Southern Barbarian
A new restaurant opened in Beijing this summer that I was really hoping to have a chance to try as soon as possible. From Shanghai came a second location of Southern Barbarian, specializing in Yunnan cuisine. Our family has yet to travel to that part of China, and previously we have never eaten Yunnancai. It's apparently a bit of a hip trend in Beijing, restaurants serving food from China's southwest. The fashion has not, as far as I know, hit Changping yet.
We had the perfect opportunity to try Southern Barbarian the afternoon we went to retrieve our picture of Jesus. The Catholic art store was more in the neighborhood of the restaurant than where we live.
The entrance is almost hidden in a small alleyway. Another restaurant in the same building has a much larger sign on the roof. I thought we were lost, until I saw the small brass door plate.
More, mostly pictures of food, after the jump
When we were seated with our menus, Myles kept asking me if we were actually in a Chinese restaurant. Certainly the interior resembled little any Chinese restaurant we have been to in Changping...
....but it was the extensive drink list that caused Myles to question where we were.
"Look at the all the foreign beers on the menu," he pointed out to me. Oh, I was, Myles; I was. All eighty of so of them! At the time there was a buy-one-get-one special on Czech beers, so I ordered a Bohemian pivo and took one home with me. So often these last six years I have longed for a place that served good beer to wash down my Chinese food, and at long last here it is.
We began with spicy basil leaves.
This was joined shortly by the salt and pepper friend cheese. The only thing I knew beforehand that I wanted to try was one of the fried goat cheese plates, a common dish from Yunnan. Chinese food, with great beer and cheese? Yes, please!
Then came garlicky cold eggplant and tomatoes, shredded potato pancake, and spicy toothpick beef (for Myles).
I really wanted to try something that incorporated flowers, unique to Yunnan food. I could not help but order this jasmine flower omelet. It didn't photograph well, but it was really quite good. Brigid was amused that we were eating her namesake flower, 茉莉花.
Myles was not feeling nearly adventurous enough to sample their deep-fried bumblebees. I was fine with that, allowing me to postpone a while longer any decision regarding whether bees are vegetarian or not.
It was such a great lunch, with new-to-us flavors mixed with more familiar ones. If we lived closer, it would be difficult to convince me to eat anywhere else for a while. I would be willing to see if the novelty of Chinese food with beer and cheese wore off.
We had the perfect opportunity to try Southern Barbarian the afternoon we went to retrieve our picture of Jesus. The Catholic art store was more in the neighborhood of the restaurant than where we live.
The entrance is almost hidden in a small alleyway. Another restaurant in the same building has a much larger sign on the roof. I thought we were lost, until I saw the small brass door plate.
More, mostly pictures of food, after the jump
When we were seated with our menus, Myles kept asking me if we were actually in a Chinese restaurant. Certainly the interior resembled little any Chinese restaurant we have been to in Changping...
....but it was the extensive drink list that caused Myles to question where we were.
"Look at the all the foreign beers on the menu," he pointed out to me. Oh, I was, Myles; I was. All eighty of so of them! At the time there was a buy-one-get-one special on Czech beers, so I ordered a Bohemian pivo and took one home with me. So often these last six years I have longed for a place that served good beer to wash down my Chinese food, and at long last here it is.
We began with spicy basil leaves.
This was joined shortly by the salt and pepper friend cheese. The only thing I knew beforehand that I wanted to try was one of the fried goat cheese plates, a common dish from Yunnan. Chinese food, with great beer and cheese? Yes, please!
Then came garlicky cold eggplant and tomatoes, shredded potato pancake, and spicy toothpick beef (for Myles).
I really wanted to try something that incorporated flowers, unique to Yunnan food. I could not help but order this jasmine flower omelet. It didn't photograph well, but it was really quite good. Brigid was amused that we were eating her namesake flower, 茉莉花.
Myles was not feeling nearly adventurous enough to sample their deep-fried bumblebees. I was fine with that, allowing me to postpone a while longer any decision regarding whether bees are vegetarian or not.
It was such a great lunch, with new-to-us flavors mixed with more familiar ones. If we lived closer, it would be difficult to convince me to eat anywhere else for a while. I would be willing to see if the novelty of Chinese food with beer and cheese wore off.
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