As a family we love to go on picnics. Spending an afternoon sat on a rug in one of Beijing’s beautiful parks, or boating around on their lakes. Our favorite park is Beihai Park, where you can watch the locals dancing, singing, play musical instruments, and paint Chinese calligraphy onto pavements using water. Our picnic hamper invariably contains cheese and ham sandwiches, egg mayonnaise, garden salad, and some cold drinks. If we’re lucky I might have made some quiche or sausage rolls. My in-laws will be in town in a few weeks, and I’m sure we will partake in several picnics during their stay. However, I’m not sure cheese and ham sandwiches will seem as exciting to them as they are to my kids. So, I stopped by Modo Urban Deli, to see what they had to offer that would make my summer picnic taste better.

The deli offers a whole picnic for two that you can order to go. With sandwiches, dips, salads, and bakes presented in a Modo tote, along with a map of picnic sites. You can even add a bottle or two of wine, prices range from RMB 200-400. As I already have the basis of my picnics sorted, and the kids know what they like, I was looking for add-ons rather than the whole thing. The roasted veggies with white quinoa salad RMB 68 was absolutely delicious. I added grilled chicken for RMB 18 or you can add chickpeas. The chicken was incredibly tender, and there was a lot of it. The roasted veggies included pumpkin, sweet potato, eggplant, carrots, and zucchini. Pine nuts added crunch, sultanas the sweetness, and fresh cilantro lifted all the flavors.

The spicy Thai noodle salad with steak RMB 68 (add avocado for RMB 15), was packed with crunchy vegetables, mango, cilantro, and roasted peanuts. The salad was dressed with a spicy Thai dressing, which went really well with the juicy grilled steak. The Chef’s quiche of the day RMB 48 was leek, and it came with a small leaf salad and dressing. I prefer a deeper quiche, and the base was a little soft, but the flavor of strong cheese and sweet leeks was spot on. I always pack a tub of vegetable crudités when we picnic, so I ordered the white bean hummus. It was smooth and creamy, with just the right amount of garlic. Other dips include creamy spinach with artichoke and black olive tapenade.

If you don’t want to make your own sandwiches, you can pick up some of Modo’s. The Scandinavian is smoked salmon layered with cucumber, radish, apple, and dill on rye bread, or the Deli which consists of Italian salami or smoked turkey, layered with pickled vegetables and cream cheese on walnut toast. Portion sizes are very generous, so your best bet is to get a couple of things to share. I will definitely be adding Modo Deli items to my hamper this summer.

Modo Urban Deli
Daily 10.30am-10pm
Taikoo Li Sanlitun South, 3rd Floor, S10 – 31, 19 Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District (6415 7207, hello@modobj.com) www.modobj.com

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: Steve Depolo (Flickr), Sally Wilson

Beijing parks are great for a number of things: paddle boating, long strolls, early morning voyeurism of the elderly exercising. There’s more than only those, but unfortunately lounging about on the lawn is one that arises few and far between. So when I learned that Modo Urban Deli was launching a new picnic concept, I was both intrigued and a bit skeptical at the outset. By the end though, they’d thoroughly convinced me. This is why.

First: The weather. They’ve launched this at that perfect precipice just before the summer heat full sets in. Weekend afternoons are still bearable and lying about in the sun with a few pals, snacking and sipping on booze, is ideal.

Second: Convenience. All the Modo picnic packages (there are three) can be ordered only 15 minutes in advance of pick-up (by phone – 6415 7207 – or in person). Everything is packed in plastic to-go containers and small cardboard boxes with cutlery and napkins included. The cups to go along with our bottle of wine were missing, so make sure to double check you have everything before leaving. (As this was on the first weekend, my guess is that the staff was still getting used to assembling the whole package.)

Third: Dope food for a bargain. The three levels of picnic basket run from RMB 200-400. They are each sized for two people, but my picnic partner and I found it enough to share with two sweaty dudes who’d just come hungry off the football pitch. The packages are quite the deal if you price out everything. The food comes out to slightly cheaper than the sum of all items plus bottles of white, red or sparkling house wine can be added for RMB 90, which is a steal. Here’s the run-down of your options:

Urban Picnic Delights for Two (RMB 200)
Olive Tapenade & Crisp Bread
Caesar Salad w/ Chicken or Garden Salad w/ Tuna
Deli Sandwich or Scandinavian Sandwich
Bakes of the Day
The Modo Picnic Map of Beijing
Modo Urban Tote bag
with red, white or sparkling RMB 290

Urban Picnic Spread (RMB 300)
White Bean Hummus & Flat Bread
Chef’s Quiche of the Day
Quinoa Salad or Thai Noodle Salad
Sandwich of your choice
Bakes of the day
San Pellegrino water (still or sparkling)
The Modo Picnic Map of Beijing
Modo Urban Tote bag
with red, white or sparkling RMB 390

Urban Picnic Feast for Two (RMB 400)
Modo Urban Deli’s Cheese Board
Creamy Spinach & Artichoke Dip
Mediterranean Salad or Smoked Salmon/Glazed Shrimp Salad
Lasagna
Sandwich of your choice
Bakes of the day
San Pellegrino Water (still or sparkling)
The Modo Picnic Map of Beijing
Modo Urban Tote bag
with with red, white or sparkling & wine cooler RMB 490

Four: Balanced structure vs choice. Modo has done an excellent job at finding a good middle ground between a structured menu and the option to personalize items. Each of the picnic packages gives a template for a combination of items you might get – a salad, a sandwich, a bake – but then within those categories allows for a choice between a couple options.

Five: The extras, picnic spot ideas and a tote. So I thought that there weren’t any spots to picnic in Beijing besides a handful of places, but Modo is proving me wrong. They’ve knocked together a list of 15 picnic spot locations – with the caveat that "not many places in Beijing allow a full-on, grass-based , blanket-unfolded, music-blasting picnic, so be part creative, part discrete." I like the touch of rebel in that. Lastly, you get one of their classy totes (choice from two) included in the package. I’d been wanting one for a while, so this seemed like the ideal opportunity. (Note: If you’re a repeat customer, bring your tote back for a RMB 20 discount)

I may have been a picnic-skeptic at the outset, but I ended up doing a test run one afternoon while watching some brutes run around and play the soccerball, and I will say this: we were the envy of the sidelines.

This post first appeared in thebeijinger.com on May 16, 2014.

Photos by Cat Nelson