China’s coldest restaurant is doing a roaring trade as deep winter sets in, with customers flocking to the all-ice building and its steaming “hot pot” meals, state press reported on Thursday.
An enterprising businessmen in north China’s freezing Harbin city recently set up the Ice Restaurant, a 260 square metre building made from 800 cubic metres of ice, the China Daily said.
The restaurant can accommodate 100 patrons, who reportedly love the novelty of even the bar, tables and chairs being made from ice.
“This is my first time to see ice and snow. Who could believe that I am eating in an ice restaurant?” the paper quoted Li Hong, a tourist from the much warmer Sichuan province in the southwest of the country, as saying.
“Aren’t we like the modern Eskimos?”
Not surprisingly, the meals on offer are designed for warmth, with “hot pot” meals — where food is cooked in a steaming broth at the patrons’ tables — the main fare on offer.
“We ask our waiters to get the ingredients ready as fast as they can as we don’t want our customers to wait with empty stomachs in this chilly environment,” sales manager Liu Jianguo said.
“But once you take one bite of the steaming delicacies, you would definitely forget the cold.”
Liu said the temperature inside the restaurant was kept steady at -10°C, although the chair seats were covered with woollen cushions to give customers a little warmth.
“Of course, we aim to attract them to sit down, not to freeze them,” Liu said.
Harbin is one of China’s coldest cities and each winter hosts a famous ice festival, with famous buildings and landmarks from around the world recreated in ice. – AFP