Ringing in the New Year one Glutinous ball at a time...l (Part 5) THE LOUNGE

On our last day in Beijing for the New Year, we had to spend it in the wonderful 16th/Floor of the Ritz-Carlton

This is our tribute to the wonderful 16th/Floor Lounge

(That made us uncontrollably more chubby!)

Jess, Me and Jan

???

Who can resist free, fresh and wonderful:

???

Macaroons...

Dessert- chocolate decadent cake and fluffy cheesecake

Dim sum, sushi, fried food, chicken wings, salad, and sooooo much more

The wonderful CHEESE platter

THE END

Ringing in the New Year one Glutinous ball at a time...l (Part 4)

We REALLY did ring in the New Year with food and alcohol!

Below was a plate of fries that we ordered in the Davidoff Karaoke Lounge in the Ritz-Carlton. And as I said on that day "THESE ARE THE BEST TASTING FRIES I HAVE EVER TASTED!" (too bad we didn't get to take a pic of it before we devoured it!)

Champagne Rose

(A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!)

Next day we got to go to LAN the Beijing Philippe Starck Restaurant!

It was absolutely really unique!

There were many looooooooooooong tables (but not many ppl)

The food however was not the best tasting and the service was not the best handled.

This was the best tasting dish in my opinion and the first of our lunch course.

RAW VEGGIES rolled in CUCUMBER dipped in a PEANUT sauce

This was the "FISH-LIPS SOUP" (good for women cos of the collagen!) lol

This looked promising but was disappointing. Their too much sauced up Lobster that was too salty and sweet and spicy all at the same time!

This was their noodles, which I didn't try...ha ha

But it was a huge restaurant over 10,000 sq feet and obviously GORGEOUS to take PICS!

VERY COOL!

*****

DINNER

******

We went to Nineteen Forty Nine which was supposedly good for Beijing duck (again)

I liked the deco a lot!

Each place setting had it's own sitting duck!

And everyone had their own personalized Beijing Duck sauce and herbs

Then we all had our own personalized really healthy soup. But I was SHOCKED to find Sea horse in mine! And then Janice found hers too. Eww... I couldn't eat it but supposedly it's very normal to be put into soup in Beijing.

The meal was not too memorable as the dessert was! These were steaming hot and filled with red bean paste!

This egg tart was SOOOOOOOOOOOO Good and freshly made. HOT!

Ringing in the New Year one Glutinous ball at a time...l (Part 3)

Start of the 3rd day. We had to save our stomach for the wonderful "Shanghainese" food (famed in Taiwan) but franchised in a lot of places was DIN TAI FUNG of Beijing.

All the food was freshly prepared and cooked by a LARGE team of chefs in displayed kitchen

Their famous Xiao Lung Bao. (Small steamed dumplings with minced pork and steaming juicy sauce that pours out if you poke the dough!)

And their mini xiao lung bao that you can pop into your mouth like popcorn!

You dip the dumpling in Chinese red vinegar with freshly sliced ginger

Their famous Pork Chop noodle soup DELICIOUS!

At night we went to another restaurant that served familiar Chinese food. But their specialty was their dessert which was a steamed hot papaya with bird's nest soup in the middle. REALLY HOT! But great for the skin of women supposedly!

Ringing in the New Year one Glutinous ball at a time...l (Part 2)

It was the COLDEST night I've ever experienced in Beijing. We were all going to go try this new restaurant that we NEVER had tried. It was called "Xiao Wong Fu". It was located inside an environmental park. And so we were taking a big risk to go walk through a FREEZING park just to go to a restaurant that we were not even sure it was good. But we did go through the scary pitch black park...

Only to find THE GREATEST restaurant we ever experienced in BEIJING! It was totally worth the chilly walk through the eerie park...

The first dish was this fried fish with sweet sauce... MMMMMmmmm

BEST really this crispy layer outside and hot and soft inside tofu with spicy sauce....

The incredible and must-have Beijing Duck

When you put it all together and wrap it up...

BIG SPREAD ON THE TABLE

XIAO WONG FU Special dessert. Fresh made red bean glutinous roll with powdered peanut powder

We all each couldn't resist and had A LOT. As you can see I loved it sOOoooo much I had to include 2 PICS

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!