Week in Beijing (and environs) Foodblog

[KennethT]

We got back to the hotel after walking (climbing some sections!) the Great Wall... No food pics here but I figured people would appreciate a shot or two of the scenery.

We went all the way to the portion on the top right. Then all the way back and even further the other way. I wonder how many miles we walked and stairs we climbed? We probably walked a few miles... All this in 90F and not a cloud in the sky. Those sun umbrellas paid fir themselves today. The most welcome sight was a drink vendor near the end. I was so happy to see Gatorade! Talk about gouging the tourists - 2 waters + 2 Gatorade = 180 Yuan ($27)!! But desperate times call for desperate measures.

[Tere]

180 Yuan? *faints*

 

The enterprising people who park their donkey on a section of the wall have put their prices up!

[KennethT]

Yes, I couldn't believe it either. But when coming upon an oasis after wandering in the desert, one's resolve is softened.

[Deryn]

That is 'highway robbery' or perhaps 'high-wall robbery'! My goodness.

 

Should I ever, and I probably wont, travel to see/walk the Great Wall, I think I will take a very small backpack and fill it with drinks for the trek.

 

At any rate, thanks for the pictures (and information) and I hope you are not too sore today .. and that you stay well hydrated in that heat (for a much more reasonable tariff), regardless of whether you are wall climbing or not.

[KennethT]

The funny thing was that we DID bring plenty (or so we thought) of water with us.  Plus some sections are really steep and carrying tons of water can be a bit of a hindrance. We could have used a scherpa.

[Shelby]

When it's hot like that no amount of water is ever enough.

Edited July 5, 2016 by Shelby (log)

[KennethT]

Back in Beijing - hotpot #2, but thus was a different kind that is very popular here.

[Fengyi]

I am expecting pictures of the noodle-dancing!!! :-) 

 

[KennethT]

We just got back from another duck experience (  ) and finished checking in to tomorrow's flight home (  )

 

@Fengyi Here's a preview! My pics weren't so good as the windows caused exposure issues. But C's came out better so I'll put up good ones once I get home.

 

[Deryn]

Thanks for taking us along on your trip. Looking forward to the 'extras' when you get back home. Have a good and safe flight.

[KennethT]

Thanks @Deryn, this is just the preview. I'm going to do a write-up similar to what I've done for past trip. Once I get home... It was just too hard to do any sort of commentary using my cell phone. I'll be a lot happier doing it on a computer with a real keyboard.

[KennethT]

And we're back!!!!  So, I'm going to start over from the beginning to give a more comprehensive story and more photos!

 

As I said before, we took Air Canada from NY's LaGuardia to Beijing, connecting in Toronto...  There were pluses and minuses doing this, rather than our standard way of connecting through Taipei.  The good part is that since the flight left at 11:30AM, we were able to get a good night's sleep at home before leaving  - as opposed to leaving at around 1AM and sleeping (as best you can in Economy) on the plane enroute to Taipei.  Also, the total flight time was about 14 hours as opposed to 20, and the layover was short (we had to walk fast to make the connection).  The bad news is that since the main flight left Toronto around 3PM, there is almost no chance of getting some sleep on that flight (except for maybe a nap for a few hours just prior to landing at 4AM NY time), so by the time you land, you have been up for at least 24 hours straight - so we felt worse when we landed on this trip than we have on more recent trips connecting through Taipei.  Also, the flight lands around 4:30-5PM, so you get stuck in rush hour traffic getting from the airport to the city center, so we didn't wind up checking in until around 7PM, as opposed to the other way where we'd land around noon or so...  The final part of this rant is a criticism of Air Canada - well, not the airline specifically, but flying in and out of Toronto.  The Air Canada check-in area that morning was a mad-house.  The reason for this is that there were some storms the night before which delayed some flights - the biggest problem is that, evidently, Toronto has some kind of curfew as to how late planes can take off and land - so if your flight gets delayed enough, they wind up cancelling it completely since they aren't allowed to land in Toronto after a certain time.  There were storms in the NY area around 8PM, and a few of the flights were delayed enough so that they were cancelled - so there were several plane-worths of people waiting to get on flights from the night before.  We got to LaGuardia 3 hours early, and were barely able to get to the counter to check our bags in on time to make the flight.  What a pita.  Plus, because of scheduling issues, when we got to Toronto, our departing flight was delayed for about an hour and a half, so we landed later than expected.  BTW, I gather a similar thing happened yesterday when we were coming home - we heard over the loudspeaker at Toronto that several flights were being cancelled because some minor weather delays would have put them past the curfew time.... so long story short, even though AC itself was a decent experience, I wouldn't want to risk getting stuck in Toronto because of some minor delays...

