The opening ceremony in Brazil may be a distant memory for many football fans, but celebrations are yet to come for the International Youth Football Tournament. The Great Wall Cup is entering its fifth year in Beijing in July and August. The tournament gives young teams from around the world the opportunity to compete while experiencing Chinese culture. And while Italy didn’t show their true colors in the World Cup, there are other ways to enjoy Italian delights; Shunyi has a number of great Italian restaurants. If you’re longing for something more exciting than just floating on a lilo (inflated pool seat), head to Splash Recreation Club at Beijing CITIC Airport Hotel. Their series of pool parties continues with a Las Vegas-themed event.

Great Wall Cup Opening Ceremony
The Great Wall Cup Youth Football Tournament is one of the leading youth tournaments in Asia, taking place this year between July 28 and August 1. The tournament welcomes teams from all over the world to further their football potential.

The opening ceremony will be held at Beijing New Talent Academy on Sunday, July 27 from 2-5pm. The Cup will kick off with a match between Footskills Australia and Beijing Guo’an Youth Team. For more info, visit www.thegreatwallcup.com.

Spaghetti and Sambuca
Annie’s
Winning “Best Italian” at the 2014 Beijinger Reader Restaurant Awards was a special milestone for Annie’s. Since the first awards were introduced in 2004, Annie’s has won the title every year.

There are currently some seasonal promotions on offer, such as two-for-one Italian digestifs like grappa, sambuca, limoncello, or amaro (available every day from 5pm). For an afternoon indulgence, buy any dessert and get a free tea or coffee (available Monday to Friday from 2-5pm). If you’re having take-out, enjoy half price on selected beers and soft drinks. Offer includes Coke, Sprite, Tsingtao, Carlsberg, and Heineken.

Michael’s Place
Michael’s Place offers tasty Italian food with friendly and reliable service. It’s a great place to take the kids, with child-friendly menu options, highchairs, and a play area. The restaurant also offers takeout and catering.

Loft Eatalicious
Loft Eatalicious has a lovely bistro vibe where you can enjoy classic pizzas, creamy risottos, pasta dishes, and well-made desserts. Their outside seating area is a great place to relax while indulging in some great food and wine.

Galati Italian Restaurant
Galati has a very large and comfortable dining space. Perfect for casual lunches or a more intimate dinner, with a superb range of meat and fish dishes, wood-fired pizzas, authentic pasta dishes, and very indulgent desserts.

Summer Themed Pool Party
Fancy a bit of Vegas without losing money at the casinos? Head over to Splash Recreation Club at CITIC Hotel Beijing Airport for their Las Vegas-themed pool party on Saturday, July 26 from 2-9pm. There will be pool games, prizes, an open bar, and a free buffet. Call 6456 5588 for details.

beijingkids Shunyi Correspondent Sally Wilson moved to Beijing in 2010 from the UK with her husband and son. Her daughter was born here in 2011 and both her kids keep her happily busy. In her spare time, Sally loves to stroll through Beijing’s hutongs and parks. She is a (most of the time) keen runner and loves reading: books, magazines, news, and celeb websites – anything really. Sally is also a bit of a foodie and loves trying out new restaurants.

Photos courtesy of Alpha, Margot Cable, Michael Fletcher, Raffaele Nicolussi & China Sports Tours (Flickr). 

Another new restaurant at Pinnacle Plaza has opened its doors. Tapas Plus is a welcome addition to the ever-expanding range of eateries in this part of Shunyi. The restaurant has a bright and airy setting, decorated in simple black and white hues with a conservatory feel.

The kitchen sits in the center, with the restaurant wrapped around it. The air conditioning was on, but as it was one of those rare great air days, it would have been nice to have had some of the many windows open instead. The staff was very friendly, knowledgeable about the menu, and happy to recommend the right number of dishes for feeding three ladies at lunchtime.

My dining companions felt that the white plastic tables did lend a certain canteen feel to the interior, and that it could have benefitted from some injection of color, perhaps in the choice of seating cushions.

Whilst perusing the menu, we were served breadsticks wrapped in Parma ham alongside some olives. The breadsticks would have been enhanced by a dip, but the olives were delicious. We ordered patatas bravas (RMB 30), which was wonderfully spicy with a rich garlic and tomato sauce. The potatoes could have been cooked a little longer, but the combination of flavors was spot on.

