EAT: El Barrio 1st Anniversary, Free Fries at Burger Box, Belgian Week at Hulu, Side Street Arepas

EAT: Your bite-sized guide to the best eats to be had in Beijing this week.

Sep 12-15: El Barrio First Anniversary and Mexican Independence Day Celebration 

El Barrio is turning one this weekend and they are celebrating with a big party featuring a live mariachi band on Sep 12-13. To get you in the mood for dancing, they will have drinks deals including shots of Jose Cuervo tequila for RMB 20 and a set of Mexican flag-colored margaritas for RMB 128. On Saturday and Sunday, Sep 14-15, in celebration of Mexican Independence Day, they will also add a handful of new Mexican dishes to their regular menu, including spicy pozole rojo, a chicken, pork, and hominy stew, and tacos de cochinita pibil, pork slow cooked in achiote adobo.

Best of Brussels Week at Hulu, Sep 13-18

From Sep 13-18, Hulu will team up with the Belgian Embassy in Beijing to celebrate the best of Brussels. For the occasion, they welcome young Belgian chef Maxime Maziers (named Young Chef of the Year by Gault & Millaut in 2019) from the renowned Restaurant Bruneau in Brussels. Maziers will prepare a menu of limited-edition dishes, including the likes of endive soup (RMB 48), Belgian fries with Lindeman Kriek beer sauce (RMB 48), and barbecue pork chops with Lindeman beer pickles (RMB 108). 

Side Street do arepas

Over at Side Street, it's unlikely that you're getting tired of their excellent burger selection but if for some reason that is in fact the case, you may want to swing by on Saturdays for their new arepas offerings. From 2-8pm, the kitchen now offers a range of Venezuelan-style arepas for RMB 40 (including vegan options), which just so happen to pair perfectly with a nice, cold beer.

Free fries for WeChat followers at Burger Box

Finally, if you have yet to make it over to the new addition to the Moka/Mosto family, Burger Box, then now could be a very good time to do so, as they are offering free fries for anyone who follows them on WeChat (ID: 汉堡站burgerbox). Burgers are the main event here, obviously, but we've been hearing some very good things about the fries on social media recently. Free fries are available from now until Sep 20. Read our review of Burger Box when it launched here.

READ: 7 Inexpensive and Indispensable Chinese Cooking Tools Every Kitchen Needs

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Images: El Barrio, Hulu, Dazhong Dianping