Beijing trip 2026 day 2: plant-based lunch

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Considerating that I went to bed around 3 a.m. this morning, I definitely woke up too early. I had spent a little time yesterday researching for potential breakfast spots around Conrad Beiing, but I simply had zero appetite this morning. My dream of an authentic jianbing (煎饼) breakfast would have to wait until tomorrow, then...

One of the reasons why I chose our hotel was that it was only a short walk to our lunch venue today - and I would be able to avoid sitting in the notorious Beijing traffic. With the sun being out and it not being a windy day and all, the 20-minute walk to lunch was leisurely and nice. We even passed by one of the breakfast spots I had found on Dianping (大众点评).

I was kinda excited when our tour guide announced Lamdre (兰斋) as our lunch venue for today. Having earned a couple of Michelin stars as well as a place on Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, Chef Dai Jun (戴军) must be doing some seriously good plant-based cuisine. Foursheets and I are always happy to explore restaurants that offer fine dining experiences in this genre, and the lighter nature of this meal would be a welcome break from our packed dining schedule.

Since we're in China and it is lunch, Mr. Chichi suggested that we take the restaurant's tea pairing.

Sweet osmanthus Oolong, Anxi (桂花乌龙, 安溪), 1996 - this was pretty nice and elegant. Very soft and very fragrant.

The first course of our tasting menu came with a trio of bites:

Seaweed (紫菜) - the tart shell was made with nuts, and carried a block of crunchy jelly filled with morel and kombu (昆布) liquid. Topped with laver (紫菜) and algae powder, and the seaweed flavors were pretty nice. I could also smell the moss on the side.

Nut-tree mushroom (榛蘑) - the crispy tart shell bore diced honey mushrooms that had been braised, along with pickles and flakes of dried portabellos. This was very nice.

Chestnut (栗子) - the 板栗 came from the Yan Mountains (燕山) near Beijing. This was introduced as being presented in the shape of a feather, evoking imagery of geese that fly south for the winter. Personally I thought the chestnut chifonnade looked like the spikes of the chestnut burr. All this came on a cookie with smoked tofu and honey. I thought this was nice with citrus flavors.

Corn: apple, perilla seeds, hawthorn (玉米: 苹果, 紫苏籽, 山楂) - the presentation was clearly made to impress, as each of us got a pot of sunflower...

A closer look showed that we were meant to focus on the center of the flower.

Inside the crispy shell made with black sesame we've got a layer of hawthorn jelly encased in a corn mousse with crunchy green apple, topped with sunflower seeds which have been pan-fried with sea salt, and perilla seeds. This was nice and creamy, and tasted sweet thanks to the corn.

Celeriac: celery, buckwheat (根芹: 芹菜, 荞麦) - here we've got thin strands of "noodle" made out of celeriac.

The broth that was poured into the bowl was made of celeriac and fermented radish, so it had the acidity plus the spicy kick from plenty of white pepper. This was a nice way to warm up the stomach.

This pretty cracker was actually made of buckwheat and celery leaves, which we were encouraged to break apart and enjoy with the dip...

The dipping sauce was made with celeriac and nuts plus some celery oil, and came with plenty of acidity.

Palm tree heart: yuzu, marigold (棕榈芯: 柚子, 万寿菊) - palm hearts is always a nice and refreshing ingredient, kinda like a crunchier version of water bamboo (茭白), which also have light and clean flavors.

We've got drops of marigold oil, yuzu (柚子) sauce, and shavings of lime zest on top.

Laochapo Liupao tea, luo han guo, snow chrysanthemum, lemongrass, palo santo, Liubao (老茶婆, 罗汉果, 雪菊, 香茅, 圣木), 2019 - the lemongrass was pretty apparent.

Then came the presentation of the next course, which filled the room with smoky aromas.

Straw mushroom: matsutake, medick, maitake mushroom (草菇: 松茸, 草头, 舞茸菇) - the straw mushroom had lots of juice inside.

Underneath the maitake (舞茸) we had the medick (草頭) along with some cream and powdered grains.

Lily bulb: ginko, yellow fungus (百合: 银杏, 黄耳) - nowadays the famed 9-year lily bulbs from Lanzhou (兰州) is ubiquitous at fine-dining establishments, and came presented with a sauce made of coconut milk, turmeric, and spices. There's a little heat here and the sauce kinda reminded me of Thai tom yum (ต้มยำ) soup. The pretty ring of white purée with the flowers had some acidity there.

Rather than simply serving a whole bulb, it was mashed up and made into a "dumpling" with diced cloves mixed in, along with ginkgo nuts and “golden ear (黄耳)" fungus.

Aged raw Pu-erh, Menghai (年份普洱), 2003

We were then shown the ingredients for our next course.

