Peking Roast Duck

Beijing Roast duck is thought to be one of the most delicious dishes all over the world; most visitors coming to Beijing will never forget to have a try.

The two famous restaurants that serve Beijing Roast Duck are Bianyifang Roast Duck Restaurant and Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant, both of which have a history of over one hundred years. They represent two different schools of roasting duck. Bianyifang, founded in 1855, makes use of a close oven and straw as the fuel, which won't make flames go directly onto the duck. Before being put into the oven, a duck is filled with specially-made soup to make it possible to roast the duck outside and boil it inside at the same time.

Quanjude, a better known one, founded in 1864, uses an oven without a door. After a kind of dressing being spread all over a duck, it will be hooked up in the oven over the flame coming directly from the burning of the fruit-tree wood and it will be done in forty minutes.

When roasted and dried, the duck will look brilliantly dark red, shining with oil and with crisp skin and tender meat. Because of its appearance, few people could resist the temptation of it.

Now it's time to serve it! First, the chef will show you the whole duck. Then, he will slice it into about one hundred and twenty pieces with both skin and meat for each. Usually the duck is served together with special pancakes, hollowed sesame bun, green onions and sweet sauce. Dinners can wrap duck slices, onion, and sauce in a pancake or a sesame bun with their bare hands. Sometimes people would like to put in mashed garlic and cucumber or carrot strips as well. Some young women like to dip slices into white sugar directly. Other parts of the duck will be served as either cold dishes with its livers, wings, stomach, webs and eggs, or hot dishes with its heart, tongue and kidneys. The bones can even be decocted together with Chinese watermelon and cabbage.

Imperial Court Food

Imperial Court Cuisine, another important part of Beijing Cuisine, originates from royal kitchens where dishes and food were only cooked for the royal family. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Imperial Court Cuisine began to be popular among the common people with its original features that the raw material and the ingredients are carefully selected and the dishes are exquisitely prepared and delicately decorated in different colors with light taste and sufficient nutrition.

Many restaurants serve Court Cuisine in Beijing today, such as Fangshan Restaurant and Tingliguan Restaurant being the most famous ones.

Fangshan Restaurant is in Beihai Park and the most famous dish of it is Man-Han Banquet (a dinner of Man and Han national food) which includes "eight treasures from the mountains", "eight treasures on land" and "eight treasures from the sea", such as bear's paws, humps and shark's fins, and lots of rare things, but some of them are not available on table today. There are so many dishes (one hundred and thirty four hot ones and forty eight cold ones, besides many desserts) that you have to have them in six different meals in several days.

Tingliguan is in the Summer Palace and it used to be the place where Empress Dowager Ci Xi enjoyed her opera, which, of course, is as beautiful as a painting. It is famous for its "All-Fish Feast" of over fifty kinds and this is the only one in China. When the fish is served on the table, its mouth can be still opening and closing and its gills flapping. Sometimes the fish's mouth keeps moving even when it has been eaten to bones. But you don't have to be frightened; it is just falsely alive. You want to know its secret? Just go and try it!

Imperial Official Food and Medicinal Food

In the past, feudal officials were quite picky about their food, so their bland cuisine is usually exquisite and its material is always carefully selected. Tan Jia Cuisine and Hong Lou Cuisine are known as Imperial Official Cuisine.

Tan Jia Cuisine, coming from Tan family, is especially famous. Today it is a local authorized dish only served at Beijing Hotel. Hong Lou Cuisine, the one that was described in Dream of Red Mansion, is served at Beijing Grand View Garden Hotel, Jinglun Hotel and Zhongshan Park.

Medicinal Cuisine is also special in Beijing. Its dishes are made with rare ingredients such as ginseng, antlers, bear's paws, soft-shelled turtles etc. It is not only valuable in terms of traditional Chinese medicine but also nourishing in terms of delicacy.

Hotpot

On a cold winter day in Beijing, you may like to have something hot in a restaurant with your family. Then Hotpot is perhaps the best choice for you.

The pot is made of brass with a wide outer rim around a chimney in which the charcoal burns to heat the soup. When the soup is boiling, dinners dip thin slices of frozen raw meat in the soup where it gets quick boiled and then put them into a kind of sauce like sesame sauce, soy sauce, chili oil, and vinegar. The meat can be beef, mutton, chicken, fish, prawn, lots of things but not pork if you are in an Islamic restaurant. Vegetables such as mushrooms, bean curds can be quick boiled as well. Of course, you can also try whatever you like.

