BEIJING TRIP : Part 3 (Dolar Shop plus Korean to Russian Food)

Okay, first of all I wanna apologize for my absence. I have been lazying my ass off and at the same time keeping it busy with either my thesis or social activities (what I meant by social activities is being kidnapped by my friends or voluntarily allow them to kidnap me). Actually today was not an idle day for blogging, but the hell with it, I wanna write something. Oh... how much I miss writing.. Plus today was so gloomy. It kept pouring down rain and I just feel like sitting on my bed with my laptop on my lap (exactly what I am doing right now) and just pour these words right out..

Earlier today, when I was trying to procrastinate what I was supposed to be doing, I went through the photos in my phone and I was once again amazed at how many food pictures from various type of delicacies  that I got from my last trip. And yes, up until now I haven't quite finished posting about it yet. Those photos are almost buried down by the new ones. Also earlier today, I decided to put those photos in another file then continue my assignments and up to just about now, I finished editing half of it.

I'm GOING to TRY to be BRIEF! Bear with me if I started to wander around out of topic..

Ironically, in this post, two of the restaurants that I am about to review don't have anything related to Chinese delicacies.. Let's get it started..

One of the restaurants that I miss the most from Beijing...

DOLAR SHOP..! I am not sure why they call it dolar shop and NO, it's not a black market. It is one of the most famous hot pot chain restaurants in Beijing specializing in white broth huo guo (hot pot) with individual pots. Unlike any other hot pot restaurants that give you only one big sharing pot to cook with the whole people on the table. In Dolar Shop, it's all about what I want and how I like it..

Big sis and friend

Big bro and myself.. Behind us is either a real wine rack or shelf with wine bottle decorations.. lol

Individual small cute pots

This is the sauce station. They really give you a wide selection of sauce. From XO to simple peanut sauce. I chose the classic MA JIANG sauce which is the delicious peanut sauce with lots of cilantro, some sesame seeds and chili. SUPER YUMMY... 

Pretty presentation. This was before I put anything inside.. Natural sweetness from the corn and that red little thing. I don't know what the English or Indonesian word but my mum call it ki che and she uses it for cooking herbal chicken soup..

Beef and chicken meatballs.. They made their own meatballs, freshness is number one..

Fish slices.. Again, very fresh. Not fishy at all

I love love love mushrooms. All types of it

Bean curd sheet. It's quite hard but once cooked, it will go soft and ready to be eaten

Beef beef beef

Shrimp and fish meatballs

Lotus *crunch crunch*. Oh and this was how my pot ended up. Lots of garlic, sesame seeds and spring onions. I like it messy like this plus it's super fragrant!

If you scroll up again, you will see the interior of this restaurant is similar to a lounge-like place. It's kind of weird though, remembering that this is a hot pot chain, more like a family restaurant isn't it? But they serve great food and the decoration is pretty. It's definitely a NO PROBLEMO to me!

• 
  
• Add : Raffles City Shopping Mall, 1 Dongzhimennei Dajie, Dongcheng District
• 东城区东直门南街1号来福士广场5F-03

Later that night, we were still feeling kind of hungry. So we decided to go outside for some hawker food. 

BEHOLD... TO THE YUMMY.. THE MOUTH-WATERING.. THE SAVORY.. THE ADDICTIVE.. THE SEXY.. THE CHEAP.. SHAO KAO.. You can call it Chinese satay.. I think.. 

It's very different from our satay in Indonesia. First of all, this one is kind of fried in teppanyaki style instead of grilled with charcoals. Well, they also have the ones with charcoals but I was in the mood for something different. The other thing, instead of using hand-held fan, they use construction tools for cooking.. In the end, it'll be sprinkled with sunflower herby seasonings and powdered chili. PURE AWESOMENESS.. I fell in love with it instantly. We bought it for our supper snack for the rest of the vacation as the spot was near to our hotel.. 

They'll give you a basket and you just pick which one you do want. My favorites are the mushrooms, green pepper, cilantro wrapped in beancurd-like sheet (the ones in the basket), chicken with its soft bones attached, and the lamb sticks.. 

Starting from the left, mushroom, eggplant, cilantro stick, chicken, mantao (chinese steamed buns), celery stick, tofu stick
Each of the non meat stick is worth of only $1. While some of the meat stick is worth for $2 or $2,5. SO CHEAP

The teppan table is very hot indeed, even the uncle must use gloves. Later, he pressed down all of the sticks till perfectly cooked. Then he'll brush it lightly with that unknown brown sauce and sprinkled it with the chili powder and sunflower seed powder. It's savory and yummy. Addictive as hell! Oh and that other tool on the table is for scraping all the dirty burnt left overs from the previous cooking process.. Who knows construction tools could be so handy for cooking..

Alright.. Moving on.. The next morning, we headed to this mall and had our breakfast in the famous typical junk food chain.. 

the glorious.. K.. F... C.... 

Lol! Okay.. The reason why we wanna eat at KFC is simply because the advertisement for their spicy kung pao chicken burger was EVERYWHERE! In every subway station, inside the subway itself, TV ads, billboard ads, it really brainwashed the three of us.. Yes, we were suckers for food ads, how can you resist falling fried lean chicken breast (from nowhere) on top of a warm bun and sprinkled with kung pao chili flakes. It's just so not fair! We have nothing to protect ourselves from those ads and eventually fell for it.  

