What Trump and Xi Jinping ate at the dinner organized by Beijing. Chinese chefs tried to please the US leader
Thursday's menu, during Donald Trump's visit to Beijing, included a combination of Chinese and international dishes, writes the New York Times.
Crispy beef ribs, roast duck and a tiramisu cake were on the table at President Xi Jinping's official dinner in honor of President Donald Trump in Beijing, with Chinese chefs trying to cater to the US president's culinary preferences while still using traditional ingredients and cooking techniques.
The two, accompanied by other officials, dined after the high-stakes bilateral meeting in the Chinese capital.
Among the specialties of the Chinese capital are Peking duck and zha jiang mian, a dish of wheat noodles covered in soy paste. But Trump, writes the New York Times, prefers to eat traditional American food, such as burgers, well-done steaks, French fries and Caesar salads.
Thursday's menu therefore included a combination of Chinese and international dishes: lobster in tomato soup, stewed seasonal vegetables, slow-cooked salmon in mustard sauce and pan-fried pork bun. For dessert, tiramisu, fruit and ice cream were served.
Chefs in Beijing didn't take too many risks during Trump's first presidential visit to China in 2017, either. The menu back then included seafood soup, kung pao chicken and braised beef steak with tomato sauce — a refined version of his favorite meal, steak with ketchup.
And other world leaders have taken Trump's preferences into account.
In October, during a visit to Tokyo, the president dined with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on American beef and rice, a gesture of goodwill that broke with Japan's usual diplomatic practice of using local ingredients.
A few months earlier, Japan had concluded a trade agreement with the United States that provided for increased imports of American rice.
During the same trip to Asia, Trump was served roast beef with ketchup and a salad, as well as sandwiches made with US Angus beef.
Months before he traveled to China in 2017, Trump hosted Xi at his Mar-a-Lago residence, where chefs prepared Caesar salad, pan-fried Dover sole and aged New York strip steak.
President Barack Obama had a similar menu of roast beef and baked fish during his state visit to Beijing in 2017, but first lady Michelle Obama was praised on Chinese social media for her choice to eat spicy soup at a hot pot restaurant in Chengdu.
In 2011, then-Vice President Joe Biden ate zhajiangmian at a restaurant in Beijing, but avoided the restaurant's specialty, fried liver.
During visits to China during Biden's tenure, members of his cabinet have also ventured to sample the diversity of Chinese cuisine.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken dined at a Shanghai restaurant specializing in soup dumplings, known as xiao long bao.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen went to Yunnan province where she ate some mushrooms that could be mildly toxic and cause hallucinations if not cooked properly.
