Want Authentic Southeast Asian Food for Friday Night Takeout?

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Friday nights hail the weekend, and most of us are eager to welcome the break. So having to cook and clean up on a Friday night doesn’t sound all too appetizing. While Beijing has plenty of waimai and delicious options for dining in, if you’re looking for something that’s special every week and lets you in stay in, we’ve got the solution for you – the Foodie Gastronomic Community WeChat group.

Focusing on Southeast Asian cuisine, the group was founded by Grace, a Malaysian cooking enthusiast, and Sean, from the restaurant a.wang. Isaac, an administrator of the WeChat group, shared their origin story: “Almost a year ago, we started out as a tiny group of ten that sought to bring the taste of home to Southeast Asians stuck in Beijing because of the Covid pandemic. Now, our reputation has spread because of our good food and we're going strong at 500 people. We've slowly grown since then.”

You’ll be able to search for a.wang on Meituan if you want to sample their waimai menu, but the weekly offerings shared in this foodie group can't be found on the menu and are completely unique.

We want our Friday meals to be extra special dishes that aren't easily available at restaurants in Beijing – less common cravings that are harder to fulfill. All our Friday meals are thoroughly planned and researched ahead of time – we experiment and iterate on recipes to get the exact taste we want. Because we want our food to be as authentic as possible, we need a longer time to prepare the dishes, so we collect orders early.

- Group admin Isaac

Every week the Foodie Gastronomic Community WeChat group releases a special menu for Friday with either a lunch or dinner delivery option. They also have limited-edition snacks and treats such as pineapple tarts, kaya spread made from pandan leaves, ondeh-ondeh kueh (basically a cake made with gula melaka and shredded coconut) curry or tuna puffs (think of it like a calzone pie) to name just a few.

Don't fret if the names of these dishes sound alien to you as the Foodie team take time to introduce the ingredients and origins of the dishes each week, so you get a little food education thrown in too!

The menu for this week is out – lor mee, ngoh hsiang, Thai prawn cakes, Singapore sambal chili, and barley water. Ordering is done through the QR code in the poster and will close by Tuesday night, so get to booking your Friday night special now. If you would like to join the Foodie Gastronomic Community group, add Grace by scanning her QR code below!

Images: Courtesy of Foodie Gastronomic Community

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