The fish restaurant Market looks like a diorama of an Asian village: suspended bamboo ceilings, tropical cabanas, rattan lampshades, wooden tables, wicker chairs, opaque windows—an utterly blissful, prosperous Chinese hamlet, with an excellent daily catch and a bounteous harvest. The only thing missing is the ringing laughter of utterly blissful Chinese children.

That excellent catch is put onto ice, while the vegetables from the fields are placed in baskets. Behind the glass in the open kitchen run by chef Zhang Jing, a team of ten cooks turns guests’ raw fantasies into finished dishes. With the woks, a grill, and steam, Chinese cuisine makes great use of the technological achievements of modern civilization. And at Market, those classical Chinese cooking technologies are used to produce an infinite variety of dishes.

The restaurant’s central concept is to have people choose a fish from the fish counter, and/or vegetables from the vegetable basket, and ask the chef to cook what they’ve chosen however they desire. If you choose a table in the right spot, you can even observe how exactly they’re preparing your dish. This is in fact incredibly interesting—you choose the raw ingredients, provide guidelines for how you would like it prepared, then watch as your dish takes shape. You can, for instance, gain an appreciation of differences in culinary traditions by choosing a Chilean sea bass and a Moscow Region river carp and have them prepared in European and Asian styles respectively.

In addition, you can also order any of the more specific menu items instead of ordering at the fish and vegetable “market”.