Eric's Beijing Diary

Last night I decided to have Christmas dinner, so I headed down to Brown's Pub in Dongsishitiao, because it had advertised a Christmas dinner that was within the range of affordability, and because it is quite near the Bookworm, so I figured I could find it without too much trouble. When I finally got there, they had jacked the price up to 150 RMB from the price they had quoted in their advertisement (100), and the place was dead, not surprisingly. I stopped by the Bookworm and found a very interesting book on the Great Game period in Central Asia during the 19th Century. The Bookworm has a little coffee bar area, too, but it isn't really the kind of place I would recommend for Christmas dinner, so I headed down to Jianguomen to see what Grandma's Kitchen had cooking. I didn't have any reservations, and I didn't know if they were doing Christmas, but I couldn't think of anything else. A shot in the dark, if you will.

Those guys should advertise more. They had a really nice Christmas dinner set menu. It started with an appetizer. You had to choose between bacon wrapped shrimp and crab stuffed mushrooms. I really like mushrooms, so I chose that one. Next was the salad. I chose the Waldorf salad even though I didn't have any idea what a Waldorf salad was, because the other choice was cole slaw, which seemed kinda plain to me. The soup I chose was cream of mushroom. I do like minestrone too, but mushroom definitely wins when it is a choice between the two. For the main course, you had to choose between turkey and gravy and grilled ham with pineapple. I chose the grilled ham because it was cheaper, and I had turkey for Thanksgiving. I definitely made the right choice. That ham was very good. Best ham I have had since I came to China. In fact, the ones who chose turkey were looking enviously at me wishing they had chosen what I had. I'm serious.

I needed help deciding on the desert. The choices were rum cake or cranberry-orange cheese cake. I don't know...which would you choose? I wasn't sure, so I asked the waitress. She said she really liked the cheesecake. Usually if a waitress responds definitely, I will take her advice. But if she wavers, then I tend to think that maybe she either doesn't know, or she is just trying to be vague and noncommittal. I have had many different reactions from waitresses over the years. Sometimes they will just say, "They're both good." There's usually not much you can do when they respond like that. But this time, the waitress was quite definite. I took her advice, and it was the right thing to do, trust me. That cheesecake was one of the best I ever had. The whole thing came to 138 RMB including the dinner wine. I had to pay extra for coffee. That is pretty expensive by Chinese standards, but it's really not a bad price compared to what you pay at the big luxury hotels. You have to be very careful in Beijing. You can go to a luxury hotel and end up spending hundreds of dollars. I saw one or two advertised for 2000-3000 RMB. And the thing is, the meal you get is often not that great. When it comes to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner in Beijing, more money does not necessarily mean better quality. Not at all. Grandma's Kitchen is not a luxury hotel, but it is certainly a lot nicer than Brown's Pub, and 138 kuai comes to about 15 US dollars. That, I think, is a livable price for a once-a-year event.