Food

The year 2017 is a very interesting year, to be sure. Some are predicting that 2017 will be the year of disruption such as disruption has never been seen before. No money will become new money, and old money will become no money. Industries are shifting.

This definitely rings true when we come to the area of food and beverages. There have been massive shifts recently in the way we view what we are going to take into our bodies, and many are predicting that this is just the tip of  a massive wave of innovation that will sweep through us all.

For thousands of years in cultures all across the world, alcoholic drinks have been the first choice for people going out to have a good time. There are of course various sound reasons for this. But there is a new wave of drinks called Botanicals, beverage products that are based around super ingredients, or “hero” ingredients, and are designed to be healthful, deliciously flavorful and stimulating from the bottom up.

How many of us are just frankly exhausted, and the last thing we want to do in our precious free time is be imbibing a substance that makes us even more tired (since it is, after all, a central nervous system depressant)? Adding to this, people are now more aware than ever of just how bad for your health drinking alcohol actually is. Botanicals are a hot new product that have a lot of potential to stay in the market because they actually promote health.

Not to mention the recipes are put together with input from people working in gastronomy, people with refined palates who know how to make something taste good!

So the end result are lines of drinks that have amazing new flavors (and every one is vastly different from all the others so variety never is lacking), provide health benefits, are super agreeable to the discerning palate, and in addition to all this, provide proven health benefits. No more hangovers, no more negative effects etc. And you can pick them up everywhere. They even have a My Voucher Codes for it.

Let’s face it; it’s about time that we started thinking more about our health and changed our habits, and this includes not only our work but also our leisure. We see how sick the generations that came before us and how quickly they got that way, and how hard it is to get out of it. So we want to fix the problem at the root, and if that means disruptive changes in our environment, so be it!

As late as even several years ago, if you asked any real foodie about where to eat in Beijing, they’d look grim and maybe make a few half hearted suggestions, or maybe even just tell you to get on a plane and go to Hong Kong or Shanghai.

But this is 2017 and the world is a rapidly changing pace. Beijing has recently really started to come into its own as far as fine dining and good gastronomy is concerned. You no longer have to look so hard to find good offerings in tons of different international styles. Here are some of Beijings best offerings, in various styles and at many different price points.

Out of the many styles of Chinese cooking, imperial cuisine is perhaps the most overlooked and underrated. With that in mind, we would like to point you to Tiandi Yijia, where imperial cuisine fuses with select contemporary techniques to produce something truly spectacular. Found in the restaurant district right next to the Forbidden City, this place is not cheap, but it’s worth every last RMB you will spend.

The south of China is famous for its dim sum, among many other things, and Beijing is not short of offerings in this area. Our favorite over here is the famous La Garden, which is highly recommended for its crystal dumplings and egg custards. This place can get crowded, so go there early.

Haidilao is a Sichuan restaurant, serving what many people consider to actually be the most underrated regional cuisine in China, and certainly one of the top exported cuisines. Haidilao is famous for its exquisite bubbly hotpots. Love of spicy food is recommended for the full experience here.

For Japanese fare, especially sushi and sashimi of course, there is Hatsune, with its expertly cut and prepared offerings. Vietnamese food at its absolute best can be easily found at the very chic Susu. And now, there is a delicious little part of Italy that has located itself in a remote little alleyway far away from any of the traditional restaurant districts. Check out Mercante, which serves up simple but absolutely top-notch pastas and ragus etc.

So now, as you are cruising around town in your Blacklane, be sure to stop and check out some of Beijings newest and best culinary offerings. Your palate will thank you for it. Bon appetite everybody!

Indian cuisine is delicious, full of spices and often spicy, too. There are so many great dishes that selecting the top five is a little bit tricky. What are your favorite Indian food dishes? The great thing about Indian food is that India itself is culturally diverse, so that means top food dishes are also diverse and made using a variety of cooking techniques. Not only that, but addictive street food is also a thing in India, just like in say Thailand and for a stateside example, New York.

Any tourist destination has street food, but it is part of the culture in India. Let’s get down to these top five food dishes so you can start whipping up the recipes for dinner. You might have to go buy some ingredients though because you’re talking dishes of the eastern world, like the first pick for the top five, Chicken Stew and Appam.

This dish almost looks like what you would expect a creamy chicken noodle soup to look like. It is nothing like it though, and a real description would be chicken chunks in gravy with Appam. The gravy is a spicy coconut gravy, which makes it sound absolutely delicious.

The second dish that makes the top five is going to make your mouth water if you like lamb. Lamb is a delicious meat used in many Indian recipes. The Kakori Kabobs are lamb kabobs, and of course you can guess that all kinds of great spices are used.

The third dish that makes the top five is Rogan Josh, which some would say is #1. It is a dish that is again known for its special spices and is from Kashmir.

It is fun to learn where the dishes are from in India, too.

Coming in at #4 is a dish called Butter Chicken, which calls for a marinade of spices and yogurt.

At #5 is Dhokla, which you can’t pass up if you are learning about Indian cuisine.