A matter of taste

Another restaurant Chinese leaders often invite foreign leaders to is Sichuan Fandian, which serves classic Sichuanese cuisine.

Former French president Jacques Chirac's photo is one of many leaders' portraits on the restaurants' walls. The president of a nation renowned for its gourmet offerings visited China at least five times - as Paris' mayor, and as the country's prime minister and president - from 1978-2006.

On Oct 25, 2006, Chirac dined at Tiandi (Heaven and Earth) restaurant in Beijing. The restaurant (now closed) on Nanchizi Dajie (Street) was opposite Tai Miao, the Royal Ancestral Temple.

Chirac made it a point to eat from communal serving plates per Chinese custom, the restaurant's executive chef Yu Li says.

Four Chinese chefs presented six cold dishes, a soup, six hot dishes and three desserts, representing cuisines from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Jiangsu.

Chirac started with traditional Beijing dim sum. Then he tried Peking duck, quick-fried king prawns, spicy and sour cuttlefish-roe soup with coriander and seasonal stir-fried hairy crab roe with French toast, accompanied by French burgundy.

When he visited Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu in 2004, he had northern Sichuan starch-noodles and dandan noodles for breakfast, both of which are spicy.

British Prime Minister David Cameron also chose Sichuan's famous spicy hot pot when he visited Chengdu on Dec 4, 2013.

British Prime Minister David Cameron enjoys Sichuan's famous spicy hot pot at Xiangtianxia restaurant during his visit to Chengdu in December 2013. Provided to China Daily

Xiangtianxia hot pot restaurant's sales manager Cao Jing says the prime minister was "very capable of eating spicy foods". He liked the mushroom platter, and ordered two additional plates of coriander meatballs.

His table of diners also ordered beef, lamb, bean curd, lotus roots and cabbage for the hot pot, washed down by the restaurant's home-brewed beer. He didn't order the locally popular beef giblet. But he bought a pack of local green tea.

Cameron's table spent 877 yuan ($141), including 436 yuan on food. That's a relatively cheap meal, considering they also drank beer.

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