Beijing Eats, Part 2

There are many restaurants in Beijing who do Peking duck and many claim they are the best. We decided to try Made in China located in Grand Hyatt. The restaurant has several open cooking stations where you can see the dumplings being freshly wrapped and the hot kiln where the ducks are roasting. The service was mediocre for a hotel restaurant and they seemed flustered with a busy service. We ordered a series of dishes and found that for a restaurant in a 5 star hotel, it was lacking a real wow factor. The prices were comparable to Sydney restaurants but considered expensive for locals.

Here are a few dishes we sampled:

Chinese rocket

Sichuan spicy chicken

Dumplings, dumplings!

Chicken with dried chilli

Sweet n Sour Fish

Braised beef with handmade noodle

Of course the main reason why we were there was the duck. The chef would bring out the duck on a trolley and show you the whole bird before carving it up in front of you. The knife skills of the chef is impressive with plates of duck arriving to our table in no less than 10 minutes. The duck was sliced in 3 different ways: just skin, skin and some fat and skin, fat and meat. The condiments they serve with the duck are hoisin sauce, crushed garlic and white sugar along side wafer thin pancakes, shallots and cucumber. Overall, I must say the skin was very crispy just like a potato chip without it being overly oily or fatty. I did try another piece with sugar as I was intrigued at what flavour it would bring to the duck but it didn’t tickle my palate. The duck was lacking a real meaty/gamey flavour and I was really disappointed as duck is one of my favourite proteins.

Peking Duck served 3 ways

On our last day we were all suffering sore heads and we were walking around Wong Fu Cheng to find some authentic street food. They have a street where at night various food stalls come out and sell their goodies. The cabbie was trying to tell us that but we found another street that served local goodies such as handmade noodles, dumplings, lamb skewers etc all for about $10RMB-$15RMB!

Steamed buns

I didn’t sampled these but they had several stalls selling starfish, sea horses, scorpions etc. Really freaked me out when they were still moving!

Live bugs skewers

We were lured into an alley way with the promise of tables and seats. The food looked good but it didn’t taste the same as it looked. The soup was bland and the noodles were floury.

Knife noodles and pan-fried dumplings

Fish and beef balls in soup

All in all, Beijing trip was definately an experience. I don’t know if I will come rushing back as compared to Shanghai I visited a few years ago, Beijing food didn’t really catch my attention.

 

Beijing Eats Part 1

People at work jokingly think I work part-time this year with the amount of time I have had off with lots of my friend’s getting married overseas or like with my latest trip, one of my best girlfriend’s having her hen’s party in Beijing. The only city I have been to in China is Shanghai a few years back and was impressed at how cosmopolitan the city has become. In the midst of the central CBD there would be little laneways running off the main street and there I would find stalls selling handmade xiao long bau (Shanghainese soup buns) for $1 for 8! I was excited in going to Beijing so I could sample the famous local delicacy of Peking duck.

Here are snippets of food I ate during my 3 day trip when we weren’t consuming alcohol!

First stop off the plane was a steaming bowl of beef  noodle soup at 1949 – The Hidden City. The restaurant is nestled behind an art gallery and when we arrived during lunch hour it was busy so we were seated outside in a cute little courtyard. We had a lunch set whereby you could choose the type of beef noodle, a side dish and vegetables.

Beef, tripe and radish noodle soup

Assortment of side dishes

As we arrived at the start of  Autumn and the nights were a chilly 10 degrees, who could resist hot-pot? The local version is served in a donut shaped pot with a chimney protruding out at the top. The chimney is filled with coals and serves as the heat conductor for the broth. The fish balls were very average and didn’t taste like they were homemade and more like store-bought. The vegetables were lettuce leaf covered in sesame sauce. When it first came out, I wasn’t sure if you were supposed to eat it raw or eat it cooked.

Fish balls and vegetables

Beef and Lamb slices

Ready to eat!

I have never tasted Huadiao jiu (flowery carving wine) before. Huadiao wine is made out of glutinous rice and wheat and used to be buried underground when a family’s daughter is born and dug up when the daughter marries. I loved how they serve the drink to you in one of the restaurants we went to. The cylinder in the middle is where the wine is poured in, the cup is contains hot water and it warms up the wine. You then can drink the wine by itself or with a sour plum.

Huadiao jiu

My one and only encounter with real authentic street food vendor in Beijing. Behind the Sanlitun Village shopping centre, there was a couple selling handmade noodles and dumplings in a cart. The had a make shift dining area right next to road construction. There was no menu on offer and they dumplings fillings came either vegetarian (chive and egg) or pork and chive. There was no tables left for us to sit and we ate the dumplings ghetto style – squatting on the roadside with our table being a traffic cone. The dumplings were a bargain $10 RMB for 12, that’s $1.50 AUD!. The dumplings itself was very tasty but I made the mistake of drinking some of the soup which tasted like it contained MSG.

Local street food vendor

Noodles - hand-made to order

Located in a manor house which is home to the former United States embassy in a walled compound opposite Tianamen Square, houses the restaurant, Masion Boulud. Maison Boulud serves French cuisine with Chef  Brian Reimer learning the tricks of trade from Daniel Boulud at New York’s DANIEL. Here we had brunch with 4 courses for $268RMB and the menu was divided into soups, salads, smoked & marinated, eggs, pasta & rice, fish, meats & offal and desserts. There was in total 36 choices on offer and me being a very indecisive person when it comes to ordering, I am on struggle street. The service was impeccable, the food was amazing and I forgot I was in Beijing and thought I was off in London or NY.

Selection of freshly baked goods on offer

Steak Tartare

Onion Soup

Escargot

Egg Yolk - Homemade fettucine, crispy pork belly and black pepper

Tuna tartare

Milk - Milk Chocolate Parfait Ganache, Lemon Crêmeux Earl Grey Ice Cream

Complimentary freshly baked madelines (they were still warm!)

Petit Fours

 

This is just day 2 of the trip, more to come!

 

1949 The Hidden City. Courtyard 4,

Gong Ti Bei Lu, Chaoyang District, (opposite pacific century place mall south gate)

Tel: +86 6501-1949

 

Maison Boulud

23 Qianmen East Street  Dongcheng, Beijing, China

Tel: +86 6559-9200