Food of Beijing

• Chinese Food

• Welcome to the capital of piquant pleasures. Food lovers, prepare to love. Beijing delivers well to eats with gruff charm and an optional side of extra MSG, from fabulous street food to an ever-increasing selection of the most food savvy cultures in the world. As a result, we beijingers are blessed with more alternatives for delicious, authentic representation of cuisine from all over China than any other city in the world. We are living in one of the most exciting place to eat in the world.

• Here are some suggestions for a good Chinese meal!
  




• Chinese snacks in Beijing(Xiaochi; 小吃)
  Beijing is not particularly famous for its local “xiaochi”, but one good thing about the capital is that you can eat food coming from all over China. We have mentioned the lamb sticks earlier in this section, which is a northwestern specialty, and can be found at many places in the city. Follow your nose.
  




• One place where a lot of street vendors congregate is at Wangfujing (王府井). The road running perpendicular to the walking street at thenorthern end of it is lined up with “xiaochi”from around 5 o’clock in the afternoon till 10 in the evening. You can haveall kinds of strange things like silkworms, scorpions, sparrows, pigeons, sea animals, cicadas etc., all deep fried. Also around the middle of the walking street, there is a huge gate on the western side of the road, and going in that gate offers similar delicacies, but for a lower price. The smell of “stinky doufu” (chòu dòufu; 臭豆腐) is all around the area, and one often has “flashbacks” of the smell at night after going home. It is an experience not to be missed.

Baozi (包子) and jiaozi (饺子) are northern specialties and can be found in abundance in Beijing. They are quite similar in the way that both of them are pastries with some kind of filling, but baozi are round and steamed, and mostly eaten for breakfast, while jiaozi are more crescent shaped and cooked or fried. If you are in Beijing, these are foods not to miss.

北京老字号

Lao zihao (Chinese: 老字号, lit. "Old Trademark") refers to a trade name (generally three characters in length) for extant Chinese shops of historical prominence. While not indicated by the name, Lao zihao is usually used for those shops originating in the Beijing area after the capital was relocated in the Ming Dynasty. Those shops with origins from other regions of China are classified as 中华老字号 (Old Chinese Trademarks). Many of the shops have a history of well over 400 years, and in modern times have begun to expand via mass commercialization of their staple products.

全聚德 -- Beijing Roast Duck restaurant
东来顺 -- hotpot restaurant
都一处 -- restaurant famous for its shaomai
便宜坊 -- another competing roast duck restaurant
狗不理 -- baozi restaurant(invented in Tianjin,another city near Beijing)
馄饨侯 -- wonton (hundun) restaurant
六必居 -- sells various preserved vegetables and sauces
荣宝斋 -- sells various works of art (notably wallscrolls)
同仁堂 -- supplier of medicinal herbs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine
张一元 -- teahouse
瑞蚨祥 -- cloth and qipao's (Traditional Chinese Clothes)
内联升 -- old Chinese cloth shoes
盛锡福 -- hats

 

全聚德 Beijing Duck
全聚德，The city that invented Kaoya still truly creates the best, and options-which range from humble hutong hideouts and train station space bags to posh hotel eateries and the shiny glitz of famous institutions-are numerous. We are spoiled for choice, but we are also selective. After all, a pancake rolled with crispy roasted skin, moist meat and a swipe of salty-sweet plum sauce is not just a minor habit that hampers our waistline-it is a mouthful of heaven that we’d travel across the Pacific to taste.

 

都一处 restaurant famous for its shaomai

In the Qing Dynasty, the fillings varied by season: spring- garlic chives, summer- mutton and pumpkin, autumn- crab meat,winter- mixed seafood.

Many varieties have been created as the shaomai was gradually introduced to all provinces, where it was adapted to the different regional tastes throughout China. However, most people in Western countries associate shaomai only with the Cantonese version due to the Cantonese diaspora.

 

东来顺 Hot Pot in Beijing

Hot pot basically consists of a pot with a boiling soup, and is one of the “do it yourself” kind of foods, as all the meat, veggies and other things are served raw and are supposed to be cooked in the soup for a brief time.
The soup can have a mild taste (qīngtāng; 青汤), spicy (málà; 麻辣), or you can also ask for a “yuānyang guō” (鸳鸯锅), which is divided in the middle and one half is filled with spicy, the other one with non-spicy soup.
Hot pot is especially recommended in the winter time, as merely sitting next to the boiling soup can warm you up. It is definitely very unique and tasty.

Chinses dishes in Beijing

China covers a large territory and has many nationalities, hence a variety of Chinese food with different but fantastic and mouthwatering flavor. Since China's local dishes have their own typical characteristics, generally, Chinese food can be roughly divided into eight regional cuisines: Sichuan Cuisine, Guangdong Cuisine, Shandong Cuisine, Fujian Cuisine, Jiangsu Cuisine, Zhejiang Cuisine, Hunan cuisine, Anhui Cuisine. Certainly, there are many other local cuisines that are famous, such as Beijing Cuisine and Shanghai Cuisine.
Here are three main cuisine:
四川菜 Sichuan Cuisine
Sichuan Cuisine, known often in the West as Szechuan Cuisine, is one of the most famous Chinese cuisines in the world. Characterized by its spicy and pungent flavor, Sichuan cuisine, prolific of tastes, emphasizes on the use of chili. Pepper and prickly ash also never fail to accompany, producing typical exciting tastes. Besides, garlic, ginger and fermented soybean are also used in the cooking process. Wild vegetables and animals are usually chosen as ingredients, while frying, frying without oil, pickling and braising are applied as basic cooking techniques. Yúxiāng ròusī (鱼香肉丝) and Gongbao jīdīng (宫保鸡丁) are well known dishes even outside China It cannot be said that one who does not experience Sichuan food ever reaches China.
广东菜  Guangdong Cuisine
Cantonese food originates from Guangdong, the southernmost province in China. The majority of overseas Chinese people are from Guangdong （Canton） so Cantonese is perhaps the most widely available Chinese regional cuisine outside of China.
Tasting clear, light, crisp and fresh, Guangdong cuisine, familiar to Westerners, usually chooses raptors and beasts to produce originative dishes. Its basic cooking techniques include roasting, stir-frying, sauteing, deep-frying, braising, stewing and steaming. Among them steaming and stir-frying are more commonly applied to preserve the natural flavor. Guangdong chefs also pay much attention to the artistic presentation of dishes.
山东菜 Shandong Cuisine
Consisting of Jinan cuisine and Jiaodong cuisine, Shandong cuisine, clear, pure and not greasy, is characterized by its emphasis on aroma, freshness, crispness and tenderness. Shallot and garlic are usually used as seasonings so Shangdong dishes tastes pungent usually. Soups are given much emphasis in Shangdong dishes. Thin soup features clear and fresh while creamy soup looks thick and tastes strong. Jinan cuisine is adept at deep-frying, grilling, frying and stir-frying while Jiaodong division is famous for cooking seafood with fresh and light taste.

 

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