Afternoon tea and treats.[Photo provided to China Daily]

A Japanese touch

Closer to home, the Park Hyatt Beijing this summer is giving its afternoon tea a twist in a promotion with Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake.

It's part of "Art in the Park", a series of events that celebrates hotel founder Jay Pritzker's love of travel, art and world-class food and wine. It's also a chance for the Beijing hotel's pastry chef, George Yin, to show off his past experience in top Tokyo hotels.

Yin's combination of sweet and salty dishes for the occasion includes opera cake, citrus-curd meringue, avocado cheesecake, matcha mousse and champagne berry jelly in presentations that mimic Issey Miyake designs. The sweets are coupled with barbecued teriyaki eel panini, octopus balls and wasabi octopus salad, a broad array that invites mixing and matching to your taste. The octopus balls are not-to-be-missed flavor bombs, with tender tentacles of young octopus tucked into a sphere of delicately spicy daikon.