Tuesday 30 December 2008

Employment reaching critical levels...

.
Today's post has nothing to do with my recent inability to earn money. The headline is in fact a reference to one of my side projects: writing reviews about Beijing's top restaurants. For many of those that know me as someone who needs to be told when something was salty or had too much garlic, news about this tasty endeavour may be somewhat difficult to swallow.
.
The reviews I have been writing over the last few months are for the website, BestFoodinChina. Although the work is unpaid, it is good experience and the lavish free meals that I eat once a week make a nice change from my financial-crisis staple: eight yuan (80p) fried rice.
.
Although the current website leaves much to be desired, one thing BFIC can be credited for is that it has a regular column in China's major English-language newspaper, the China Daily. Here are a couple of my reviews that were posted on their website:
.
.
Honzen – more than raw talent...

The restaurants of large hotels can be peculiar environments, sometimes with disappointing and over-priced food. Yet, discreetly tucked away from the over-bearing marble lobby of the Kempinski Hotel, the Japanese restaurant Honzen has little of the unmistakable and unsettling transient atmosphere that permeates many hotel-based eateries; there is also none of the complacency that you might find in a chef who knows that...
Read more
.
LAN Club - a Starke contrast
.
Danny Wang was not the first to feel it his “duty” to introduce Chinese food to the West. However, as owner of this restaurant, he was perhaps among the first to successfully locate the less-than-original “traditional meets fashionable, Chinese meets foreign” dining experience in such original surroundings.

Welcome to LAN Club - the 6000 square metres of curious opulence that stretches between... Read more

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi Jez
wow that sounds absolutely brilliant. I have a secret dream to be a food critic. it's never gonna happen, I can't be bothered working my way up from journalism's dirty bottom rung. but, sigh, in another life.... sounds like you're enjoying yourself anyway which is the main thing.... see ya
xxx