Beijing Restaurant Tips by ntm2322

Bao Du Feng: Who likes tripe?

If you go to Beijing and don't eat this stuff, let me tell you, you had better stay at home.

Bao4 du4 (Quick-Fried Tripe) is an Islamic snack made of tripe of sheep or cattle. The tripe is first cut into stripes and then boiled in water (it is not fried as the English name suggests). After this delicacy is cooked you may then dip it into the sauce they serve in a separated bowl.
In fact, the secret of bao du resides in its exquisite sesame sauce. Just delicious!

As to me the best bao du in Beijing is served at Bao Du Feng, another hundred-year old family business. Before it was located in an old hutong in Qian Men, now it has moved to Hou Hai in Xi Cheng district and is right inside Jiu3 Men2 xiao3 chi1.

Times are changing, especially in Beijing and Jiu Men Xiao Chi is now housing many of the hundred-year old family businesses that were running throughout the city. Survivors of modern times...

Favorite Dish: Tripe related dishes you can enjoy while snacking at Bao Du Feng:

du4 ren2
du4 jing4
du4 ling3
du4 xin1
shi2 xin4
du4 ban3
bai3 ye4
du4 hu2 lu2
da4 suan4 tou (a big head of garlic)

I am sorry I can not provide you their equivalent English names.

Address: Xi Cheng Qu, Hou Hai3 #1, Xiao You hu tong

Comparison: least expensive

Directions: West of the former residence of Soong Ching Ling

Phone: 6402-5858

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Jiu3 Men2 xiao3 chi1: Beijing snacks

Favorite Dish: If you have that strong desire to taste Beijing snacks, don't waste your time searching here and there, I will give you a short-cut.

For good Beijing snacks you should go to this place called Jiu3 Men2 xiao3 chi1'. This place is kind of a food street where you can find some of the best Beijing traditional snacks. Why? Because the government wants to give a better look to Qianmen and has recently demolished many of the front buildings and furbishing the place, as a result many of those hundred years old restaurants (lao3 zi4 hao4) have moved here.

Address: West of the former residence of Soong Ching Ling

Directions: This restaurant is located at Xi1 Cheng2 Qu1 ('qu' means district), Hou4 Hai3 #1 Xiao4 You3 hu2 tong2 ('hu tong' means alley).

Once you get to Beijing, show this pinyin to sb. and ask him to write it down in Chinese, and then give it to the taxi driver.

Other Contact: Open from 10am to 8pm

Phone: 6402-5858

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Beijing duck (Bei3 Jing1 kao3 ya1) Beijing Da Dong Roast Duck Review

I have already written dozens of tips of traditional Beijing snacks and so far none about the Beijing duck (Bei3 Jing1 kao3 ya1).

Well, this might be because Beijing duck is one of the most famous foods in the world and even those who have never come to China know something about it.

Just check the internet, all the experts will tell you that Quanjude or Bianyifang are a must for those who are coming to Beijing.

The main Quanjude branch (situated in Wangfujing) will even give you a sort of diploma stating the duck number you have eaten. “Market economy with Chinese characteristics” at its best.

In fact you can eat Beijing duck anywhere in Beijing, even the hotel where you will be staying has the roasted duck in its menu, just check it out. And you may also buy a well packed roasted duck in the supermarket and take it back to your country.

Da4 Dong3 kao3 ya1 dian4 (Da Dong restaurant), situated at Tuan2 Jie2 Hu2 Bei3 Kou3 is also a good choice and the prices are as stiff as the ones practiced by Quanjude and Biayifang restaurants.

Because you are a tourist, you don’t know any Chinese, the menus of most restaurants don’t have an English version, the waiters don’t understand English and you will entirely depend on your tyrannical tour guide, I advise you to stick to the 3 restaurants above mentioned.

Besides, you the foreigner who come to China are supposed to spend money, you are supposed to go to the most expensive places and pay more, you aren't supposed to wander the small taverns and pay cheap like the locals.

In the finest or more sumptuous restaurants like the three ones I have mentioned, the duck will be sliced in front of you by a cook (go ahead and take a picture with him to show your friends back in your country).

Then the waiter will bring to the table the sliced duck, a real show seeing that thin and crispy skin and that tender meat.

How to eat the Beijing duck:

Step 1: Get a white round pancake and place it in your plate.

Step 2: Dip some skin and meat into the sauce (hai3 xian1 jiang4) and put them inside the pancake. Some restaurants serve a side dish of cucumber sticks, you can add it to the pancake or just eat it by its own, up to you.

Step 3: Add the spring onions and fold the pancake (I like it with some garlic inside).

