A movable feast that's fit for a queen

A New Year's Eve dinner presentation at Shanghai Classical Hotel. Photos Provided to China Daily

The nearest most Chinese ever get to a banquet at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse is reading or hearing the establishment's name in the media - although one section of the guesthouse does take bookings from the public - so when its managers stepped out of their rarefied heights a few weeks ago to hold a news conference to announce the Tmall meals, it sent journalists into a spin.

Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, established in l959, is much more than a fancy venue for banquets. Behind its highly guarded walls of landmark buildings and gardens near the center of Beijing is accommodation for distinguished state guests should they wish to take advantage of it.

The state-banquet dishes on Tmall are set menus of five courses, including a soup for four people. Each of the courses is served separately to each diner.

The menus feature celebrated state-banquet dishes such as shizitou, a pork meatball dish known as lion's head, fotiaoqiang, or Buddha jumps over the wall soup, a dish representing imperial luxury whose many ingredients include shark fin, fish maw, abalone, mushroom and sea cucumber, and matsutake mushroom soup, made of the expensive mushroom.

The cooked dishes will be delivered by courier and need only to be reheated before being served.

"All the food ingredients for the home-delivery menus are sourced from all over China and abroad to ensure the highest quality, and are cooked in line with the state banquet standards," says Chang Qing, chief executive chef with the guesthouse.

"Our aim is for the public to eat food that is exactly the same standard as it is for state banquets, and we hope people will enjoy the kinds of dishes that foreign leaders love."