King's Joy - A Michelin 2-Star Vegetarian Restaurant in Beijing

King's Joy (京兆尹) is a Michelin 2-Star vegetarian restaurant located right outside the Lama Temple (雍和宫) in Beijing, where Emperor Yongzheng of Qing Dynasty lived before he ascended to the throne.  The restaurant building is a traditional Chinese courtyard house, built with grey bricks, surrounded by bamboos.  The look is very classic and elegant.

We were there for lunch on a chilling Friday.  Walked past a long passage way, and were ushered into a reception area, where you can sit down, relax a bit, remove your heavy winter wear, and soak in the atmosphere.  There are books and magazines around for you to read too.

The dining area is in the courtyard, covered with a glass ceiling, letting in soft natural light.  Live Chinese music is performed in the center stage.

Table setting is a fusion of the West and the East, you have the Chinese chopsticks, as well as the Western knife and fork.   Some mandarin oranges were served as our appetizer.

The staff was very friendly and patient in explaining to us the different dishes available, and recommended to us what might be the best options we could have.

Avocado Roll

Our first dish was avocado roll.  Avocado was cut into thin slices then made into a roll, with honey dew and probably raisins as fillings.  Lots of efforts were put into the layout of the dish, and sure they succeeded in doing that.  Avocado's crispiness combined with honey dew's sweetness and fragrance, the taste was very pleasant, a wake-up to all your taste buds, to get ready for the next dish.

Deep-Fried Seaweed and Tofu Skin Roll(海苔腐竹卷)

The next dish, deep-fried seaweed and tofu skin roll, came out like a painting, it looked so nice that we almost couldn't bear to eat it.  The tofu skin was so crispy that you could hear the sound of it being crushed in your mouth.  Seaweed gave you the smell of the sea and a pleasant aroma.  I didn't touch the flower, it was just too beautiful to be eaten.

Our two hot dishes were Luohanzhai, stewed mixed vegetables, and Chinese cabbage with different types of mushrooms.  Never know mushroom soup could become so milky, it was filled with fragrance, unique to the mushrooms, while different from that of the fruits.

For Chinese style of vegetarian food, usually a lot of oil is used to get rid of the bitterness in the vegetables.  In this case, however, I hardly saw any oil, yet there was not a trace of bitterness.  Kudos to the chef!

Spicy Lion's Mane Mushroom (香辣猴头菇)

Our finale was spicy lion's mane mushroom, cooked with red hot chilies, presented in the form of a bump boat.  It looked pretty spicy but it was not.  There was only a slight hint of spiciness, which brought out the freshness in the mushroom, and added an additional layer of sensation to the sponginess of the mushroom.  Never had I imagined that you could cook mushrooms with chilies, sounded like a crazy combination, but it worked out pretty well.

The bill was CNY 1000 before service charge and taxes.  Overall, I enjoyed the meal very much.  Never in my wildest imagination that vegetarian food could be done this way, so beautiful yet so tasty!  Truly a feast to the eyes and the taste buds!

Nanjing Impressions Guangzhou China

Nanjing Impressions, or 南京大排档 in Chinese, is located in a modern shopping mall in Guangzhou's busy and up-class Tiyu Xi Lu (体育西路), the country's most busy metro interchange.  The mall is ultra modern, but once you step into Nanjing Impressions, it feels like you have been transported back in time to the era of end of Qing Dynasty, and the beginning of Republic of China. 

The interior design is of the Qin-huai (秦淮) style, after Nanjing's famous Qin-huai River, a go-to place for night entertainment in the early 1900s.  Records of Qin-opera, a form of opera popular in Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province, is being played as the background music. 

Braised Duck, CNY29.00

Nanjing is famous for its Xiaochi, small bites.  The concept is like the Spanish tapas, snacks for you to have wide selections of food to enhance your taste buds but not too heavy for the stomach, and perfect as companions for the rice wine. 

The first one that came was braised duck.  It is a cold dish.  The duck drumstick is first braised till tender, then chilled to retain all that collagen.  It is actually crunchy, with a hint of Huadiao, a popular Chinese rice wine. 

Lion's Head, CNY 28.00

 Next was stewed Lion's Head.  Lion's Head?  Are you sure?  Don't worry, it is not the real Lion, nor its head.  Lion's Head is just a name for the dish.  It is actually stewed meat ball, a really big meat ball.  The chef mixes minced pork, fresh mushroom and some other ingredients together and makes it into a giant meat ball.  Then this meat ball is slowly stewed to cooked.  The meat is very tender.  It breaks into small pieces easily in your mouth.  It is a dish that is very suitable for people who have problems with their teeth, and senior citizens. 

