A Beijing restaurant chain famed for roast duck has unveiled a range of Olympic dishes, including desserts that resemble miniatures of the Great Wall and the "Bird's Nest", Beijing's 91,000-seater Olympic stadium.

 

 

Cooks at Beijing Quanjude Group made miniature Great Walls out of pumpkins and taros, cakes in the shape of the Bird's Nest and statues of top world athletes with fruits and vegetables during Wednesday's Olympic cooking contest.

 

Baker Song Xiaoyan won the audience's applause with her prize-winning "dragon whiskers cake", a fried pastry that has 4,096 threads of extra fine noodles fused together with cream, chocolate and sugar.

 

The cake will be a special dish for Olympic guests at all its outlets, said group chairman Jiang Junxian.

 

 

Quanjude, which opened in 1864, regularly features on the "must-do list" for first-time visitors to Beijing.

 

More than 2,500 staff members have received training over the past month on English, sign language, etiquette, cooking skills as well as facts about the participating countries.

 

People all over Beijing are studying English and improving behavior as the Beijing Olympics -- an event that will draw 500,000 foreigners -- begin to draw near.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2007)