Ringing in the New Year one Glutinous ball at a time...l (Part 1)

For New Years 2010, my wonderful cousins (and foodies) Janice and Jessica were in HK so we all decided to pack our bags and join our friends to go to Beijing to ring in the new year! It was REALLY exciting as this was our first trip with just the three of us and no rules!

What we were all anticipating was a lot of fun and good times to remember but what we didn't prepare ourselves was the amount of GOOD Beijing food we were going to devour...

Our first stop at the (Hong Kong) airport and we already had to stop and pose! I saw the new ad for Head and Shoulders with my bro-in-law Donnie Yen as the spokesperson! Very proud so we had to act a bit nerdy and take a pic! =) (and hey! There's Tiger Woods' head beside my peace sign...this was obviously before his unfortunate incident cos he was still being used in an ad!)

Our first steps into the airport and we already started our great food expedition. I had ordered a Burger King meal (was really craving it at the time). Of course the Burger King in HK tastes WAY better than in Toronto. Janice on the other hand went for the traditional HK style dish. It was just the Chia Siu on steamed rice with some veggies and a fried egg on top. IT WAS GOOD.

I failed to document the Ben and Jerry ice cream we were eyeing for the longest time and then finally decided to settle for gourmet cookies instead.

When we arrived in Beijing it was traffic as usual and we hardly had time to get our things together to rush to our friend's birthday celebration at an Italian restaurant. And of course with great friends come happy drinking time =) heheheheh... And this trip was also EXTREMELY SPECIAL cos we all knew how to enjoy a good wine!

Me and Jess checking out the wonderful menu that they had prepared for all of us!

First dish: aged ham with swiss cheese... and some secret sauce. It was sooooooooo good!

This reminded me of Chinese dumplings but it's like a vegetarian dumpling. The taste was not too heavy but light and tomatoey. It would totally make a good Spring dish!

One of the special things of the night was that each dish was paired with a different wine that was carefully chosen to bring out the best taste in both the food and wine. SO LOVELY! The white wines were from a small town in Italy. I don't remember the name but it was absolutely PERFECT!

This I thought was some sort of risotto but instead it was like a pasta instead. Again, it was more light and bland than I would have expected but I finished it anyway!!

The beef was EXCELLENT! Very tender and the portion was good although we were all getting toooo full!

There were also some other dishes in between the beef, like the fish but we were so excited about the food that we already had inhaled it before we could have a chance to photograph it. WHOOPS! But the last part is always one thing that I look forward to. DESSERT! And this place definitely did not disappoint! They served their Italian style macaroons. And let me just say I have no idea how the macaroon was kept intact because once you put it into your mouth, it just crumbles away! IT WAS AMAZING! It was definitely something very memorable and something that we had NEVER tasted EVER! This was the highlight food for all three of us.

And just to make it the HIGHLIGHT. I will include an extra pic of the wonderful macaroons with the cappuccino we all had =)

Lastly of course was the birthday cake! We ended up having THREE birthday cakes that night...(don't ask) but the first was eaten at the hotel and the second one (picture below) was given by the restaurant and it was wonderful! =D

Now that was just our first night in Beijing. So you could imagine how much weight and fat we added onto ourselves by the time we all returned to HK. YIKES!