Step 4: Eat it (you can use either your hands or the chopsticks, definitely not with the fork).

Once again, ask the waiter to take a photo of you eating the Beijing duck.

What a wonderful trip to China, your lifetime greatest adventure!

Address: Building 3, Tuanjiehu Beikou

Comparison: more expensive than average

Directions: SE corner of Chang Hong Bridge

Phone: 6582-2892

Price: US$41 and up

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Website: http://www.dadong.biz/

Hot pot (huo3 guo1)

Favorite Dish: Hot pot restaurants are dotted around the city.

In Beijing, hot pot is eaten year-round but many people prefer having a hot pot meal in winter because it makes you warmer and let you better cope with the harsh weather. As to me it is unthinkable having hot-pot in summer.

Hot pot consists of a simmering large brass pot of stock at the center of the table where you place several ingredients into it and let them cook I prefer the most traditional way, this is to say, the broth is boiled in a pot surrounding a central chimney heated by coals.

Most popular hot pot ingredients include:

- Thinly sliced frozen meat (in order to let the meat roll up during cooking). Meat might be lamb, beef, chicken, mutton, pork, goat, etc.
- Vegetables
- Mushrooms
- Beans
- Sprouts
- Wontons
- Seafood
- Ginger
- Toufu
- Fish balls
- Beef balls
- Shallots
- Vermicelli noodles

The food you cook can be dipped into peanut butter sauce or satay sauce or soy sauce/hoisin sauce mixed with a little bit of white pepper, sesame oil, chili, coriander, etc.

Facts about hot-pot:

- There are two kinds of hotpot restaurants in Beijing: Mongolian style (the soup base is not spicy) and Sichuan style (if it is a single hot pot it the soup base will be spicy most of the times, if the hot pot is divided into 2 sections, then in one half the soup is spicy and in the other half the soup base is non-spicy).

- Keep in mind that you are handling raw food. You may use separate chopsticks only for the purpose of dipping and pulling out the food from the boiling broth. If everyone of you use only your own chopsticks be aware of germs and always dip them into the broth.

- All that steaming food coming into your tummy will generate some heat inside. In order to cool down a bit I always drink a glass of ENO after the hot pot meal.

Comparison: about average

Price: US$21-30

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Zong4 zi (Chinese rice dumplings)

This is a traditional Chinese food made of glutinous rice filled with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling.

The major difference between the zong zi made in the North and the one made in the South is merely the fillings.

Eating zong zi is a several 1000 years traditional custom. The zong zi of the earlier periods didn’t have any relationship with the famous Chinese poet Qu Yuan and it wasn’t related at all with the present custom of eating it around the Dragon Boat Festival.

It is said that eating zong zi might be related with certain activities of ancient people like tasting the millet, holding memorial ceremonies in honor of their ancestors or celebrating a bumper harvest.

As to the version of eating zong zi in memory of Qu Yuan, it appeared in the period of the North and South Dynasties (between 420 and 581) and the next generations granted zong zi its actual fine meaning.

Who was Qu Yuan?

He was a famous Chinese poet from the kingdom of Chu who lived between 340-278 BC. during the Warring States period, a patriot who tried to warn his king against the expansionism of their Qin neighbors.

Not only the king banished him to a remote area but also the Chu capital (Yingdu) was later taken (in 278 BC). Impregnated in a deep sorrow, Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River. According to legend, rice dumplings were thrown into the river to prevent fish from eating the poet's body.

Ingredients you usually find when eating zong4 zi:

- Glutinous rice (no matter what kind of zong4 zi, there is always glutinous rice)

- Mung beans(sweet zong4 zi have red bean paste)

- Jujube

- Barbecue pork

- Chinese sausage

- Black mushroom

- Salted duck egg

- Chestnut

- Cooked peanut

- Green bean

- Dried shrimp

Like making jiao4 zi (dumplings), making zong4 zi is also a good family event, a nice opportunity to gather all family members and everyone helping out preparing the ingredients and wrap them.

Comparison: least expensive

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Hot pot (huo3 guo1)

From October to April is the hot pot season in Beijing.

When the weather is really cold nothing better than eating hot pot with your friends, either in the restaurant or at home.

Everyone knows what hot pot is: while the flavored broth keeps simmering just place the raw ingredients in the large brass vessel and when they are cooked you dip them in soy sauce with chilli or any other sauce (satay sauce, seafood sauce, sesame butter, peanut butter sauce, etc).

Chives flowers paste (jiu3 cai4 hua1 jiang4) is also a nice dipping sauce made of sesame paste, fermented bean curd, salty chive flowers, Shaoxing wine, soya, pepper oil and bitter shrimp oil.

