No first trip to Beijing is complete without Peking duck.
I may not be traveling much these days (the next trip on the calendar is not till October, poor me), so for posting-inspiration today, I’m turning to my Chinese textbook.
Our first lesson in “listening class” concerned the famous foods of Beijing. A Taiwanese teacher was asking a teacher from Beijing for his tips on eating in the capital. As this is a rather old textbook, the recommendations were a touch out-of-date. The uber-famous Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant has been displaced by newer, chic-er duck specialists, and a Beihai Park restaurant that once served food to the emperor now mainly serves tourists.
Nowadays, this is what I take my visiting friends to eat:
1. Peking duck: Can you come to Beijing without eating Peking duck? Vegetarians aside, I don’t think so. It would be like failing to see the Great Wall or the Forbidden City — definitely ill-advised. After a disappointing experience in April, I’ll insist that future guests go do Da Dong (just west of the Dongsishitiao subway stop) for their duck. It’s on the pricy side, but the quality is far better than anywhere else I’ve tried. And the side dishes, whose names are all taken from a classical Chinese poem, are exquisite.
2. Jian bing: Jian bing (煎饼) are the Chinese equivalent of a crepe, in which a thin buckwheat pancake is cooked quickly on a griddle, then topped with a thin layer of egg. The pancake is then folded up with a sheet of crunchy deep-fried dough, a scattering of cilantro and scallions, and a swipe or two of salty or spicy sauce. Street vendors sell them from carts, as do some small snack restaurants/windows. A great breakfast to energize you for a few hours in the Forbidden City!
3. Jiaozi (dumplings): On a map, Beijing just barely counts as part of China’s vast northeast, an area I have yet to explore. But its cuisine fits in squarely with that of the “Dongbei” provinces — lots of wheaten noodles and dumplings, and less rice. Jiaozi — steamed, boiled or fried crescent-shaped dumplings — merit their own dining category here, and specialist restaurants have more types of jiaozi than you could imagine. I’ve written before about Xian Lao Man — go there!
4. Sichuanese: But this list is about Beijing food — why is Sichuanese on the list? Cuisines from all over China have outposts in Beijing, but the capital seems to have adopted Sichuanese as its own. I find the spicy-numbing effect of Sichuanese peppercorns to be surprisingly addictive, and classic Sichuan dishes like dry-fried string beans (干煸四季豆) and the oddly-named fish-flavored eggplant (鱼香茄子) have been hits with my guests as well. I’m still looking for the perfect Sichuan restaurant in Beijing, but Chuan Ban, run by the Sichuan provisional government, is a good place to start.
I’m sure that I’ll find many more restaurants to add to this list over the course of the next year. Look for many more posts on the subject — and let me know if you’ve know somewhere I should try!
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