Eggplant: basil, okra, green pepper (茄子: 九层塔, 秋葵, 青辣椒) - the eggplant had been grilled for a little smoky and charred flavors. Then we had powdered shavings of chili and black bean cake (豆豉辣椒餅) from Hunan Province (湖南省). Served with some Thai basil and a wafer of grilled pea shoots.

Underneath the thin slice of eggplant we had eggplant purée as well as okra, along with baby paprika peppers. This was a nice and hearty dish, with just a hint of spicy heat.

Tofu: seaweed, lettuce, tomatillo (豆腐: 海藻, 生菜, 树番茄) - we've got a bowl of raw vegetables here including butter lettuce, bird's nest fern (山蘇), seaweed, choy sum (菜心)... but this was no salad.

There would be warm south broth pour in, made with tomatillo, pickled papaya, and mountain litsea (木薑子 or 馬告). The soup was very fragrant thanks to the mountain litsea. The hot stone in the middle of the pot is meant to keep the soup warm, and for those of us who had the pleasure of going to the 2023 edition of Noma Kyoto, this reminded us of the seaweed shabu-shabu... but a hot and sour version.

We also had a piece of tofu that had been frozen before being dehydrated for 48 hours. We were meant to dip it into the soup, and the flavors from the soy beans were pretty strong.

Radish: coriander, kombu (萝卜: 芫荽, 昆布) - a beautifully presented dish. Just look at all those vibrant colors! Surrounding the block of white radish simmered with kombu was a vibrant red sauce made with red capsicum, fermented rice lees (米麴), pressed tofu (豆乾), and water chestnuts.

The triangular pocket was made with layers of different types of radish, including green radish from Weifang (潍坊) in Shandong (山東) Province, yellow radish from Xinjiang (新疆), and purple radish known as "pineapple radish (凤梨萝卜). Inside we had shredded pickled radish and coriander.

For our rice course, the top layer of shredded cabbage was layered at the bottom of the bowl tableside. The rice used happened to be Foursheets' current favorite rice - Wuchang rice (五常大米) from Heilongjiang (黑龙江) Province.

Taro, cabbage, Chaozhou salted mustard greens (红芽芋: 卷心菜, 潮州咸菜) - this is a plant-based version of the classic Chaoshan gefan (戈飯), so instead of preserved sausage and preserved pork belly, the rice was cooked with chunks of taro, and served with laver from Chaozhou (潮州) along with crosnes (寶塔菜) that had been pickled (in wine?) This had to be stirred/tossed well so that ingredients such as each mouthful will get the right ratio of mushrooms, cabbage, and laver. Very nice and hearty.

Nine-scented jasmine tea, Fuzhou (九窨茉莉花茶, 福州), 2025 - with the wonderful fragrance of jasmine flowers.

Parsnip, yuba, koji (防风根: 腐竹, 米曲) - on top of the parsnip cream we had a foam made of germinated soy beans and rice lees, along with a sprinkle of cocoa powder.

We were instructed to mix the roasted ginkgo nuts, chestnuts, and parsnip crisps into the bowl.

Finally we had the petit four:

Roselle and hawthorn jelly (洛神花山楂)

Tangjuanguo (糖卷果) - a trianglular traditional Pekinese snack, made with Chinese yam and dried fruits wrapped in tofu skin.

Some sort of glutinous rice roll...

Made with black sesame. This was nice.

Matcha mung bean cake (绿豆抹茶糕) - with jujube paste (枣泥) filling.

This was a wonderful lunch, and certainly eye-opening for me. I appreciated the thoughtful sourcing of ingredients, and Chef Dai has created dishes that were not only stunning in their presentation, but more importantly pleasurable to the palate and satisfying on this cold winter day. Best of all, the meal was filling without being stuffed to the brim - which worked out perfectly. I'm grateful for the restaurant's hospitality and the treat. We will be back.

While our tour guide herded the others to the newly-opened Le Café Louis Vuitton, Foursheets and I felt we would not appreciate those additional calories. Instead, we decided to head over to Beijing Department Store (北京市百货大楼) in Wangfujing (王府井). They are currently offering a carnival-like installation called Heping Guoju (和平菓局) on a basement floor. Covering an area of 2,400 square meters, it is meant to offer an immersive, interactive experience of old Beijing from half a century ago.

One can walk through alleys or hutongs (胡同) like this...

...or step into an old-style internet cafe...

They've actually put in an old railway train car! We went inside just to take a peek.

There are games that one can play and win tickets, which can be exchanged for gifts. That's just like carnival fairs that I used to go to as a child. Meanwhile, here's a live 草泥马, erm... alpaca.

There are different vendors offering goods that were popular in years past, as well as street snacks. If one were thirsty, Coffee Qinghua Chi (清华池咖啡) offered refreshments in an environment evoking old-school bath houses with shower stalls and communal pools.

Foursheets' favorite was this sign. With slogans like this, you know you're in China!

This was a pretty fun diversion, but it was time to head out to dinner.