[Photo provided to China Daily]

New restaurant flexes its Mex muscle

More than just meat at Morton's

Celebrity chefs from popular Beijing restaurants showcased their signature dishes at the "authentic family banquet" held by Chinese Internet company Sohu in Beijing recently.

The event, held at the Da Dong Peking Roast Duck's Workers' Stadium branch marked the closing ceremony of the first season of the serial video program "Foodies' Tour Group" sponsored by JDB, or Jia Duo Bao, a Cantonese tea drink maker.

The banquet, attended by food critics, food lovers and members of the media, also showcased the four episodes of the first season of the video program that will soon be launched on Sohu.com's food channel.

The video program covers culinary experiences of a select group of individuals in the four gourmet destinations of Zigong in Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Quzhou in Zhejiang and Suzhou in Jiangsu. The program shows the group investigating and sampling several local delicacies.

The first program takes the audience to Qinghai's Tibetan region, where one can find the freshest dairy products, and a mineral water source 6,000 meters above sea level.

Celebrity chefs like Feng Guoxu regaled the audience with his signature Da Dong Peking Roast Duck prepared braised sea cucumber and shallot. Zhao Bin, executive chef of the Samadhi vegetarian restaurant in the city, presented his masterpiece dish of white fungus cooked in a base of dried broccoli. Hou Xingqing, Huaiyang style cuisine chef with Summer Palace, China World Hotel, presented his famous curling braised croaker fish with crispy skin.

Chef Fu Yang, who was originally with Le Quai, but now works with Tung Lok Xihe Restaurant, presented a delightful steamed cod, and a beautiful dessert - a red-candle shaped sorbet made from fresh roselle.