Roma Lake

Chao designed the restaurant herself. Photos by Jiao Shu

 

 

 

 

 

Home cooking and creativity on the bank

By Jackie Zhang

It is a warm, quiet and comfortable place to let your mind and body relax. Unlike most restaurants, Anlian, which means in love with the lake bank, is more like a home.

“I used to have my own household design shop, Go Go Fish, in Sanlitun. But in 2003, SARS changed everything. Sanlitun became a business area full of strangers every day. I couldn’t rely on that kind of crowd, andooked instead for a comfortable place that made me feel at home,” said Angela Chao, an interior decorator and founder of Anlian.

Chao started the shop at Pinnacle Plaza, close to her workshop.

“I used to come and eat a Roma Lake, it was so desolate. All I could find were some home restaurants run by the villagers. You couldn’t enjoy the lake view with a cup of coffee. That’s when I thought of starting a restaurant,” Chao said.

She opened Anlian at the end of 2007. It serves as a combination restaurant and a shop for household wares.

“Many people thought that I was crazy,” Chao said. At the time, Roma Lake was undeveloped. “I had a really hard andnely four months that winter. In spring of 2008, things began to improve. Many of my old friends and customers of Go Go Fish came to buy my designs and stayed to eat.”

Anlian mainly serves East Asian food, Chinese food and Western food. In order to ensure the flavor, Chao planted her own herb and vegetable garden behind the store.

Braised fish (68 yuan) and sweet and sour pork with fresh pineapple (48 yuan) are the most popular.

All desserts at Anlian are made by Chao herself. The Crème Brulee (20 yuan) is excellent, but only 12 are made each day. Go early or reserve one by phone to try it.

Another strongly recommended Anlian dish is Chao’s herb zodic tea (35 yuan per pot). “I’m personally interested in the Zodiac and had read many books on it. I make the tea by adding different herbs to meet the needs of different Zodiac personalities. For Scorpio, I would make aea of marigolds, chamomile, sweet osmamthus, hindu lotus, carnations and gomphrenas. It’s to improve the skin and body, because many Scorpios don’t sleep well.”

This winter, Anlian is preparing heated kang bed-stoves for people to have hot pot (40-80 yuan). “There will be three types of hot pot: vegetarian, sea food and beef and mutton. It will be nice. Guests can enjoy hot pot on the bed while looking at winter through the window,” Chao said.

Anlian
Where: Huanhu Lu, Roma Lake, Houshayu, Shunyi District
When: 10:30 am – 9:30 pm
Tel: 8049 8699