Paris Baguette

Every once in a while, I try different kinds of dessert to satisfy my food cravings and after an extensive taste test of different cakes in Beijing that spanned 8 months, I found a piece of cake that helped me feel better about cloudy days: Paris Baguette's Tiramisu.

Tiramisu for RMB 18

Let's Seafood/Let's Burger in Sanlitun Village (海鲜饭馆儿在三里屯村庄)

After an entire afternoon of shopping for spring clothes in wholesale market of 动物园市场, my friends and I headed to Sanlitun for dinner, drinks and dessert. We landed in Seafood / Let's Burger, where we ate for around 30 - 40 minutes and then chatted for 3 hours. 

Let's Seafood and Let's Burger are two different establishments owned by the same person, so waiters give you two menus when you ask for the 菜单. They cook the food in different kitchens but serve it on the same table.

Salmon and tiger prawns with carbonara sauce for RMB 88

"Live Beautiful" feature on what I eat (and how I exercise)

Live Beautiful is a health, beauty and fitness blog ran by Larissa Sawyer. Her blog provides a consistent stream of articles regarding her thoughts on how ordinary individuals can do simple things to improve their wellness. Her message is: No need to drastically change your life, but incremental changes and consistency will eventually give fruit to drastic changes.

I am a fan of Larissa's work, because I've seen firsthand how her body, frame of mind and outlook improved in the 4 months that I've known her.

Larissa is my classmate in Tsinghua University, and during one of our break times, she saw me doing arm lifts with 1.5L bottles of water and said: You have to be in my blog!

Below is an excerpt of my Live Beautiful feature:

On eating beautiful: My morning fix is mixing seasonal fresh fruits and yogurt in a blender.

On living beautiful:

1. I exercise with random items around my home like a water bottle or an iron machine

2. I eat at least one fruit a day to ensure something healthy enters my body

3. I drink 1.5 liters of water a day to avoid arthritis

4. Everyday I try to walk 10K steps to keep moving, or alternatively, do 15 - 20 laps in the Tsinghua University Olympic-sized pool

- - -

My priority has always been experiencing good food vs achieving a body that will launch a thousand ships; but in an effort to maintain my sunny disposition and agile, energetic body, I try to keep an exercise routine.

Sculpting in Time cafe in Wudaokou

One of the habits I've gotten used to since becoming a student again is to reflect and study for long hours in a cafe. I've already shared my experiences in my favourite cafe in the university district Bridge Cafe, but Sculpting in Time is another place where I prefer to spend my time in, if only for their wider and yummier selection of Western food.

杭州的龙井茶 Hangzhou's Longjing Tea

One of the last trips we made in Hangzhou was a visit to a 龙井茶 Longjing Tea Plantation farm. They showed us how they make the tea - plucked from the bush and then dried on stir-fry by hand. 

Longjing tea, or Dragon Well tea, originated from Hangzhou. This is considered the national drink of China and is frequently given to visiting heads of state. It is a favorite tea of today's top leaders, with a portion of production reserved for government customers.

楼外楼 Louwailou, Hangzhou

楼外楼 Louwailou is Hangzhou's oldest and most authentic Zhejiang restaurant, located at the foot of Gushan hill, overlooking all of 西湖West Lake. This restaurant was established in 1848 (163 years ago). Reservations are not allowed in the restaurant so you need to arrive early if you want to eat on time.

Tip: Chinese eat dinner early, around 6:30 - 7, so by the time we arrived at 8:30 pm, most diners were on their way out, so we only had to wait a bit before they gave us a table.

One of their best: 东坡肉 (Dongpo pork). I tasted traces of rice wine in every tender and juicy bite. It was stewed for 2 hours, then the meat was transferred into the jars and covered with peach paper.