WORTH IT.. WORTH FALLING FOR THOSE ADS.. Crispy double fried chicken.. Yum.. The fried egg.. Yum.. The chili flakes.. YUM.. Talking about fusion burger, this is the real deal. So oriental yet so KFC at the same time..

This was what my sister bought for me. "Surprise me" I said and this was what she brought to me. Chicken popcorn, milk tea, and mashed potato for the light bites. The middle is chicken curry something something. I didn't remember it and to be honest, it's pretty ordinary. I'd rather have the burger. I was quite bummed when the Indonesian KFC discontinued the mashed potato and changed it to perkedel.. 

Big bro not in the mood for KFC so he went to Yoshinoya. The verdict : Indonesian Yoshinoya is way better! The thing is they added ham choi (that pile of small-cut veggies), maybe to make it more Chinese. We all tried it and agreed that Indonesian Yoshinoya has wayyyy better taste than this one..

Uhh another thing about Chinese KFC, they have yummy egg  tart for desserts. I have always loved it.. The outer skin is very crunchy then the gooey shiny part is soft and warm.. PERFECT.. The one in the middle is their special edition chicken tart.. It was quite okay.. 

Nextttttt spot.. Doesn't have to do with anything Chinese.. 

We went to White Nights, a Russian restaurant. I have no idea where to find a Russian restaurant in Indonesia, so when my big sis said that there is one in Beijing, I was super excited.. 

The funny thing about this restaurant, everything is written with three languages, English, Mandarin and Russian. I have no clue how to read Russian or Mandarin, so English comes in pretty handy.. When I entered the place and looked at the menu, I got three ideas about Russian food. It's all about cheese, meat and alcohol.. Maybe to keep the Russians warm during winter.. If Indonesian people have the same diet, we will burn ourselves due to the scorching hot sun.. or maybe die of obesity or cholesterol.. lol

In front of the restaurant with its woody exterior.. 

Food and drink menu

The wood interior matches with the exterior. We were at the basement of the restaurant. It's quite dim but not in a creppy way. I don't know if the owner is a Russian or a Chinese. The posters hanged on the wall were pretty random. In this room, for example, they have Marilyn Monroe poster, next to a beer poster, next to a random movie poster, and so on.. 

Capital Salad on the left (18 yuan) and Embassy Salad on the right (18 yuan). The capital salad is cheesy with mayo for the sauce. While the capital salad has a crunchy texture. I enjoyed both salads for starters. 

Beef stew (35 yuan). I ordered this and it was yummy! They use tomato puree for the stew so it's very fresh and a bit tomato sour-y. Just how I like it. The beef was super tender. It's the perfect meal for a cold wintery day.. 

Pan-fried beef chop (35 yuan). Okay, I know this looked kind of sad, but the taste was pretty awesome. This is one of the reasons why I said that Russian food is all about meat.. and cheese.. and booze.. Scroll down please!

Fried Pork Chop with Pineapple (42 yuan). Of course with melted cheese topping. Guilty pleasure indeed. Just imagine a thick cut of pork chop accompanied with that melted cheese, in they go, to your watery mouth.. 

This one was actually pretty much the same deal with the one above but has no pineapple. The difference was they call the melted cheese as onion cream sauce. Guess they omit the word cheese but all I can see on it was cheese!

• Add :13A Beizhong Jie (off Dongzhimennei Dajie), Dongcheng District
• 东城区东直门内大街北中街甲13号
• Open Daily 11am-midnight
• Phone : 8402 9595

RANDOM BREAKFAST PHOTOS.. Near our hotel, there was this small hawker restaurant that sells huge pile of rice set meals with very cheap price.. accompanied with poor grammatical and quite confusing menu..

This is the pork with green pepper and onions served on a huge hot plate... The green peppers there are somehow different with ours. The smell, the taste and the texture are just not the same... It's so easy to get addicted to it

This one was chicken with no hot pot.. But the portion was also HUGE

LAST BUT NOT LEAST.. 

KOREAN FEAST! Go to Wudaokou area and find TANTANDALU Restaurant.. 

I love Korean BBQ, but sometimes I feel it's just too pricey and not satisfying in quantity. Well, in Beijing, the Korean BBQ is wayyyy cheaper. In this Tantandalu restaurant, the meat was very fragrant and flavorful. Some were savory and some were sweet. I guess they have soaked it with seasonings for quite a long time. So far, this is the best Korean BBQ I have ever tasted in my life. 

The place is quite huge and still there was a line for the waiting list

Burning hot!

While waiting, I snapped a photo of this meal set

And this one as well

And this one too..

Free stuffs.. lol

Bibimbap!

SAMGYEOPSAL

Beef tongue..

Marinated Galbi..

It was my BIG SIS BIRTHDAY! The perfect ending for the perfect meal. It's so weird and nice at the same time to celebrate a birthday somewhere very far away from home with only a few of your closed ones. 

Tan Tan Da Lu/坦坦大炉
4F Dongyuan Building, 35 Chengfu Lu (across the street from Lush…)
海淀区成府路35号东源大厦4楼(近五道口城铁)
Open until 11 p.m.

Okay, I am ending this post now. I hope it's not too long for you. It's getting pretty late and all I wanna do is sleep now. So pardon me if I sounded a bit rushed. 

Next Beijing post is going to include a pizza place that serves pizza slices bigger than my face.. A high-end restaurant review and simply more bites here and there.. 

Until then.. bye for now. :)