 

OK, end of rant... now, onto the trip!  Since we got in so late, it was impossible to walk around a bit to get a lay of the land around the hotel and start eating some good local food... so we opted for eating at the Chinese restaurant in our hotel.  I have to say, for hotel food, it was pretty good... albeit expensive.  But the restaurant was beautiful and the service was just fine - especially since we were basically the only ones in the restaurant.  But we had our first language snafu when I was ordering, and asked for Gailan (or Kailan)... they had no idea what I wanted, because, as it turns out, Gailan is the Cantonese pronunciation, and the Mandarin way is Jie-lan (jee-eh lan)... in any case, it took a bit of effor but we finally got a good result.

Intro snack... some kind of nuts that were soaked and sugared/oiled and a fruit leather.

 

Crispy pigeon  - very tasty - tasted like it was rubbed/marinated with 5 spice and soy.

 

Hot stone chicken - dark meat chicken on the bone, seasoned, fried, then served in the hot stone bowl with big chunks of ginger and garlic chives.

 

Aforementioned gailan

 

Beautiful (if rather empty) ambiance.

[KennethT]

Breakfast was included with our hotel room... usually, I'm not a fan of hotel breakfasts as they usually have a decent selection of western options, but the local options are limited...  This hotel's breakfast buffet was excellent by comparison - sure, there were lots of western options, but they also had a made to order noodle soup and fried noodle/fried rice station, and a dim sum station, as well as lots of good fresh fruit.

Really good fruit.  These were probably the best dragon fruit (white and pink) that I've ever had, and the pineapple was sweet, juicy and very ripe - a huge difference from the pineapple we typically get at home.  It reminded me of some of the fantastic pineapple I've had in Thailand and Hawaii.

 

Fried yi fun noodles with chicken

 

Fried rice noodles with beef

 

Dim sum assortment (clockwise from top): some sort of pork and mushroom siu mai, baozi with pork (savory), steamed black sesame in glutinous rice, baozi with mushroom filling

 

 

[KennethT]

After breakfast, we visited the Forbidden City, which looks small on the map of Beijing... but the map of Beijing is very deceptive... Beijing is HUGE.  What looks like 1 NYC block on the Beijing map is really like 10 NYC blocks.  The FC is really a city - it takes hours to walk around (and you walk miles doing it) and is virtually impossible to photograph well to really get the scale of it.  It is also crazy crowded with mostly Chinese tourists from all over China.  We saw very few western tourists the whole time we were there.

 

This is just the front entrance, after going through the security line:

 

Here's a panoramic shot of a courtyard area taken after going through the first couple of gates - this is the beginning of the FC:

 

We finished with the FC around lunch time, so we made our way here:

 

The locals affectionately call this place Fatty Wang's... it's a small chain of donkey meat restaurants.  Practically everything here is donkey meat - sandwiches, hotpot, casseroles, they have a pretty large menu - but the good thing is that the menu has some pictures.  But, I am very glad I downloaded the Waygo translation app - it did a very good job translating menus and signs.  It's free to translate 10 phrases per day, or you can pay like $7 to get the unlimited version.  I'm glad I did because they had 2 types of sandwiches - one with donkey meat, and one with intestines which I'd prefer not to get.

