Green T House

We ate haute / fusion cuisine last night.
But with a good excuse.
After trips home and around China / South-East Asia during Christmas and Spring Festival, our friends are starting to return to Beijing. (Term starts on Monday).
Our good friends here have been a big part of why Beijing has been able to feel like home so quickly. Two of those friends, Carol and Erik are from 'the mitten'
To the uninitiated, 'the mitten' is what locals call the lower penninsula of Michigan and this fact has caused us far more interest and enjoyment than it really should.
Anyway, they've both been good friends to us since we moved here. Carol is a colleague of mine from work and always ready to check out the fun parts of Beijing and beyond. Unfortunately we don't get to see as much of Erik as we'd like as he's an absolute workhorse, writing and editing at all hours for the China Daily.

Erik's work ethic does however mean he is well-versed in the local culture, not to mention the language. This however manifests itself in him grabbing the bill every time we go out for food or drinks. That is the deal here, you show respect to friends by paying for their food.

Since Carol's birthday fell while they were away having what sounded like an unbelivable trip to Yunnan Province we decided we should invite them for a belated celebration.

Unfortunately as we might have guessed, Erik was working. So we had to make do with Carol...JK.
The Green T House
Anyway, the restaurant is one of the most feted in Beijing, winner of the local award for most Impressive Restaurant from That's Beijing (Ex-pat listings mag with interesting ownership wrangles).
As you can see from the picture above, the decor is fantastic - straight through the looking glass according to one reviewer.
The service was good enough, with none of the pretensions associated with eating somwhere like this in the UK.
The food was in parts fantastic and in parts simply very good.
Some standouts were the foiegras creme brulee, the orange flavour of the tea-smoked duck and the belly pork, the final being a proper example of fusion cuisine combining Chairman Mao's favourite dish (Mao shi hong shao rou) with blue cheese and apple.

We finished the evening with cocktails and mocktails (Caroline is a little under pressure at work at the moment) in Q Bar. The drinks, music and atmosphere are great there and there is a wonderful view from the terrace - when it's warm enough, not long now...

And speaking of the change in weather, that takes me nicely on to our next trip.
This weekend we're taking the train to Harbin.
Last major city in the north before the Siberian wastelands, highlights include:
- An ice and snow festival
- Siberian Tigers
- Russian architecture and heritage
- Minus 20 degrees centigrade, during the day!
- China's heaviest drinking city!

We'll report back on our return with pictures and videos as ever