A Warming Dinner, Sat 26 Feb 2011

This is the Year of the Rabbit, a rather skittish creature not given to great feats of courage and with a tendency to stare at oncoming car lights. However, rabbits allegedly have gracious manners and sensitivity, and are generall quite prudent and sweet in nature.

So for this month, we will do a prudent and sweet Chinese dinner at a homely and good-value restaurant called Nin Hao at Bismarkstr. 24, 10625 Berlin. As it is also a very cold month, we will have the Feuertopf, with options for a fiery Sichuan or mild Cantonese stock. It is eat-all-you-can for a fixed price of around 15 Euro per person, so this dinner will not break the bank, more likely a pair of tight trousers, if you chose to wear one on the day (not a good idea). Please note that this is not a gourmet restaurant, just a pretty good hotpot place with lots of raw vegetables, fish, pork and beef which you cook yourself.

The date for this month's dinner is Sat, 26 Feb, so please check your diary now. The restaurant does not have a website but I have been there twice and there are some good reviews on http://www.qype.com/place/1526314-China-Restaurant-Nin-Hao-Berlin

As usual, if you want to come along for a warming winter's night dining, please send me an email as soon as possible. We will close bookings by 15 Feb and all those lucky enough to get on the list will be notified by 21 Feb latest about our meeting point and stuff.

Oh, and sometime later in spring/summer, it is intended that we will do our own limited-edition "in-house dinner". It is a special 4-6 course dining event and any profits collected will either go to charity or my collection of claret (I haven't decided yet) and will be held in a lovely mansion in Potsdam. So if you are on a diet, then be afraid, be very afraid... :o)

Chris

How it went on the night...

This was certainly no night for amateurs for it was tray after tray of fresh meat and veg for everybody, and it was a pretty delicious authentic Sichuan/Cantonese hotpot dinner as well . So this is one of the best value nights for some time as I can guarantee that nobody left hungry, and even I could not manage another meal for most of the next day. So if anyone ever fancies a serious stuffing night out, this place should definitely be near the top of your shortlist.

What is also great is that we discovered a nice little bar nearby in Timms, in Schillerstrasse 20. All the staff there are very sweet young ladies who actually took care to make the cocktails exactly the way you want it! It was wonderful but I understand that it was a problem waking up the next morning for some people...