The grilled flat mushrooms (RMB 35) were firm and full of the flavor of garlic and herbs. Cod fritters were incredibly light and fluffy, not at all oily, although a little more cod-to-potato ratio would have improved them further. The accompanying aioli was perfect. An anchovy and olive tapenade was a little firm in texture, but nicely tart and salty and went well with the grilled bread. We had ordered the buffalo asparagus with walnut pesto, but unfortunately it didn’t arrive.

Other dishes include beef spring rolls with guacamole and mint aioli, marinated lamb kebabs with tzatziki, friend egg, chorizo and potato tart, pork meatballs, prawn ceviche, and crab terrine, with dishes ranging from RMB 30-80.There are a few soups to choose from, including gazpacho and chilled white almond. A tapas restaurant wouldn’t be authentic without paella on the menu. Choose from shrimp, mussel, green peas, and chorizo, or chicken, green peas, and asparagus, RMB 180 for two people.The menu has a good balance of meat, fish and vegetable dishes, and the sharing concept of tapas should prove to be a hit amongst the expat and local community.

Portion sizes were perfect for a lunch. If we had ordered dessert, the options were panna cotta, crema catalona or lemon blueberry tartlet. At RMB 50-58, they are a little on the expensive side. Wine can be had by the glass for RMB 48-58 for a Sauvignon Blanc or Tempranillo, with bottles at RMB 200-400. There are a choice of beers, soft drinks, fresh juices, fruit teas, and coffees.

The big disappointment with Tapas Plus is that it has no bathroom. There is a sink for washing your hands, but if you’re dining here with little ones, you’ll have to head off out across the plaza in search of a public toilet or smile sweetly at the staff in Burger King. I don’t know whether it’s a lack of sewage pipe network, restaurants not wanting to set aside space for a bathroom, or assuming that we like the whole communal toilet experience. If Tapas Plus had worked with its neighbor Loft Eatalicious, I’m sure they could have installed something at that location. 

beijingkids Shunyi Correspondent Sally Wilson moved to Beijing in 2010 from the UK with her husband and son. Her daughter was born here in 2011 and both her kids keep her happily busy. In her spare time, Sally loves to stroll through Beijing’s hutongs and parks. She is a (most of the time) keen runner and loves reading: books, magazines, news, and celeb websites – anything really. Sally is also a bit of a foodie and loves trying out new restaurants.

Photo by Sally Wilson

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Ceramic Shop
Old timers in Shunyi will know there was once a shop in Europlaza that sold export overrun ceramics and pottery at very reasonable prices. The same pieces can still be found at some of the shops at Liangma Flower Market, but it was convenient to have a local to rely on.

The Europlaza shop closed down, later re-opening along Jingmi Lu where Boulangerie Nanda used to be. Eventually, that second location also shut its doors.

But now, as Stacey and Sara from STARAfood Beijing discovered, the shop has once again re-opened in Shunyi. Click here to read STARAfood’s blog (VPN required); Stacey and Sara also provide a photo of the shop’s name card at the end of their blog post. The directions are indispensable for showing to your driver. Call ahead to make sure they are open; the number is 138 0119 9232 (Chinese only).

STARAcooking spring classes
While you’re on the STARAfood website, check out their spring cooking classes:

•    April 15: Easter Feast
•    April 23 or May 6: Cocktails 202
•    April 30: Cinco de Mayo
•    May 14: Spring Fling Light and Healthy Meals
•    May 20: Go Green Vegetarian
•    May 28: Everyday Eating – Italian Part 2

All classes are held in Shunyi from 10am-2pm. Class fees include ingredients and 5-6 recipes, and all participants sit down to enjoy the meal they have cooked together. These are very hands-on cooking classes; you’ll pick up tips on knife handling, food preparation, cooking techniques, and shopping for ingredients in Beijing.

Call 186 1170 1730 or email starafood@gmail.com for inquiries, and be sure to mention that beijingkids sent you!

INN Coffee Morning and Roundabout Book Fair
The International Newcomers’ Network (INN) holds its monthly coffee morning at Roundabout every third Thursday of the month. The next edition is on Thursday, March 20 from 10am-noon.

Not just for newcomers, the coffee morning is a good way to meet the neighbors and make new friends. It’s also a good chance to drop off donations, do a bit of shopping, and find out more about volunteering opportunities at the retail store.

It’s also time for another one of Roundabout’s popular book fairs! The timing is right for picking up previously-loved books to curl up with on your spring break vacation. The next one will be held at the International Montessori School of Beijing on Saturday, March 22 from 10am-3pm.

