Culinary Coin Festival
(Tanqueray No. 10 Martini)
Beijing hardly ever sees rain, but the first part of the weekend we had an enormous showers followed by drizzling rain. The nice part is that the air (finally) gets cleaned. The bad part is outdoor activity becomes limited. On Saturday I was invited to the Ritz-Carlton Culinary Coin Festival, an indoor food and wine event I had no objections to attending.
(The "coin" part refers to the hotel's location on Beijing's Financial Street.)
The impression I got from some ads was that the event was all about Champagne and chocolate, but fortunately there was a lot of savory food to line the stomach pre-sugar and pre-alcohol. The food was a mix of French, Italian, Chinese, and Japanese, keeping in line with the Ritz's restaurants. I filled myself up on cheeses, prosciutto, soba noodles, roast duck in pancakes, an interesting quail egg shooter topped with aspic gelée, caviar, and chive oil. Chocolate made an appearance in the form of a fountain, where you can dip grapes and marshmallows, in bonbons, and in a mini soufflé topped with chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Although, for me, the dessert highlight was a chocolate-less basil ice cream.
This event reminded me of a similar one I went to a few years ago in New York, an "Eat Out" fest hosted by Time Out magazine. Having just moved to New York and started culinary school, I was just in awe of how many big-name restaurants and chefs were gathered under one roof. I was so starstruck by seeing Nobu Matsuhisa working his restaurant's station that I could barely squeak a "thanks" after being handed some sublime raw seafood concoction whose specificities I now forget. Well, starstruck, and pushed aside by hoards of other hungry New York foodies. That event was crowd-ded.
(Eric Johnson from Shanghai's Jean Georges; Appetizer spreads on display)
Beijing is not the foodie town that New York is, meaning there aren't too many people here who spend their free time tracking the whereabouts of celebrity chefs or endlessly debating where to get the best so-and-so. Which was probably why Eric Johnson, head chef of Jean Georges in Shanghai, was hanging around and able to chat for 15 minutes. I learned that it was his first time to Beijing, even though he had worked in China for the past 4 years. So far in Beijing he had prepared for the festival and tried Peking duck, but would get to the Great Wall once the festival is over. He also made me wish I was staying around for the 2,008 RMB dinner afterwards, just to try out the "Champagne ball" appetizer. And in China at least, he never gets mistaken for Eric Johnson the guitarist.
On to the drinks. There were a few wines available for the endless sipping, including Grace Vineyards, one of the very few Chinese producers that get much praise. I didn't care much for their Chardonnay (of course, I tend to dislike Chardonnays in general). But the Cabernet was a very nice compliment to my chocolate soufflé. The alcoholic highlight, however, was a martini made with Tanqueray No. 10 (made with fresh instead of dried juniper and other fruits), Sakura syrup, and lemon juice.
And of course, as with all events in China, everything starts and ends right on time, none of that "give-or-take half an hour" business Americans like me are used to. So at 6pm sharp, the wines all stopped flowing. One of my festival companions went straight home and took a nap (a.k.a fell into a food coma), which is probably the best thing to do after such an event.
(Photos by J. Redding)
Love the serving plates
I love the serving plates for the appetizers! Looks clean and modern, and delicious!
really?
Was in Shanghai so missed this event, but it looked great. One thing that sort of struck me was your comment that Beijing foodies are unlike NY ones in that they don't talk about where to go to get the best foods or best restaurants. I think more so than anywhere else, food is a constant subject, even when eating (this is a strange thing for non-Chinese, as even at the dinner table, food is often the main subject), where everyone will be a critic and the moment something is unsatisfying, a debate goes up about where the best place to sample that dish would be (god, how I've sat through endless debates about hongshao rou or dumplings or xinjiang food).
To me, there isn't the same focus on chefs (celebrity chefdom doesn't exist here), but there is an almost uncomparable focus on food (for those who dine out every night or almost every night) and ingredients (for those that cook at home), that doesn't exist or is different than the food scene abroad.
Perhaps this is me just standing up for Beijing, but I think the "foodie" phenomena is overwhelming here, its just very different from the NY scene where its a chase after fame and organics and the like.
b. cheng - What I meant was
b. cheng - What I meant was that people don't obsessively debate about food away from the dinner table. I haven't found any equivalent to Chowhound, nor many Chinese-language food blogs. Caring about a restaurant based on past experience is much more important than which chef runs it. People in China talk about food the way citizens of other food-obsessed countries talk about it: at the table. The "foodie" phenomena is relatively new, at lease in the U.S., and the way foodies discuss food is not better than or worse than how, for example, Beijingers discuss food. Just different. One group is more international in scope, focusing partly on trends, and backed by a desire to constantly try new things. The other is more honed to a specific country, or even region, and is based on plenty of past experience with local dishes.
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