Dong Lai Shun in Wangfujing Dajie is a restaurant that is worth mentioning. It was opened in 1903 and is well-known for its Hot Pot with its ethnic characteristics at home and abroad. It has developed an Islamic dietetic system of over two hundred dishes, bearing the features of carefully selected materials, crisp sweet garlic, many kinds of seasonings and blazing Hot Pot.

Nowadays, Sichuan-style and Cantonese-style Hot Pots have spread all over the county. One is much spicy and the other is sweeter but delicious as well. Recently Hot Pot also appears on tables in other seasons. Some people especially like eating it in summer, sitting in front of a fire with an air-conditioner working behind and saying it couldn't have been better!

Traditional Snacks

Beijing snacks, combining varied flavors from different nationalities like Han, Hui, Meng, Man and court snacks from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), include many kinds and form the characteristic of their own.

It is said that there are over two hundred kinds of snacks in Beijing, including dishes going with wine, such as Quick-Fried Tripe (Bao Du), Boiled Sheep's Head (Bai Shui Yang Tou), Flour-Pastry desserts, like Pancakes with Meat-Fillings (Rou Mo Shao Bing) and some other snacks for breakfast or as midnight snack, like Sticky Rice with Sweet Fillings (Ai Wo Wo) and Rolling Donkey (Lu Da Gun). What local Beijing people, especially elder ones like most are Mung Bean Milk (Dou Zhi), Fried Liver (Chao Gan) and Filled Sausage (Guan Chang).

There are also lots of famous restaurants selling snacks. Fangshan Restaurant sells Sticky Rice with Sweet Fillings and Pea-Flour Cake (Wan Dou Huang); Donglaishun Restaurant sells Cream Fried Cake (Nai You Zha Gao). In many restaurants you may find some other things special.

In fact, there are too many places for snacks in Beijing for you to make a decision which one to go to. So my suggestion may be helpful for you to save some time. Generally speaking, there are four places popular of this kind. One is Duyichu Restaurant, sitting at 36 Qianmen Dajie, Chongwen District. It was opened in 1738, and is famous for its Shao Mai, which has both attractive appearance and delicious taste. Another is Nanlaishun in Xuanwu District, where you can find about seventy kinds of snacks. The third place is Longfu Temple (Longfu Si) Snacks Restaurants which mainly sell Islamic Snacks. The fourth one is Evening Market Snacks Street near Donghuaemen, Wangfujing. It is a place where most common people go to have snacks. Fangshan Restaurant is a place where snacks of royal family are available.

Apart from what are mentioned above in fixed places, you can find many other kinds along roadsides. For example, Sugar-Coated Haws on a stick (Bing Tang Hu Lu), which is sold everywhere in cold days and is one of the daintiest snacks. It looks brightly red, bearing a little sour and sweet. You can also try Roast Sweet Potato (Kao Hong Shu or Kao Bai Shu). Eat it when it is still hot, it is fragrant and sweet. I bet you will never forget it.

Shish kebab (Yang Rou Chuan) is another good choice. Xingjiang Shish kebab is a snack that is popular not only in Beijing but all over the country. Mutton is strung together on a skewer and roasted over a charcoal. It is continually turned and when it is done, salt, pepper and zi ran, which is a special Xinjiang seasoning, are sprinkled over it. It is a little salty, a little hot but hasn't any unpleasant taste.

If you have enough time you may saunter around and drop in small restaurants, especially when the bigger ones have closed. You will find that it won't cost you much for your dinner, which is really good. You will find steamed bread, steamed dumplings, dumplings, noodles, and family-style dishes, which you probably couldn't see in bigger ones.

Quick-Fried Tripe (Bao Du)

Quick-Fried Tripe is an Islamic snack of tripe of sheep or cattle. When served, it is first cut into stripes or slices. Then, it is boiled in water. After it is cooked and dipped into sesame sauce it gets ready for eating. One of the famous restaurants is Bao Du Man, which lies in Niujie, Xuanwu District with a history of more than one hundred years and still run by Man family.