If you can’t make it, the sale will continue from Monday, March 24 to Saturday, March 29 during school hours (10am-3pm). Titles will be refreshed regularly throughout the week.

Last week, we mentioned that the Roundabout Crafting Sale and Workshops would be held on Wednesday, March 26. The venue is Pinotage in Shunyi, and the fee is RMB 100 to learn a craft of your choice. For more details, call Roundabout at 137 1877 7761 (English) or 137 1805 3814 (Chinese). All proceeds from Roundabout’s book fair and craft sale will go towards helping kids in need.

Sports Beijing Elite Sports Camps
Sports Beijing offers budding athletes sports camps this month and next. Olympic swimmers Jason Lezak, Aaron Peirsol, and Kim Vandenberg of the US are coaching a two-day swim camp from March 22-23 at the International School of Beijing. Open to swimmers of all ability levels from ages 7-15. Participants can attend one or both days. Fee is RMB 1,000 per day and the camp runs from 2-6pm.

Sports Beijing is also teaming up once again with Celebreight F.C. to bring back former Barcelona youth team coaches for a soccer workshop. The four-day training camp will be held from May 1-4 during the May holiday at ISB. You can register for the camps by logging on to Sports Beijing’s website.

Loft Eatalicious: The Best Italian Restaurant in Shunyi?

The owners of Loft Eatalicious say their bistro is very laid-back and informal, but we’d say it’s quite classy by Shunyi standards. And we’re far from complaining.

Loft Eatalicious is a welcome addition to the Shunyi dining scene for its authentic Italian cuisine made with fresh, high-quality ingredients. From nearly any table at this cozy restaurant (maximum capacity of around 40), you get a clear view of Chef Roberto Masili lording it over his team in the open kitchen.

The house specialties are the freshly-made pasta and pizza, but nearly everything that we tried on our three visits have left us feeling more than satisfied.

The most recent addition is a weekend breakfast (8.30-11am), which we missed on our most recent visit. Instead, we had the brunch set (available on weekends from 11am-2.30pm). At RMB 128 per person for three courses, it was a decent price for a slow Sunday midday meal.

Being a family of four, we managed to order nearly everything on the brunch menu; there are two choices each per starter, first course, and main course.

For starters, there was a choice between a shrimp cocktail (what I ordered) or a platter of Italian cold cuts, pizza bread, and olives (what I really wanted). First course was between homemade spinach gnocchi or a lovely eggplant parmigiana. We all liked the texture of the eggplant and cheese with just a bit of tartness to the sauce.

The main course I chose was deep-fried calamari with gazpacho dressing. They forgot the dressing, so we were content with squeezing lemon on the calamari. But after I asked about the sauce and the owner gladly brought it out to us, we saw why the chef designed it to go along with the dish; the mild spiciness of the cold dressing gave just the right kick to the squid. I would definitely have it again.

The other main course was grilled lamb cutlets. My teenager was in seventh heaven with his choice; he said he was getting emotional from how tender and buttery the lamb was. He was so pleased with his brunch selections that it cemented his decision to go back to Loft Eatalicious for his birthday with friends, a request he made on his first visit to the restaurant.

On other visits, we’d also had the equally delicious cuttlefish, salmon, and Wagyu beef carpaccio (RMB 50, RMB 58 and RMB 78 respectively); soft-boiled egg on toast with grilled bacon and garlic spinach (RMB 42); and grilled barbecue chicken with sweet and sour mixed peppers (RMB 79).

We have had both the salami pizza and the four-cheese pizza. While both had chewy, handmade dough and a subtle tomato sauce, we preferred the four-cheese pizza for the balance of saltiness and tartness in the cheeses. We also liked that the dough wasn’t overwhelmed by the cheeses, which can happen when poor-quality cheese oozes too much during the baking.

Service is friendly and, while there are occasional mistakes, the staff seems to learn quickly. If you’re lucky enough to be there when the owners are around, you’ll be treated to their personal brand of service and humor. It makes for a pleasant dining experience, and you too will be making plans to come back again and again.

Loft Eatalicious 意餐
Mon-Fri 8.30am-10pm, Sat-Sun 8.30am-11.30pm. Pinnacle Plaza (across from Baskin and Robbins), Tianzhu Town, Shunyi District (8046 1565 for reservations, 131 4674 8656 or 131 4674 8756 for delivery) 顺义区天竺开发区荣祥广场（31冰淇淋对面）

Photo by Dana Cosio-Mercado