The meat has been seemingly braised in a liquid with star anise and other stuff (maybe 5 spice?) and was very tender and flavorful.  It was not nearly as gamey as I thought it would be.  It was actually really tasty - if we had it in NY, I would get it on a pretty regular basis.  The bread was awesome - crispy and flaky.

This was some kind of raw greens (I have no idea what they were, but it didn't seem to be lettuce that I recognized) with a very garlicky dressing with chiles and something else I couldn't describe... it was awesome.

[KennethT]

As is typical, we start getting really tired pretty early on the first day (especially with all the walking we did!) so we wanted to go for dinner somewhere close to our hotel.  Unfortunately, there are not very many good local food options in that neighborhood, but there are quite a few malls.  As I've said before, food in malls in the US should usually be avoided at all costs, but not so in Asia... there is actually some very good food to be had in malls there.

 

In a mall a few blocks from our hotel were 2 floors of dining - tons of restaurants.  Everything from Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung (known for their soup dumplings and fried rice), to Thai food, sushi, you name it... I didn't see any western options though.

 

We went to a local jiaozi (dumpling) restaurant - since jiaozi are a very popular Beijing thing.  None of the staff spoke English, but they did have a copy of their menu translated into English, but there were no pictures.

Boiled... these were pork and coriander

 

Fried: I thought I had ordered mutton and scallion, but they turned out to be mutton and carrot.

 

Gailan (chinese broccoli) sauteed with garlic

 

A decent oolong tea

 

Prices here were moderately inexpensive.  The boiled jiaozi were 20 Yuan and the fried ones were 35.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@KennethT,

 

Thanks your sharing your experiences with us. I wasn't going to "Like" your post about the donkey meat sandwiches, but I got so carried away by everything else, I couldn't help it. 

[KennethT]

@Thanks for the CrepesWe were surprised as well... we had heard that donkey meat was popular, so we wanted to try it, but weren't really expecting to like it very much...  but in fact, it was really good.  The meat was lean and tender, and not gamey at all... if you hadn't told me it was donkey, I may have thought it was a lean cut of beef.  I was actually hoping for it to be a bit gamey-er so I'd know I was eating donkey...  and that bread was so good you could have basically put anything on it and it would have been tasty.

[Anna N]

41 minutes ago, KennethT said:

@Thanks for the CrepesWe were surprised as well... we had heard that donkey meat was popular, so we wanted to try it, but weren't really expecting to like it very much...  but in fact, it was really good.  The meat was lean and tender, and not gamey at all... if you hadn't told me it was donkey, I may have thought it was a lean cut of beef.  I was actually hoping for it to be a bit gamey-er so I'd know I was eating donkey...  and that bread was so good you could have basically put anything on it and it would have been tasty.

That bread does look awesome. And the raw greens ... I understand it is quite unusual to serve raw food but they look very appetizing.  We may have to start a collection so we can send you back with millions of yen to bribe the cooks for some of these recipes .

[Deryn]

Fascinating that you ended up at that Donkey chain ... Liuzhou recently posted a picture (can't find it or I would link it) from another of the very same restaurant chain (which I am not sure I realized till you mentioned it that it is a 'chain') and the sandwich he got (which looks pretty well identical to yours). The bread certainly does look amazing! Glad to hear the filling also was delicious.

