It turns out that some Western dining here is considered far more upscale than that back home. For example Chinese will often go on a fancy date or even a business lunch to a McDonalds or KFC. Strangely there’s only one Burger King in Beijing, out at the airport, but they’ve not really made it into China in a big way.
Unaware of this I was a little surprised to be invited out to Pizza Hut in the basement under Carrefour for a birthday party. I’ve not been to one for a while in the UK but the pizza menu didn’t seem a great deal different, just less cheese and more sausages. There were sausage starters, sausages on the pizza and there were even sausages in the crust around the edge of the pizza.
The rest of the menu was far more varied than the UK versions, stretching to steaks and pork dishes and the ubiquitous noodle and rice dishes. There were a few random side dishes like Portuguese Chicken Curry, which I’m not sure the Portuguese would recognise.
Have a look at their website for sausage crust goodness and currently a very Christmassy video: http://www.pizzahut.com.cn. The first link at the top of the menu is for the food menu.
If you play with the links down the side to see the full selection of treats you’ll notice they now serve fixed salads, instead of the original salad bar option. This is because up until last year they offered a single trip to the salad bar for a bargain price, which led to people (I’m guessing engineering students) making such amazing creations as this:
In unrelated news, obesity in China’s cities has risen to roughly a third of the population and cases of diabetes are rising rapidly. Before the American fast food chains arrived and people started being able to afford it the obesity rate was less than 5%. The worst affected are the young, with the news carrying a story of a 12 year old weighing in at 115kg (over 18 stones). This is being blamed on the one child policy – it’s felt that the only child is spoilt and turns into a Little Emperor, never being told what they can’t eat. Out in the country, where the diet remains traditional Chinese, the obesity rate is still around 5%.
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