吃飯了嗎？

大董烤鴨

The restaurant is located alongside the 3rd Ring Road. Our Beijing manager promised us that this was the best duck in town, much better than the overhyped 全聚德. Got there at 5:30 and just managed to get a table without waiting. By the time we left there was a line out the door filled with locals and tourists alike.

Had some time to take in some cold appetizers while our duck was being roasted. There was a good green salad with soy vinaigrette, complete with frisée and everything. A vinegary plate of baby cucumbers pickled Sichuan style with dried peppers and Sichuan peppercorns. The real interesting stuff were the duck liver comparable to the finest French foie paté, and the deboned duck feet webs with the mustard dipping sauce. How they managed to take out the bones and still maintain the shape of the web is beyond me.

They wheeled our duck out on a cart and the chef got to work plating our roast duck at table-side. It's not a standard-issue crispy-skin duck that's passed off as Peking Duck elsewhere. The skin has a bit of a snap, but it's a softer texture, integrated with the layer of fat underneath such that it almost melts in your mouth, and you know all the juices and fats have soaked into the meat underneath. The slices of roast duck are to be wrapped in the flour crepes and one can add any number of condiments and garnishes. The sweet soy paste 甜麵醬 is obligatory, along with the thinly sliced scallion greens. But there were also cucumber and beet julienne for some more crunch, mashed garlic and white sugar for a wider range of flavors, and a couple of pickles for that special northern touch. Also ordered a poached Napa cabbage with chestnuts, and fish fillets in a spicy black-bean sauce. Washed it all down with some local 燕京 beer or chrysanthemum tea.

大董烤鴨
北京市朝阳区团结湖北口3号楼
010-65824003

那家小館

We were first-time visitors, so our Beijing manager was obligated to take us some place for dinner. But we didn't quite rate the super-luxe places that the boss likes. This restaurant is located behind the Twins Center (a.k.a. the LG towers) near the office, so we were able to walk over there early and get a table without too much waiting after work.

The restaurant is decorated like an 18th century Manchurian inn. They offer a big tome of a menu in three languages complete with colorful photos. But it's much more awesome to order old-school style from the tray of wooden slats, each inscribed with the name of the dish and its price.

Nominally Manchurian/north-China food. Good ingredients. Always thought salads in Chinese restaurants were abominations drenched in Thousand Island trying to please foreigners. Turns out that salad is actually a pretty typical cold-dish in Beijing, and there were some very nice greens dressed with a standard soy sauce vinaigrette. The meat-jello starter was good, too, but then I'm used to eating it at home. The third cold starter was sweet mashed potatoes with red-bean sauce. Apparently that's a Beijing thing, too.

The signature dish is the soup, with a rich stock made richer (and yellow) with egg yolks. Lots of abalone chunks and other seafood bits. Glazed prawns was oily and sticky but tasty, miles ahead of the icky stuff served up in American Chinese restaurants. Kung-pao chicken was amazing, with lots of dried peppers, Sichuan peppercorns for the extra kick, and flavorful walnuts instead of the more pedestrian peanuts. The fish was cooked (fried?) before the brown sauce drenching, keeps the sauce from overwhelming the seafood flavor.

那家小馆
东城区建国门外永安里新华保险大厦南侧(119中学西侧)
010-65673663

火間土

An izakaya-restaurant in the Bistro98 building across from Sogo. Decent food for slightly high prices in a nice spot. Finally got a chance to try an okanomiyaki. Not sure how authentic it was but it was tasty and filling. The misoyaki fish was nice and moist, although the portion was a tad on the small side. Also shared a pot of sukiyaki which had enough stuff and the soy broth wasn't too salty although it may have been nice to let it infused into the meat a bit more.

The lighting for the group of smaller tables was cool fluorescent which didn't do much for the atmosphere. The larger tables in more intimate boothes have nicer halogen spotlights. I think it would've been better to have a larger group to enjoy a more izakaya-type atmosphere (i.e. more beer) instead of just the two of us having a quick meal after-work. Although they do advertise quite heavily in the paper extolling their set-lunches for two.

火間土
台北市大安區忠孝東路4段98號6樓
6th Floor, Bistro98 Building
02-27527822

定食8

A well-positioned new restaurant chain doing land-office business. Eight Japanese combo meals such as tempura, teriyaki, or grilled fish, all priced at 200 NTD with unlimited white rice and miso soup. Perfect for a quick meal after work. More expensive than a roadside bento, but you do have a professionally-decorated space to enjoy your meal, which makes it a better option when out with the SO.

She had the grilled salmon fillet, I had the teriyaki beef donburi. Also comes with a small plate of well-dressed veggies, a chawanmushi egg custard, and a milk-pudding dessert.

Usually gyu-don is made with thinly sliced beef but here they use smaller, thicker sirloin chunks which were satisfyingly meaty but a bit tough and didn't seem salty enough. The chawanmushi is a nice value-add but it came in a plastic pudding cup which cheapened the feel a bit. Plus it was made obvious that it was a bulk-produced item reheated in the microwave. Well, what did you expect for 200NTD?

定食8
台北市中山區民權西路36號B1樓
Plus other locations around greater-Taipei
02-25314882

The Library

It's the more casual cousin of the flagship Burgundy restaurant in the XinYi Eslite book/department store. On a rainy Friday evening we didn't feel like foraging elsewhere so it was a good time to give the place a try.

The restaurant was impeccably decorated with high ceilings, solid wood furniture, and comfortable lounge chaises. Usually lounge-style furniture don't work in a restaurant setting because they're usually too low or too soft for one to comfortably sit up and eat. But the chairs and tables were perfectly matched so that we could enjoy our meal in comfort, and would also make an excellent place to kick back for an afternoon tea-party or an after-meal drink. The window-wall overlooking the heart of the fashionable Xinyi district connects the chicness of the interior and exterior spaces.

They didn't bring water automatically, pushing their fancy mineral waters instead. Decided to play the sucker and went with a sparkling Austrian water to add a little European flair to our meal. Found the water a bit salty, as one might expect from a natural spring, but it seemed flat, too. Could be just the way it is or maybe the bottle's been sitting in the warehouse a bit too long. Hard to tell. At least it was all-you-can-drink so we made sure we got our money's worth.

SO had a smoked-chicken pizza with some greens thrown on top. Nothing special but it works by itself as a light entree or could be shared as an appetizer. I had the smoked salmon - cod entree. The fish had a springy almost scallop-like texture which was interesting. But the strong flavor of the smoked salmon dominated the taste reducing the fish to purely a textural element. I think a bacon wrap, which is a standard scallop preparation, would've worked better than smoked salmon. Besides, everything tastes better with bacon.

To be honest we were paying as much for the view and the nice furniture as for the food. That doesn't mean the food's at all bad, just not all that special and not a particularly great value. Great spot to go for a drink to impress your date, though.

The Library
110台北市信義區松高路11號6樓
(Eslite Xinyi 6F)
02-87873388