Nearby The Tree
Labels: Beijing, out and about
Monday, April 21, 2008
Last Saturday, the three of us went for a spot of shopping at the Silk Market. Hubs wanted to see if he could score some PC games and I wanted a coin scarf for my belly-dancing lessons. I can't tell you how many times I've kicked myself for not packing the one I bought from Turkey last year. In terms of the quantity of coins sewn on it (the more the better), it was the Real Deal. Ack!
Anyhow, on this day, Hubs was unlucky in his persuit of PC games. The stores had Playstation, Nintendo, Wii, PSP but no computer games. I, on the other hand, found a nice (enough) scarf in red chiffon and gold coins.
All that walking and haggling - one has to bargain and bargain hard at the Silk Market - left us hungry and we scooted off in a taxi to the Sanlitun area to a cafe cum restaurant called Nearby The Tree. It is so named because it is situated near a very large tree. I don't know if it's the Belgium sense of humour at play here, but because it is owned by a Belgium man, the menu had all sorts of familiar goodies like Duvel beer, cheeses, sausages and waffles.
We plonked our tired bodies on the plush sofas for drinks first before heading onto the dining area for lunch.
Hubs ordered a cheese platter from the appetizer section to start with. We thought it a bit strange as cheese is normally considered a dessert but no matter, it was delish anyway with all that dried fruit and excellent bread accompanying it.
I had a seafood chowder, with bread swiped off Hubs' cheese platter.
For the mains, Sonny-boy had a casserole thingy going with three types of cheeses and penne pasta. It was tummy curdling rich but good, if you like your cheese.
Hubs chose a steak with red wine sauce and some pasta and oven baked tomatoes on the side. He is not such a big fan of tomatoes and those big mommas scared the daylights out of him. I was only too happy to relieve him of them. They were good, by the ways, with the thin crusty top of cheese gratin on them.
And me -
Ricotta and spinach stuffed tortellini tossed in a spicy Arrabiata sauce. 
The Dutchess of Cookalot whipped this up at 10:37 pm
