This evening I went for dinner with some friends to Biteapitta, an average and slightly expensive Lebanese place in Sanlitun, aka Expat Central. I've been there before. All the waiters speak perfect restaurant English, but smile patiently when we use our halting and inaccurate Chinese to order. The food is ok, but not up to the London Edgware Road standard. I'm spoiled I guess!
On my first visit I ordered a chicken shawarma sandwich, which was small, lukewarm, and not quite satisfying. I wanted to order something else after I had finished eating. I guess, somewhat unfairly, I had in mind a memory of shawarma at my favourite restaurant on Edgware Road, Al Tanoor, where the shawarma's were massive, and overflowing with meat, to the point that I had to ask for extra salad to ensure I received more than a pinch of lettuce and the suggestion of tomato. I usually found myself too full to finish the chips, crispy Macdonalds style french fries, salty and hot and deliciously more-ish.
Tonight C and I ordered Moussaka and a lamb and chicken skewer, which came with rice, spinach patties, chips and salad. I hesitated for a long while over this choice. I have become acclimatised enough to the local currency that paying 55 Yuan (GBP5.50) for a main meal with two sides seems excessively expensive. But I figured it's my birthday, I may as well splurge a little!
The Moussaka was excellent. A little cold – possibly because we ate the skewers first, but a wonderful texture of eggplant and minced beef and tomato. Warm and filling and comforting. I would definitely order it again. The skewers were also good. Big chunks of lamb, barbecued, with a little fat, tasting like wonderful barbecued lamb ought to. Here in Beijing, the lamb is mostly chuan'r – very thin strips of meat on a stick, marinated in a Xinjiang style spicy sauce. It's good, but it doesn't taste the same. (Maybe it's not really lamb?) This stuff was the real deal!
The salad was very tasty. A good combination of finely cubed cucumber and tomato, with enough spice to keep it interesting. The spinach patties were disappointing. They sounded interesting, but looked more or less like circles of greenish black pudding, and tasted like lukewarm fried frozen spinach. I suppose they were vaguely healthy. The rice was great. But the chips. Oh dear. Large, and cold and tending towards a slightly stodgy sogginess. Not nearly enough salt. I didn't bat an eyelid when C finished the last one.
Still, the company was good. It's nice to be surrounded by friends on your birthday. Especially friends who don't get too offended when you get a bit animated and accidentally offend them by suggesting that their line of research is boring/pointless/causes people to despise the subject due to excessive analysis. One of these days I'll learn to hold my tongue!
Afterwards we went for tea and cake at an Italian style cafe. As you opened the door a fragrance of lilies wafted towards you, from the massive yellow bouquet next to the delicious looking display of cakes. Each table also had it's own cosy bouquet of orange lilies. The menu was in Italian, Chinese and English. But strangely, the waiter didn't speak any English. A rare feat in Sanlitun. We were allowed to, no, required to practice our Chinese, and to explain what Earl Grey tea is in Chinese. They didn't have any, so we settled for Jasmine tea and Tiramisu.
Now I've eaten a lot of Tiramisu. I used to work at Pizza Express, and their Tiramisu, while frozen, is still pretty good. This tasted different. Fresh. Not quite perfectly blended and melted together like the mass produced quality controlled bulk bought Pizza Express version, but perhaps, (gasp!) homemade? Certainly the massive steel kitchen tray of tiramisu in the display cabinet looked like it could not possibly come in pre-frozen plastic tubs. We enjoyed it. Every last creamy, soft bite, even the bits with a tad too much cocoa powder on top. The plate was all but licked clean.
All in all, a quiet but fun birthday dinner. I am so blessed to have such good friends here, even after only eight months. Perhaps it's the transient nature of the place. You make a little more effort to make friends quickly, because you know that soon enough, they'll disappear back home to South Africa, or Scotland or wherever it is they came from! We will all go home, eventually...