家传云斗煮干丝, CNY28.00

The next dish is a bit hard to translate the name into English, but it is their signature dish.  Looking at the picture, you might think that it is vermicelli or noodles in that pot of soup.  No, you are wrong.  It is actually tofu skin sliced into small slices to make it look like vermicelli.  And then it is served with a very thick stock.  The tofu skin is excellent, I must say.  Unlike noodle's softness, or vermicelli's smoothness, the tofu skin offers its unique texture.  It is crunchy, yet the texture is more rough.  It gives sparks upon your tongue.  However, I didn't like the stock, way too salty for my liking. 

We ordered some other dishes, but I am not able to cover them all here.  Overall, it was a very pleasant experience.  Good food, accompanied by that feel of transporting back in time. 

Don't get upset if you think Nanjing Impressions is only available in China, it actually has a branch right in the busy Orchard Road in Singapore.  I have not given it a try yet, but hopefully I will do that soon.

E Hua Shi Guangzhou 鹅 话 事 Guangzhou

E Hua Shi (鹅话事) literally means "Goose is in charge".  It sounds odd, isn't it?  But if you say it in Cantonese, then it makes perfect sense.  In Cantonese, the sound for Goose and the sound for I are similar, so "Goose is in charge" becomes "I am in charge".  Language is fun, isn't it?

E Hua Shi is a food joint which was only launched late last year in Guangzhou, it specializes in Cantonese roast food, in particular, roast goose.  I like roast goose, it is just not resistible, however, I seldom ate roast goose in the past.  It is one of those dishes that are prone to the use of harmful ingredients to your health.  Stories are rampant of sellers using industrial material, not approved for use in food, on roast geese just to make the taste better.  At E Hua Shi, I have no such worries.  This food joint was founded by 3 partners.  One partner takes care of the roasting himself.  All three partners do eat their own roast geese, together with their staff, on regular basis.  I think this is the best possible advertisement, and best possible guarantee for the quality of their roast geese.

1/4 Roast Goose, ¥88.00

My friend wanted to have a roast goose drumstick, but it was sold out, so we could only order 1/4 of a roast goose.  The skin was crispy!  Then there was a thin layer of goose fat right below the skin, greasing up the skin and the meat below.  The meat was juicy, but firm, yet it was still tender.  The aroma of its roast meat stimulated your sensor of smell.  It was a feast to the taste buds, and your smell buds :-)  I liked it so much that I kept eating and eating and eventually finished this quarter goose.  My friend originally thought the portion was too big for the two of us, we might have to packet the left-over, now there was nothing to pack!

We had a casual chat with one of the partners.  He told us that currently they have two branches, one is at Zhongxin Square (中信广场), the other one is the branch we visited at Huacheng Square (花城广场).  Both are catering mostly to office workers, so there is a bigger crowd for lunch, much less for dinner.  In our case, we went there for dinner, so the choice is a bit more limited.

He also said that roast goose is better eat while hot.  The best is when it is fresh from the oven.  The longer it is since the time it was taken out of the oven, the less tasty it is.  For take away, as it is covered in the container, whose moisture will make the skin less crispy, so it will affect its taste too.

The geese here are marinated by the master chef in the central kitchen, then they will be sent out to the branches, raw.  The raw geese have to be kept in a fridge, with some strict temperature control.  I have to be discreet here, as it is part of their trade secret of producing delicious roast geese.  Only when there is an expected demand, they will start the actual roasting in-store.  That's why you can see an oven in their store.

Oven for Roasting

This food joint, noticed I didn't use the word "restaurant", has quite a small shop space.  There are only 2 or 3 tables, with another 2 or 3 counter seats, so strictly speaking, it is not really a restaurant.  It is more like a Chinese fast food shop, but with good quality food.

The branch at Huacheng Square is actually quite difficult to find, as it is hidden at one corner.  The way to find it is:  First, locate Da Long Feng restaurant, which is another popular restaurant with long queues even on a weekday, then you have to walk out the building, go through a long stretch of shop under renovation, then at the end of it, you will find this food joint.

Last but not least, I must declare that one of the partners of E Hua Shi and my friend graduated from the same high school in the same year, although they didn't know each other at that time.  However, we did pay for our own food, and this review is neutral and objective.

If you are visiting Guangzhou next time, I do recommend you give them a try.  It is recommended to give them a call first so that they can reserve for you, to avoid disappointment, like my friend.


Update on 30 May 2018:
This place has closed down since.  Too bad.