversation. The menu, too, has kept its old favorites and added fine tapas and cheeses.

Hawka (a play on the term “hawker,” aka street food vendor) is the Marriott City Wall’s classy take on the five-star hotel dining experience. With equal parts Chinese street food, Indian delicacies, Thai and Singaporean treats and Japanese sushi, the warm and intimate dining room is a perfect spot for groups looking to sample the best of pan-Asian cuisine. Perhaps more importantly, the price is right.

IFW puts a five-star hotel twist on ordinary food court offerings. Located in the basement of the landmark Yintai Center skyscraper and managed by its upstairs neighbor the Park Hyatt, this slick, open-kitchen eatery offers top quality choices in Japanese, Chinese, Singaporean and Western cuisines.

Expectations weren’t especially high. We anticipated a standard-issue lobby bar and decent drinks. The Marriott Fire (RMB 80) is no flaming slammer; rather, Absolut Orange, Cointreau, and cranberry and lime juices administer a sharp kick below a sweet surface. Grey Goose vodka and mango puree, meanwhile, underpin the refreshing Mangotini (RMB 70). No, the drinks don’t disappoint. But The Lounge surprises with its aquatic-themed back room, complete with deep-blue carpets and sharks surging around a long tank.

A welcome respite from the pulsing techno and over-the-top neon of Super Bar Street, Beijing’s first Syrian restaurant feels like a neighborhood joint with its cast of regulars who snack and sip tea while bantering with the friendly proprietors.

Hong Kong native Ernest Ip’s latest addition to his restaurant archipelago is well-tailored to the swish confines of Ch’ien Men 23 (née Legation Quarter). Like his three other Beijing venues, this butterfly-themed restaurant specializes in Cantonese cuisine, but also serves a smattering of Sichuan spice and Peking duck (RMB 188 for a whole bird).

OK, time to stop that dragon boating and hit dry land. This weekend brings the fun and games of the Affordable Art Fair at The Village in Sanlitun and some glamorous openings out east in 798 and downtown at the Today Art Museum.
 

Read more about the Affordable Art Fair in this fortnight’s Agenda, which carries an interview with one of the event's formidable founders, Tamsin Roberts. For two days, today and Sunday 11am-8pm, you have a chance to take home something you fancy and be sure of paying no more than 10,000 RMB for the privilege.
 

If you liked ChinaDoll the way it was, you’ll be happy to know that its recent renovation was more tummy tuck than facelift. It’s a smaller venue now, comprising just the lounge and the VIP room, but with clever spacing they have created an ample dance floor without sacrificing seating or that “club” feeling.

A free party will be held on May 29 (tonight) at Song Music Bar and Kitchen to make up for last week's Intro 2009 Electronic Music Festival in 798, which was broken up by the cops after numerous noise complaints from neighbors.

The party will be starting at 10pm, and last until 6am on May 30 (hopefully). There will also be gift and Intro mixed CD on site. 

For ticket refund, see the previous blogpost here. 

Song Music Bar and Kitchen (6587 1311), B108 The Place, 9 Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang District

Editor's Note: You nominated the best eight bartenders in the city, so we thought we'd put them to the test by challenging them to concoct a cocktail called "The Beijinger." Here's the first in a series of posts showing what Beijing's hottest bartenders came up with...

(And if you ask nicely, they’ll even make these drinks for you.)

 Andy, The Rickshaw

Ingredients:

- homebrew chilli tequila
- jalapeno peppers
- lime juice
- fresh lime
- Tabasco




Preparation: Shaken and served in a margarita glass, with lime and jalapeno garnish.

“It's new and special, spicy and delicious. If people drink it, people will like it.”

Shisha pipes and cushion-beds, Azerbaijani music (nightly at 8pm) and a terrace overlooking Ritan Park are just a few of the attractions at this Ritan Highlife restaurant.

For foodies in Beijing, this one-night only event on June 8th at the Hilton Wangfujing is sure to cause major salivation and near-lust. In a joint effort with the executive chefs of the Hilton WFJ, three 3-star Michelin chefs (Heinz Beck, Annie Féolde, Heinz Winkler) and U.S. celebrity chef (David Burke), will all be in our capital city to design the ultimate six-course dinner with wine pairings provided by Master of Wine Dr. Ron Georgiou and Hilton's resident Sommelier Peter Teng.

Kick back with a drink and watch a bunch of laowai make fools of themselves. No, it’s not a regular Saturday night on Sanlitun – it’s Beijing Improv’s final show before their summer break.

Once a month the English-language improv group has been presenting nights of riotous amusement at the Penghao Theater, tucked up a tiny hutong behind the Central Academy of Drama on Nanluoguxiang. Their final show for several months will be on May 30 – a theatersports face off between two teams scaling the heights of “extravagant ridiculousness.”

Can horses help children with special needs? Priscilla Lightsey certainly thinks so. A licensed physical therapist with experience in pediatrics, Priscilla recently launched Horse Offering People Enrichment (HOPE), which offers therapeutic riding classes for special needs children in Beijing. We asked her a few questions about the issues surrounding therapeutic riding and how horses can work wonders.

The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine

Enough with the China books already – it’s spring. Time for a thick juicy paperback novel to read in the sun. The Hakawati is worthy – a tale from a faraway land written in prose so smooth and vibrant the imagery leaps from the page. The novel gives fresh voice to age-old tales from the Middle East that have been passed down orally by hakawatis (Arabic storytellers) for centuries: the Eye of Fatima, the birth of Mecca, the story of Antar. The stories are woven together with the present-day tale of a man returning from the US to his family in Lebanon. Moving from modern-day Beirut to a time when Baghdad was simply where all good poets went to die, the narrative easily jumps from horseback to hospital room, from demon’s lair to a deserted car dealership. Alameddine gives us Middle Eastern history and culture wrapped in elements of intrigue as old as storytelling itself – bravery, beauty, adventure and adversity. EC

When a summer breeze blows over Beijing, it’s easy to lose count of your drinks, whether you’re sipping cocktails on a terrace or chugging 5-kuai beers in a back alley. But what if you have an early morning flight to catch?

A random survey amongst local frequent fliers found that, although some never let a flight get in the way of a rambunctious time, most prefer to board their plane sober – and stay that way while flying. Some said they might have one or two cocktails to unwind, but others cited unpleasant experiences for why they remain dry in the air.

“Once my friend and I drank so much wine on a flight from London that the flight attendants eventually refused to serve us any more – and it took me a week to recover from the hangover,” confessed one British journalist.

Tamsin Roberts got involved in Beijing’s art scene as soon as she moved here in 2004. Her gallery, Red T Space, was demolished in 2007, but Red T survives as a platform for supporting and promoting the work of emerging talents. Affordable Art Beijing (AAB), which Tamsin launched in 2005 with Tom Pattinson of Time Out Beijing, is one of Red T’s key projects. Though Tamsin is no longer based in Beijing, the initiatives she set up are still going strong – here’s what she had to say ahead of AAB 2009.