APEC menu to feature Beijing snacks   

Table setting featuring Chinese figures in a rehearsal for the upcoming APEC meetings in Beijing. [Photo: the Beijing Youth Daily]

(ECNS) -- China is preparing a rich menu featuring traditional Beijing snacks for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, the Beijing Youth Daily reports.

Altogether 142 banquets will be held for 73,000 people at the China National Convention Center, a venue for meetings during APEC.

Chen Baoming, head chef of Chinese cuisine at the center, said they will blend Chinese food with Western seasonings to suit foreign guests' tastes.

The menu highlights Beijing traditional snacks, including Lv Da Gun (a kind of bean flour roll) and Wan Dou Huang (yellow pea flour cakes), Chen added.

Dishes will be displayed in a way that elegantly represents Chinese culture. The table settings for some dishes will feature Beijing's quadrangle courtyard and the Temple of Heaven, a complex of religious buildings.

During a rehearsal at the center, reporters marveled at food carvings of 32 terracotta warriors holding weapons. The figures are 30 centimeters tall and their facial expressions are rendered perfectly.

More than 200 cooks have been preparing for the banquets, and as many as 600 cooks will work in the 900-square-meter kitchen.

The distance between the kitchen and the dining hall is at least 300 meters, and waiters had to time their service during rehearsal. They were asked to deliver dishes within five minutes and 45 seconds.

A stringent food-security policy has been adopted and all raw ingredient providers have been registered with the country's food regulator.