Vietnam by the lake

Honey ginger prawns [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

The rice-flour pancakes, enveloping a filling of chopped shrimp, mint sprigs, garlic chives, rice noodle and other ingredients, were so thin as to become crystal, and blurrily revealed the contents within.

Eaten with a Vietnamese version of hoisin sauce and crushed peanuts, every delicious mouthful refreshed my palate with its pleasant herbal aroma and mix of textures－and instantly increased my appetite. I preferred to have it without sauce, to make no compromise to the refreshing herbal flavor.

Green papaya salad, another popular dish in Nuage, was also ideal for stimulating the taste buds at the start of a meal. The dish was a pile of shredded green papaya, chilies, mint leaves, peanuts and shrimp crackers; Wang says green papaya is used because it is more nutritious and has firmer texture compared with ripened papaya. Fish sauce, which was made from fermented raw fish, beautifully enhanced the mix of flavors.

Coconut onion beef was also one of my favorites. The tender, juicy beef slices were fried with the seasonings, and then were braised with the fresh coconut milk, before they were presented in a coconut shell to serve, radiating the infused smell of coconut and grilling heat.

All of the ingredients, from the beef tenderloin to the Vietnamese vanilla, onion, lemon grass and fish sauce, must be the freshest possible to bring out the best flavor, Wang says. Unlike the numb spiciness in Sichuan cuisine, or the bold and fierce heat of Hunan-styled cuisine, the spicy edge of Vietnamese food is tender, and often associated with sourness. The spicy rice noodle soup with seafood is a worthy example. Lemon grass is fried with Vietnamese chili sauce, before a long, slow stewing in chicken stock enriched with tamarind and lemon.

Then seafood is briefly boiled in the broth, and rice noodles that had been blanched in boiling water previously are soaked in the spicy-sour broth of seafood before being served.

For this summer, the restaurant menu features a selection of summer drinks, and also offers customers tea from 2:30 to 5 pm. Three set menus, which include tasty signature Vietnamese snacks, healthy summer drinks or Vietnamese coffee and desserts are priced at 158 yuan ($25), 188 yuan, and 218 yuan per couple.

The VIP rooms on third floor and the rooftop terrace are worth the extra 15 percent customers have to pay to sit there, offering an expansive view of the lake and the ancient hutong area.

IF YOU GO

10 am-10 pm, daily. 22 Qianhai Dongyan in Houhai area, Xicheng district, Beijing. (010) 6401-9581