New year brings new menus(1)
Many Chinese restaurants are ringing in the Chinese New Year with new menus and promotions.
Beijing's Sichuan Fandian restaurant recently celebrated its relocation during the Year of the Dragon's approach by reinventing some classic dishes. These include dry-braised beef slices with celery and winter cabbage stewed with duck.
The eatery, which opened in 1959, moved from Rongxian Hutong to Prince Gong's Palace and then to its current location in Xinjiekou.
It has served such State leaders as late premier Zhou Enlai.
Sichuan Fandian used to mostly serve spicy Sichuan-style gongbao and fish flavored dishes.
It still offers such classics as clear-water cabbage, which appears simple but is actually complicated to make, and fish-flavored prawn balls.
New dishes include super spicy bullfrog and eight-mushroom spicy soup.
The average bill is 100 yuan ($16) a head.