 

Sorry you had so many issues with Air Canada/connections, etc. Nuisance but the trip sounds like an overall success. My daughter flew from the UK to Bangkok via Singapore the other day and I held my breath for hours while flight tracking as she went over a number of very hostile countries, mostly without radar. She wasn't bothered at all but I am also sure the pilot didn't announce that they were over Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. either. Easier to actually be the passenger than to watch someone doing it sometimes but knowing that I am not sure I would ever take that particular airline (despite the fact that it is a good one - Singapore Airlines) out of the UK to the orient. If I were flying there, I would try to find an airline that flies great circle I think. On the other hand my daughter's flight did pass only a few miles south of the HImalayas .. asked her if she was on the left side of the plane and was able to see them but no answer so far. I would love to BE in the orient and travel around there extensively and eat whatever I could ... but I guess I know too much to be that comfortable with the actual travel part. Sent her an email to ask her to please take pictures of what she eats (and take note of what it was if not obvious) as she travels through Thailand and Vietnam (so I could experience it all vicariously - as I get to do here so often through threads like yours) but I doubt she will do so - she is just not a foodie, unfortunately.  

 

The size of the Forbidden City certainly is amazing, as is the majesty of the Great Wall. I recall the first time I went to Las Vegas and was astounded at how large even the halls were in the casino. China had the art of 'enormous' mastered way back hundreds of years ago - we North Americans are so late to that table.

[KennethT]

@DerynI had read on a blog somewhere that there are 8-10 branches of the donkey restaurant in just Beijing.  I didn't realize it was a national chain, but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

I understand your feeling about the flights.  Our first trip to Asia (about 10 years ago) was on Singapore Airlines on a direct flight from NY to Singapore.  The flight and service were fantastic (although discontinued, but supposedly resuming in 2018), but I noticed on the seat back map that we were flying over some areas that I'd rather not fly over (although it was hard to tell exactly where we were on the map at that time).  The return trip went the other way and flew over the great circle route over the Pacific.  Since that flight, all the other flights from NY-Asia have been great circle flying over Canada, Alaska, Russia, etc.

 

That being said, when SA resumes their NY-Sing. direct flights, I would certainly consider it if I were going anywhere in the area (Sing, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc.).

[Tere]

6 hours ago, Deryn said:

Fascinating that you ended up at that Donkey chain ... Liuzhou recently posted a picture (can't find it or I would link it) from another of the very same restaurant chain (which I am not sure I realized till you mentioned it that it is a 'chain') and the sandwich he got (which looks pretty well identical to yours). The bread certainly does look amazing! Glad to hear the filling also was delicious.

 

Sorry you had so many issues with Air Canada/connections, etc. Nuisance but the trip sounds like an overall success. My daughter flew from the UK to Bangkok via Singapore the other day and I held my breath for hours while flight tracking as she went over a number of very hostile countries, mostly without radar. She wasn't bothered at all but I am also sure the pilot didn't announce that they were over Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. either. Easier to actually be the passenger than to watch someone doing it sometimes but knowing that I am not sure I would ever take that particular airline (despite the fact that it is a good one - Singapore Airlines) out of the UK to the orient. If I were flying there, I would try to find an airline that flies great circle I think. On the other hand my daughter's flight did pass only a few miles south of the HImalayas .. asked her if she was on the left side of the plane and was able to see them but no answer so far. I would love to BE in the orient and travel around there extensively and eat whatever I could ... but I guess I know too much to be that comfortable with the actual travel part. Sent her an email to ask her to please take pictures of what she eats (and take note of what it was if not obvious) as she travels through Thailand and Vietnam (so I could experience it all vicariously - as I get to do here so often through threads like yours) but I doubt she will do so - she is just not a foodie, unfortunately.  

 

The size of the Forbidden City certainly is amazing, as is the majesty of the Great Wall. I recall the first time I went to Las Vegas and was astounded at how large even the halls were in the casino. China had the art of 'enormous' mastered way back hundreds of years ago - we North Americans are so late to that table.

 

I've flown more than my share of long haul flights to Japan and you certainly go over some very tall mountains that route! Fuji-san can be spectacular too, depending on the timing of your flight. They usually remember to point it out since it's just before descent to Tokyo.