Boiled Sheep's Head (Bai Shui Yang Tou)

Boiled Sheep's Head is another Islamic snack people eat while drinking some wine. It undergoes the following procedures. First, boil sheep's head in water without putting in any seasoning and then cut it into paper-thin slices, at last scatter over it with a kind of special salt.

Pancakes with Meat-Fillings (Rou Mo Shao Bing)

Pancakes with Meat-Fillings are a kind of court snack, eating as a breakfast dessert by Empress Dowager Ci Xi. When you eat it you need to hollow a pancake and fill it with some minced meat. The pancake is a little burnt outside while the inside is still tender. It tastes salty, delicious and a bit sweet.

Sticky Rice with Sweet Fillings (Ai Wo Wo)

Sticky Rice with Sweet Fillings was once a court snack in Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368). Sticky rice is first steamed, pounded into pulp, shaped into a ball and then filled with sesame and white sugar, pea-flour, jujube paste or some other fillings. Then it is spread over with rice flour. It looks frostlike, tastes smooth and flexible and its fillings are loose and sweet.

Rolling Donkey (Lu Da Gun)

Rolling Donkey is a kind of cake made of bean-flour and is a famous Islamic snack in Beijing. It is made from steamed glutinous millet or sticky rice, scattered with fried bean-flour and filled with red pea. After being cut into blocks, it is rolled in soya bean-flour, which is why this snack gets the name, L¨² Da Gun. When you roll it in soya bean-flour, it looks like a donkey rolling on the ground, raising dusts.

Mung Bean Milk (Dou Zhi)

Mung Bean Milk, which was first drunk about one thousand years ago, is the Number one snack when people are talking about Beijing Snacks. It is actually remnant of mung bean when it is used to make starch. It looks grey-green and tastes sour and a little sweet. When served, it must go with pickles, which are thinly cut and sprayed with cayenne pepper oil. It will taste better, especially for those who try it for the first time. Most people will find it hard to swallow because of its flavor, but if you could manage to try for the second time, maybe you will like it. Some people have got into the habit of drinking it and they even would search everywhere and wait a long time in lines for it. Mung Bean Milk is also rich in protein, vitamin C and dietary fiber and has some effects like appetizing, relieving summer heat, detoxifying and some other effects that account for its popularity among many people.

You could find it in Jinxin Douzhi Restaurant, Ciqikou, Chongwenmenwai.

Fried Liver (Chao Gan)

Fried liver is actually done with such raw material as pig's intestines and some liver with soy sauce, mashed garlic, starch, aniseed etc. as seasonings. The intestine is boiled with seasonings and later the liver is added. When cooked, the juice is sparkling and clear while the intestine is tender and the liver is tasty. It is in fact not fried but boiled. But since it got the name in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), people accepted it according to the custom. Tianxingju Chaogan Restaurant, the most well-known restaurant for Fried Liver is in Xianyukou Jie, Qianmen, Chongwenmen District.

Filled Sausage (Guan Chang)

Filled Sausage is a dish made with intestine filled with starch, minced meat and some spices. It is first steamed and then cut into cubes and fried. When it is done, it looks inviting with salty water and garlic juice. It is said that Empress Dowager Ci Xi sang high praise of it, so you can imagine how delicious it is. Fuxingju, the earliest restaurant that sells Fried Sausage, used to pay this tribute to the royal family of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Pea-Flour Cake (Wan Dou Huang)

Pea-Flour Cake, which is made of white pea, is a snack people usually eat in spring. White-pea flour is first mixed with water, cooked over gentle heat and then fried with sugar. After it solidifies, it is cut into rhombohedra -shaped pieces. It has both nice look and nice taste. The best point of it is its fine and smooth texture that melt at the same time when you put it in your mouth.

Shao Mai

There are not many restaurants selling Shao Mai in Beijing and Duyichu Shaomai Restaurant, which lies in Qianmen Dajie and was named by Emperor Qian Long in 1752. It has the best reputation and attracts friends from home and abroad.

The wrappers of Shao Mai are made of flour, and it is rolled by a specially-made roller to form nice shape. Then it is put in different fillings in different seasons, usually young chives in spring, cucurbits together with mutton or vegetables in summer, crabs in autumn and pork with onion in winter. Steamed Shao Mai looks white and translucent, with beautiful pleats on the top, which look quite like sheaves of wheat heads or bunches of white flowers.