As usual some people told me the turnout would be minimal as it was just before Chinese New Year. And as usual, they were wrong (I never dare myself to make a prediction…).
So, we ended up 27 in total, a nice mix as usual.

On another very sad note, I must inform that one of our members is no more.
Our Dutch friend Willem van Kemenade passed away on 8 February while on holiday in The Netherlands. He was well known in the local community and we regularly had a chat. RIP my friend.
Do note that due to overseas trips the dates for the upcoming lunches have been changed to Wednesday 9 March and Friday 8 April.

We can say in some way that the dinner at In & Out (Yunnan Restaurant, see my earlier comment) on 14 January was the start of the BBC, our new Beijing Belgian Club. There were some preparatory meetings in the previous weeks to brainstorm on how to set it up.
See: In Out Yunnan Food

There were some initiatives in the past, more than ten years ago, with Michel Lens organizing the “Blue Lotus”. But at the time, response was rather lukewarm – my own experience is that the Belgian community in Beijing is hard to mobilize, while in Shanghai that is not an issue at all.
But now we have some enthusiastic volunteers and we hope we can look ahead to a nice gathering of Belgians here in the capital! A first idea for the website was planned and the domain name reserved.
Since then the name has been changed to “Belgians in Beijing” (BiB). A logo will soon be chosen. See the new website: http://www.belgiansinbeijing.com/
The next “official” event will be on 11 March in the Belgian Embassy.

On Friday 8 January, for once the second Friday of the month (and the year), our monthly lunch at Morel’s Restaurant.
I think we beat or equaled our highest attendance with 37 participants.

We nearly filled our side of the restaurant. As always the mixed crowd enjoyed the casual discussion and mingling.

Xibei serves Shanxi specials and has many outlets all over Beijing. I call it Chinese fastfood because of the large crowds, the queing and the rather cheap prices. My visit was on 7 January 2016.
I had to wait for well over 20 min. at the Ginza Mall outlet (Dongzhimen), made interesting as I could watch some of the cooks preparing the food. All pretty well organized and clean.
I was told the “long-hour stewed fish” was recommended but by the time we ordered they had run out. Oh well next time.

The dishes were pretty good and I liked their popular cold noodle dish, among others. Price very reasonable: no drinks (free water) and food (plenty) for two: some RMB 110.
Always puzzling why some restaurants are so popular while others remain rather empty. One of the mysteries of Beijing, at least for me.