 

I'm probably the same as your daughter - I don't really think of the risks flying over wild places. It's so much more dangerous to drive pretty much anywhere so I tend to just chill

[KennethT]

Sorry for the gap in posting... jet lag got the best of me last night and I couldn't really think straight, no less type!

 

So, the next day, we visited Tien'anman Sq...  It is mind boggling how big this public square is, and on a normal day, how relatively empty it feels!

 

We also had the interesting experience of being a tourist attraction ourselves, as a couple different Chinese families (at different times) came up and wanted to get their pictures taken with us!  After talking with others, we assumed that they were probably visiting from a small town somewhere and had probably never seen white people in person.  One family's young daughter (maybe 8 years old?) was soooo excited to see us and have her picture taken with us, and then her parents seemed so happy when we were willing to take pictures with all of them.. I've never seen smiles so wide before!  It's times like this that I wish I could have spoken with them a little bit to see what was going on in their mind... oh well... In retrospect, I also wish I could have taken a picture of them taking a picture with us!

 

After that, we strolled around some of the hutong north of the FC..

 

The purpose of the stroll was to get to here:

 

This restaurant serves food from the Xinjiang region in the North West, which is primarily Muslim, so as expected, the food uses a lot of cumin, lamb and mutton.  This restaurant supposedly wins "best Xinjiang" every year or something like that - it is listed in every tourist guide book, but locals like to go there too...  and we thought it was excellent.

 

Salad, called liangcai... cucumber, onion, pepper and tomato with a refreshing dressing.

 

Xinjiang nan.... flat bread that is pretty dense and spiced with the Xinjiang spices

 

Rose tea

 

Mutton skewers... tender and delicious!

 

Mutton stew with potatoes, carrots and some sort of choi.  The sauce was addictive, and great with the bread.  The mutton was tender and flavorful - but not gamey.

 

 

[KennethT]

That night we went for a very traditional Mongolian hotpot - the original hotpot in Beijing.  We went to Donglaishun.  This is a big chain, started in 1914.  And, like so many others, it was in a mall.

This hotpot, unlike the sichuan style hotpot, uses a mildly flavored broth for dipping.

 

Charcoal powered!

 

We ordered 2 dishes of sesame sauce (this place you have to purchase the sauce separately, which is different from another hotpot place we went to later), and they provided some chopped onion and cilantro to mix into the sauce.

 

Thinly sliced mutton

 

Lamb meatballs - these were the best things of the night!

 

Mushrooms

 

Greens

 

Noodles (to be had at the end)

 

If you've never done it before, hot pot meals are a lot of fun.  You dip your stuff into the boiling broth, hold it as long as you like, then take it out and dunk in the thick sesame sauce.  The flavors are addictive!!!!  The only problem is when it is 85degF outside... even in the airconditioned mall, we were getting pretty sweaty by the end!

[Deryn]

Many Canadians have long been enamoured of what is here termed just 'Chinese fondue'. I think it must be a derived hybrid/equivalent of a hotpot like the one you pictured. 

 

For Chinese fondue one doesn't need a hotpot however (though that is nice to have for 'authenticity'). It is usually just done in a fondue pot with a (purchased or home made broth, not 'spicy', often with a wine base which a true hotpot I am pretty sure doesn't have). Definitely no charcoal used. I have even used a chafing dish when I didn't have a fondue, years ago. The broth gets tastier and tastier as the evening progresses and it is often drunk at the end of the meal.

 

One does definitely need that paper thin meat - and many supermarkets sell it (various meat varieties - chicken and beef being probably the most often purchased). I have cut my own but never managed (even though I froze the meat first and used a slicer) to get it as perfect and thin as the butcher can. I have also used shellfish/seafood (though the broth bases if doing only beef and chicken OR seafood are usually slightly different - much deeper for the beef, lighter for seafood so a mixture may not result in the best drinking soup at the end). I don't recall ever using lamb and never mutton or pork for that matter. I did add some pre-cooked spicy sausage to the platter once I think .. I think I might be a bit worried that meatballs might not cook through before they were eaten - especially if there were a few bottles of wine on the table being passed around .. but I do think meatballs are a great idea as well.  

