What food do you think of when you think of Beijing?

By 2008 Olympics, Beijing wants culinary standards raised to gold-medal
level

BEIJING -- China is looking to the 2008 Beijing Olympics to boost the
economy, its international prestige, the gold medal winnings of its
athletes and, now, Chinese cooking.

The Chinese capital is hoping the Games will do for Beijing cuisine
what the 1964 Tokyo Olympics did for sushi and the 1988 Seoul Games did
for kimchi, the government's Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday.

"We should also take the chance of hosting the Olympics to make Beijing
a 'capital of delicacies,"' Xinhua quoted Li Zhao, head of the Beijing
Commerce Bureau, as saying.

To meet that goal, Beijing will train 300 senior cooks to become
"master chefs" and, by the end of this year, encourage 700 restaurants
to raise their standards, Xinhua said. For aspiring chefs who want to
win medals, in 2008 the city will not only play host to the Olympics
but also to an international cooking competition, Xinhua said.

The report did not mention what dish Beijing hopes to elevate to the
notoriety of Japanese raw fish or spicy Korean pickled cabbage. But the
city is best known for roasted Peking duck.

Prestige aside, the drive to improve culinary standards is practical.
The city is home to thousands of restaurants, many of them small
family-run operations and some with inconsistent sanitary standards.

Xinhua said the Olympics is expected to draw 7 million spectators as
well as 270,000 athletes, officials, reporters and other participants.

"Catering to such a huge event poses a challenge for us as well as an
enormous business opportunity," Xinhua quoted Li as saying. (AP)

January 11, 2006