Ahh, spring -- a season of rebirth, renewal, and rejuvenation. Ahh, describing spring as a season of rebirth, renewal, and rejuvenation -- how's that for a lazy way to start an article? Journalism, pow! A bunch of restaurants around town have some new and delicious things going on. That's what this is. No guff. *** Popular cafe Moka Bros in Nali Patio have kicked out a new breakfast menu. It's a pretty extensive document, reworking their crepes and sandwiches thing into breakfast meals -- omelets, omeletcrepes, wraps, oatmeal, "bro'nola" (ooof, SRSLY?), along with fresh juice, a full range of "green" smoothies, and coffee. Prices are really good. Coffee is really good as well. 35rmb range for a meal. Smoothies are around that too. Here's the Egg & Ham Crepe, which comes with a couple poached eggs on top (35rmb). Lovely. Big fan of the crepes at Moka Bros. And here's the ham and cheese omelet, which is served on a baguette, with mushrooms on the side (38rmb). Not bad. So. Breakfast at Moka Bros -- all in, it's a pretty great deal actually. Not too many Western restaurants are doing a daily breakfast deal with such an extensive and health-conscious range of options. It's great for if you're living and working in the area, or looking for a place to camp out early on your computer. The breakfast menu is available daily, from 8am to 10:30am. *** After the dramatic "closure" of Salt over at Jiangtai Xilu at the end of last year, the key elements of the operation moved out to 798 to open up Factory by Salt, a "creative kitchen" which specializes in an ever-changing menu, wine events, cooking classes, catering, and a newly-launched "creative working lunch" menu, available daily from 11:30am to 2:30pm. This is the menu from Week 2 of the deal, which is completely different from last week's. The food, as you can see, is an esoteric mix of fusion French and Mediterranean flavors and styles, emphasizing creative pairings and visual pyrotechnics. We popped by on the Monday for the three-course set meal for 100rmb. This here is the mushroom ceviche, sun-dried tomatoes, cilantro, chili, and crispy sweet potatoes. Served in a wine glass no less. Profound. Here's the main course: Chicken anticucio, potato wedges, garden salad, with green aji sauce. Really great. And here's the desert: chocolate brownie, salty caramel, and vanilla ice cream. Triumph! A triumph, I say! Yes. A triumph. Of course, with the daily and weekly rotation, I guess this version will never be available again. Suffice it to say, it was, to be sure, a very lovely and delicious lunch. To take the larger view on it, 100rmb for three courses -- that's a really great deal. Great for if you're browsing through 798 for a little arty edification anyway, and you're in the mood for something absolutely exquisite for lunch. It's worth it to plan your 798 trip around these operating hours to grab one of these unique lunch meals. Again, just 100rmb. Damn! The space, Factory by Salt itself is open and airy -- an open kitchen design dominates the indoor eating area -- and they also have a bit of outdoor seating as well. On finding it: Factory by Salt is at A1 in the "A" section of 798, which means it's in the upper left (north east) corner of the complex. If you're coming into 798 from the main entrance at the left side of the thing -- the one closest to UCCA -- you take your first left and then another left to get up to "A". Alternately, just look for a map and then look for the "A" section -- it's at the top left. *** Finally, back over in the hutongs at Stuff'd, there's a few new items on the dinner menu. The new sausages from head sausage artisan Thomas are a Philippine Chicken and a Belgian Pork Cabbage. With these he's up to six (I think) countries of sausages -- well on his way to being the UN of meat stuffed into other meat. But we wanted to try "The Last Supper", which is a hamburger patty stuffed into a pepperoni Calzone, stuffed into your small aorta. It looks like this: When you cut it open it goes blaaaaaaaarrrrg and everything spills out in great gushes of greased-up wonderfulness. The picture is a bit graphic. There is no "make greasy meat look good" setting on my camera. Mmm. Pizza mozzarella, peperoni, and Calzone crust, wrapped around a hamburger patty. So what did it taste like? Ummm... -Like wizard magic stuffed into a unicorn heart -Like all your best report cards stuffed into the very first Nintendo you got for Christmas -Like all your favorite cartoons stuffed into a Michael Jordan 360-degree dunk Okay, none of that makes much sense. It was good. It tasted like a hamburger shoved into a Calzone. Like exactly like that. What's not to like? It was heavy, that's for sure. Real fucking heavy. Would I get it again? I think you only get one of these once in your life. I've already stamped my ticket on it, I think. Another one would definitely be my last. Another would definitely be the end. Plus, I'd like to try out the new sausages. I'm just not done eating things shoved into other things yet. There's still work to be done, dammit. ***