After we had finished at the Forbidden City, David took me on a 10 minute walk to reach a restaurant he had tried previously and really enjoyed. It is a hot pot restaurant called Man Fu Lou.
We ordered some plates of thinly sliced meat and plates of vegetables from the menu. Our spread pictured above (minus the spinach, lotus and noodles which are out of shot).
Our hot pots were kept simmering with stock and we added ingredients to cook our food at the table. Once food was cooked we removed it from the hot pot and mixed it with a sauce, nuts and shallots. It was very tasty.
At one point a waitress came over and (mildly) scolded David for not cooking his noodles for long enough. Given she was scolding in Chinese it took a little while to figure our what she was saying. I explained to David that I thought she was telling him his noodles were undercooked. After the waitress had left David tried the noodles and said "yep, definitely undercooked".
David set about cooking another batch of noodles. When he had determined that the noodles were adequately cooked he called the same waitress back to get her approval. She seemed to be genuinely overjoyed with David's improved skills.
This picture was taken on Ghost Street (Dongzhimennei Dajie) in Beijing. It is a long street lined with restaurants on both sides. There are hundreds of lanterns hanging from the trees along the street. So colourful and charming. We ran out of time to go back for an evening meal, but here is a photo (not mine) of some of the lanterns lit up at night.......
The picture above is the front of Man Fu Lou. The interior had old-style imperial decor. I really liked it. Very atmospheric.
We ordered some plates of thinly sliced meat and plates of vegetables from the menu. Our spread pictured above (minus the spinach, lotus and noodles which are out of shot).
Our hot pots were kept simmering with stock and we added ingredients to cook our food at the table. Once food was cooked we removed it from the hot pot and mixed it with a sauce, nuts and shallots. It was very tasty.
At one point a waitress came over and (mildly) scolded David for not cooking his noodles for long enough. Given she was scolding in Chinese it took a little while to figure our what she was saying. I explained to David that I thought she was telling him his noodles were undercooked. After the waitress had left David tried the noodles and said "yep, definitely undercooked".
David set about cooking another batch of noodles. When he had determined that the noodles were adequately cooked he called the same waitress back to get her approval. She seemed to be genuinely overjoyed with David's improved skills.
Lanterns above the footpath outside Man Fu Lou. I love Chinese lanterns. So pretty!
This picture was taken on Ghost Street (Dongzhimennei Dajie) in Beijing. It is a long street lined with restaurants on both sides. There are hundreds of lanterns hanging from the trees along the street. So colourful and charming. We ran out of time to go back for an evening meal, but here is a photo (not mine) of some of the lanterns lit up at night.......
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