When eating hot pot pay attention to several points:

- You should place/pull your ingredients in the water not with your chopsticks but with chopsticks special for that purpose.

- In the end of the meal drink a bowl of the nice and nutritious hot soup where all the ingredients were cooked.

- Eating hot pot is healthy but since you are “bringing” steamed food to your stomach it will generate some eating inside your body. In order to cool down this situation you can drink a cup of Eno at the end of the meal.

Dishes used in the hot pot:
Vegetables, bean sprouts, mushrooms, shallots, ginger, tofu, fish balls, beef balls, fish, prawns, coagulated pork blood (zhu1 xue4 gao1), squid, mutton, pork, beeef, Chinese noodles, etc., etc.

Comparison: about average

Price: US$21-30

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Du Yi Chu: Steamed dumplings - Shao1 Mai4

Du1 Yi2 Chu4 Restaurant has already a history of hundreds of years. The name was given by an emperor.

Du Yi Chu Restaurant was formerly situated at Qianmen and now they moved to south of Beijing, I would say they now aren't very well located.

Favorite Dish: Shao mai looks like white flowers, its wrappers are made of flour and filled with different fillings according to the season,

- Young chives in spring,

- Cucurbits together with mutton or vegetables in summer,

- Crabs in autumn and

- Pork with onion in winter.

Address: Feng Tai district

Comparison: least expensive

Directions: Pu Fang road 1-6

Price: less than US$10

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Nan2 lai2 shun4 Restaurant

Muslim Cuisine (qing1 zhen1 cai4) is very popular in Beijing, more than 60% of Beijing snacks are in fact Muslim snacks.

One of my favorite Muslim restaurants in Beijing is the Nan2 lai2 shun4 Restaurant. It is not only because of the food but also because of the atmosphere, I enjoy coming to traditional places and here you can see a lot of old Beijingers.

This restaurant is very famous and has at least 2 or 3 branches. The one I am talking about is situated in a quite place, in front of a garden, and the food is really “zheng4 zong1” (very typical).

Here you can eat traditional Beijing food and snacks. And if you like hot pot (huo3 guo1) they still use the traditional brass vessels models with a central chimney.

This restaurant also makes a wonderful healthy wine.

If you have the opportunity to go don't miss it, another good choice to add to your list.

Address: Xuan1 wu3 district, tao2 ran2 ting2 road, 1

Comparison: about average

Directions: In front of the north gate garden (gong1 yuan2 bei3 men2).

Phone: 00-86-10-835 23011

Price: US$21-30

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Sa4 qi2 ma3 - candied fritter (millet)

Sa4 qi2 ma3 is a famous Manchu snack widely popular not only in Beijing but in the rest of China.

Fried and deep fried foods, wherever I am, I always avoid eating them, however, sometimes I like to have a square of sa4 qi2 ma3, it is one of the fewest deep-fried stuffs I dare to eat.

Probably because it is not too sweet, it is crisp and yet not greasy. I feel it is delicious.

What is sa4 qi2 ma3 made of?

In simple terms,
- Kneading flour and eggs into noodles
- Frying with oil
- Mixing with syrup
- Putting into square moulds
- Cutting into squares (in Manchu the word for cutting begins with saqi-)
- Stacking them (in Manchu the word of stacking begins with ma-).

Ingredients used to make sa4 qi2 ma3:
- Flour
- Baking powder
- Flour
- Eggs
- Water
- Oil
- Sugar
- Maltose or honey
- Lemon juice or vinegar
- White sesame seeds
- Raisins
- Coriander
- Red or green candied fruit
- Peanuts

If you have never tasted one, try one, it is an unique experience. Enjoy!

Comparison: least expensive

Rating: 5

Theme: Local

Cream Fried Cake (nai3 you2 zha2 gao1).

Nai3 you2 zha2 gao1 belongs to the variety of new Beijing snacks. It has a light yellow color, a spongy texture and a strong taste of milk. It is indeed a wonderful treat.

Ingredients used to make nai3 you2 zha2 gao1:

- (Strong) flour

- Eggs

- White sugar

- Butter

- Vanilla

A nice place to try nai3 you2 zha2 gao1 is in the 2nd floor of a muslim supermarket at Niu jie1 (Ox street).

Well, I only know the Chinese address. Since this website doesn’t support Chinese Windows I can only provide you the pinyin:

Niu2 jie1 bei3 kou3 xi1 ce4 #1, nan2 ye4 lou2.

Telephone: 00-86-58376788.

Comparison: least expensive

Rating: 5

Theme: Local