 

Vegetables I have used most often were probably nappa (so there is an Asian influence), mushrooms, cherry tomatoes (not sure why but they are small and you can spear them easily), and zucchini. Noodles may be added at the end if the 'soup' is to be drunk but while I have done that, I don't think that is 'traditional' here.

 

The sauce(s) is(are) however not necessarily even poor replicas of a Chinese sauce - they tend to be more French (or they did when I was doing fondues like this - more like what one would use for a western traditional oil based fondue - which sounds strange now that I think of it .. bearnaise or hollandaise with Chinese fondue?) - but I bet people just put out whatever sauces they like and/or have around - so they could be barbeque or honey mustard today for all I know. I remember serving a simple Asian flavoured salad (soy, sesame, honey, rice vinegar over shredded carrots and maybe a bit of nappa or lettuce) on the side a few times - wonder where I got that idea.

 

What a mish mash our 'Chinese fondue' is .. seeing what you had there, I will be sure NOT to invite any Chinese person for that kind of meal at my place I think .. they would be shocked I bet - but it is still fun and easy to put together. This kind of 'dinner party' was a trend and hit back in the 60s as I recall and it is still apparently going strong enough even today that one can buy the pre-sliced (though often frozen) meat and broth easily (at least in Ontario and I believe Quebec .. I have not yet found it in this NS neck of the woods unfortunately). And I have not ever seen this kind of fondue meat (or the cans of starter broth) sold down south in the US (in or in any state that leads from eastern Canada to either Texas or North Carolina anyway) either that I can recall.

 

It is certainly a wonderful way to spend an evening with a few friends - and promotes good conversation over a lingering meal (where no one gets too full and the hosts/hostesses are not run ragged preparing last minute dishes, etc.). I really miss those 'fondue' dinners - much more than I ever miss eating cheese fondue or oil based (mostly) beef fondues. Very light on the waistline too (although not if you serve too much booze or a decadent dessert).

 

The sliced meat in the NA version of 'hotpot' usually stays reasonably well wound up on the forks .. though a few pieces are sacrificed to the fondue broth gods of course .. but I wonder if meatballs would - haven't tried those but they sound like a darned good addition.

 

Were you using chopsticks to just lower the meats etc. into the broth and then later fish them out?

Edited July 13, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[huiray]

Regarding the "hot pot" as shown here – For me, the term that is associated with this style of eating/cooking-at-the-table is "steamboat". Like shown in these images (certainly the ones at the upper/top part of the entire image set), at least when I was growing up and in the milieu I was brought up in, which was more Cantonese/Southern Chinese Diaspora. One talked about going out for "steamboat", not "hot pot"; the expected cooking liquid would be a starting broth or even water, and the cooking vessel would be these center-chimneyed pots that were brought out to the table. The term "hot pot" for us tended to conjure up other versions where a pot is used without the central chimney (e.g. Sichuanese, Mongolian, etc) with or without a divided pot; and/or Japanese-style a la sukiyaki or shabu-shabu and the like.**

 

We used our own chopsticks (no "intermediate serving pairs") for both the cooking as well as the eating, plus little sieves as shown in some of the images in the Google set above. Nobody got paranoid about "someone else's utensils in my food" (besides, the hot broth took care of things...) unless they had done something really objectionable such as constantly licking their chopsticks or using it to pick their nose (not that anyone ever did that last thing). 

 

**ETA: Or, if still with Cantonese/Southern Chinese cuisines, it suggested stuff like rice done in those claypots - like these...

 

ETA2: "Fondue", for me and my folks and friends, ALWAYS meant the European/Swiss/German thing , particularly where cheese was used; and those long-handled small two-pronged forks were de rigeur. 

Edited July 13, 2016 by huiray (log)