Traitor Zhou’s Non-Kosher [sorry Jewish friends] delicatessen may be tiny, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in detail. Exceptionally meticulous detail. There’s something rather touching about the obvious love and enthusiasm that’s gone into just about every inch of this place, from the hand-printed labels explaining what breed of pig is used for the Larou pork and which farm it’s sourced from, to the perfectly coordinated color schemes and choice of music (upbeat and ambient, naturally).
“We only use red, blue, yellow, black and white colors for furnishings and labels, because those are primary colors and our food is purely organic,” explains delicatessen co-manager Tiffany.
As befitting of a store named in honor of a turncoat, the deli stocks a range of decidedly disloyal non-Chinese goods, including the black nori bagel (RMB10), made from Japanese nori seaweed. Served with red tofu cream cheese (RMB8), the bagel is a lip-smacking combination of Eastern and Western tastes – with the cream cheese in particular offering a faint reminder of tofu brine.
The larou bagel sandwich (RMB40) and the vegetarian rosemary bagel sandwich (30RMB), are equally good, though more conservative tasting.
But let’s be honest, you’re not necessarily visiting a non-kosher snack-stop for the healthy eats. No, you want the good stuff, you want the doughnuts. Traitor Zhou could yet win back the hearts of the nation and become ‘Patriotic Zhou’ with this selection, which includes – brace yourself Beijing – passion fruit, coconut and chocolate flavors (two for RMB8, but they’re a bit on the small side).
“Everything in this shop is made with fresh organic produce, delivered daily,” explains Tiffany. “And we always us less sugar and oil.”
Good, because we’re not leaving until we’ve eaten at least 16 doughnuts. At a minimum.
“We know most Chinese people don’t really know all that much about bagels and doughnuts,” says Tiffany, somewhat apologetically. “So we help them learn, and they learn very fast!”
Of course they do, Tiffany, your doughnuts are like opium.
Once you’ve got hooked on their little balls of sugary dough, you can get started on their selection of organic wines, each accompanied by a label explaining where they’re from and what terms such as ‘biodynamic’ mean (too lengthy to explain here, but the key element seems to involve an absolute shit ton of cow manure). Prices range from RMB170 to RMB500.
“We want people to be healthy,” says Tiffany. “But not live like monks.”
We agree – and head outside to wolf down some banana ice cream (25 RMB), while enjoying some much needed summer sun on the colorful patio. With Jing-A Taproom just a short stone’s throw away, things could easily get messy this August. Or fun. Or most likely both.
See a listing for Traitor Zhou's
Read more Beijing Restaurant Reviews
0 User Comments