Beijingya - Brussels

Spotted this little asian restaurant in Brussels when I was browsing trough the Rest02-site, a handy site for locating(or avoiding) restaurants in the neighbourhoods of Brussels.
When they talk about authentic Chinese I am allways on my 'Qui-vive'....Eager to go discover and at the same time affraid for dissapointment. I love a good asian but too often these asian restaurants(don't even mention the numerous take-aways) do a lousy job at asian food, preparing something that doens't taste any different from the 'chinese' food in the frozen section of your local supermarket!
But this one was going to make a difference I felt!
The resto is located in the centre of Brussels close to the Place St-Catherine, a lovely neighbourhood to enjoy drinks and a good eat! Allways a good atmosphere in this corner of the big city!

Now lunch.....
I started with some Gyoza, shangai dumplings, filled with minced beef and chopped spring onions. They came with a tangy soy sauce to dip them in. Very good!! They had a nice bite and the sauce really went well with it! I used some sriracha hot sauce to spice it up a bit. You don't have to ask for the sriracha, every table has a big bottle on it! Complimentary! Although you're not allowed to take it with you ;(

My main dish was the chicken gong bao or kung pao. In french 'poulet Impérial'. I got a big plate with tender pieces of chicken in a spicy Gong Bao sauce, with chunks of bell pepper, scallion and cilantro. On the side a nice serving of sticky rice to suck up that delicious sauce.

Drinks?? What else than a good Tsingtao beer? That dry,crisp chinese beer is a better match than wine I think.
Cost?? A ridiculous 23€, GOOD DEAL I say!! ;-) I even thought of it as such a good experience that I decided to return the same evening with Madame to enjoy dinner. Also cause I spotted some dishes that left me intrigued, like : marinated jellyfish, chickenblood, chickenfeet, pork intestins,.... Now I tell you, those are not the dishes you find in your local around the corner chinese resto/take-away so let that be another sign of authenticity.

I started with spicy marinated cuttlefish and steamed spicy chickenfeet. The cuttlefish were served cold and had a nice crunch to them, so very fresh. But boy, was that sauce spicy!! I can take a good portion of heat, madame a bit less so she felt the burn during the whole dinner ;)

The chickenfeet was one of the dishes that I allready saw on the App.Foodspotting and had left me intrigued..Could this be any good?? But oh yes, this was very good. I was a bit reluctant to start this dish but besides all the tiny bones you have to deal with this is a very good dish. The feet have a good 'fatty' taste and are quite rich in taste. Don't hesitate to have them if you are in dubio!!

Our main dish was Hongkong-roasted duck for me which was sweet and crispy and an unforgettable succulent porkbelly in sweet Hoisin sauce served in a clay pot for Madame. This porkbelly was melt-in-the-mouth good, you could just suck it down together with that sweet hoisin sauce. This was a winner!  And yes, some more TsinTao's to wash it all down!
We finished with some jasmin tea, good for digestion.
Cost?? 57€!! Ridiculously cheap for 3 starters, 2 mains, 4 beers and 2 tea! But, Shhhhhhhtt don't say that out loud! I would like to keep it that way!
So this one is certainly going on my good chinese list! The interior is cheap(recollected IKEA-stuff) but  that doesn't matter one bit cause the food is A+++!!

Enjoy,

Kev