Rotary Fireside Chat at my home

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove
in Rotary

Our Rotary Club of Beijing has launched “Fireside Chats” at the homes (or any other location), organized by one member to invite others, based on a lucky draw.
I already had joined one at Rtn. Benno’s home for a lavish afternoon session with gorgeous cakes (done by one of our German lady members), coffee, tea, and copious amounts of champagne.

On Sunday 16 March, a Sunday lunch at my home for five Rotarians of our Beijing Club.
Sun was a great cook as usual and we all had a good time to chat and know each other better.

Beijing Rotaract: international and dynamic

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove
in Rotary

On 10 March we had one more meeting of the Rotaract Club of Beijing, as usual 8 pm in The Local, upstairs.

A pretty international group with people from China, USA, UK, Latvia, Honduras, Germany, South Korea, Czech Republic and … Belgium (myself).
The Club has several ongoing and planned projects, such as Storytime for the Migrant Children Foundation (MCF), Art Jam, Networking Events, Food Drive, Charity Run, and more.
On 17 March there is a social evening for Young Professionals at The Local with some proceeds going to MCF, see the flyer.

Anybody for fish head?

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

For many foreigners the dish might be strange, the least to say. But it is as a matter of fact not that un-European, see the Marseille bouillabaisse (France), where also fish head can be added.
Actually I learned to eat the dish in China. It comes generally speaking in two varieties: the hot and spicy one (e.g. Hunan) or the one here, in a sticky brown sauce.
Normally noodles or pieces of pancakes are added to take up the sauce. The meat of the (large) fish heads is delicious and the bones are rather large, so less tricky to eat than normal Chinese fish, a challenging experience with the millions of annoying bones – not my favorite.

See here the fish head from the restaurant Wang Shun Ge in Fortune Plaza 3rd floor in CBD. This one is the “brown sauce type”. There was also a special soup that takes hours to boil.
Problem is, I always eat too much… Too tempting…

In Beijing, even a restaurant with South Africa cuisine and wine

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

In this city, you can now find about anything. I had seen Pinotage in Soho Sanlitun and for some reason I thought it was Spanish. I failed to see the flag from … South Africa. Once I knew it, let’s check it out.
On Saturday 1 March I invited my daughter, always a willing participant to eat out. The restaurant was packed so we had to sit in the bar section, pretty comfy actually. They also sell wine from SA.

We had Farmer’s Sausage, Ostrich Hamburger, some vegetables and desert. I took a red from South Africa, RMB 160 and nice to drink. Valerie took the rest of the bottle home as I was heading to my KTV afterwards (where my bottle of Jack Daniels was waiting!).
The verdict: food quality very good, portions relatively small and a bit pricy but overall a good and different experience. And next time I should make a reservation!

One more great “Old China Hands”

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Yes, on Friday 7 March we had our monthly Old China Hands lunch, as usual in Morel’s. With everybody pretty busy getting back to business, we had “only” 25 participants, with several people who could not make it at the last minute. We had one acting ambassador and three retired ambassadors.

I had to urge all to sit down and order – everyone seemed too much engaged in chatting with each other, a good sign.
Next lunch is Friday 4 April.
Morel’s is a great place and next to our monthly lunch my office was having a lunch meeting, and our Chinese friends just loved it…