Beijing Food - Part 1
When I was kid, if I didnt finish my food, my grandmother would tell to about all those poor starving kids in China to get me to finish what was on my plate. Maybe things are different in other provinces, but there is no shortage of food in this city.
Saturday night we went out for Beijing (Peking) duck. This is one of the must haves in Beijing. Its about 200 Yuan (19 bucks) for a full duck. Of course, Jeffery (my Chinese co-worker) had to order other stuff too.
He ordered:
- the duck
- duck feet
- duck intestines
- duck blood soup!!
They cut up the duck for you so that there is a sliver of skin with every piece. This is considered (rightfully so) the best part of the duck. You get stack of crepes that you wrap the duck in with a dab of sauce and stuff with veggies.
You start off with simply a bit of skin. It was GOOD!!!! The duck fat just melts in your mouth. The duck feet were ok. They take out the bones so its just..well…pretty much cartilage with a spicy mustard sauce.
(I like chicken feet better)
Duck!
The duck intestines were chewy. Pretty good, but definately one of those dishes that are best shared amongst several people. I passed on the duck blood soup.
Duck intestines
Duck blood soup
Duck feet (boneless!)
Ill probibly have to have duck at least once more before I leave.
Nuts:
While visiting the Fragrant hills, I was handed a sample of some kind of roasted pecan by a street vendor. I think it was roasted…I dunno. It was definately a pecan, but it tasted sweet, like brown sugar. The shells tasted sweet to the tongue so I suppose they were boiled in sugar and vanilla. I dunno. Jeffery thought I was crazy for eating something from a street vendor. Crazy like a nut-eating fox! I got a bag of them to nosh on for the week. So far, no stomach problems.
Szechuan:
Sat night we had Szechuan from a food court in a mall in the WangFuJing district. It was cheap, and incredible.
The first dish was this duck blood/Eel/Tripe combo dish. I had passed on duck blood before the first night, but tonight I had hearty helpings of it. Its basically a blood clot I suppose. Kinda like if you let cream sit in lemon juice??? Soft and chunky. The dish had these pepper corns in it that numbed my mouth so that I
could not feel anything. This is supposed to adapt your taste buds for the heat?
The braised beef was littered with thai chilis…didnt bother me a bit.
The Fish was smoothered in chili oil…no effect.
The eggplant was not hot…but mmmm oh so good.
None of the dishes seemed that hot to me, but they really were hot. (as was confirmed the next day by a part of my body that didnt have the advantage of pre-numbing peppercorns.)
Rolls:
Monday night we took the subway back down to Wangfujing. This time we had a smaller (thank god!) meal of buns. This was apparently a famous place, but Jeffery was not all that impressed. I, on the other hand, was very impressed. We got a combo dish of pork, veggie and something else buns. All were good.
Hot Pot:
Tuesday I wanted to walk to dinner. I just had to. Several times over the past few days, we had passed a venue called “Grandpa Lee’s” It had a pipe smoking grandpa as its icon and looked packed…good enough for me. I suggested we check it out, based entirely on its cool logo.
Turns out it was a “hot pot” place. This is another dish that was recommended as a must eat dish by all. (my bro mike also praised this dish highly).
I didnt even bother to look at the menu. I let Jeffery order whatever.
Hot pot is basically a big pot in the middle of the table. It has a boiling broth that you dip food in to cook in a manner similar to Fondue. (I had just tried this only a month ago when my girlfriend too me out to Simply Fondue for my birthday dinner)
Its just broth, so if you order veggies, you dinner has the potential of being pretty healthy.
We had:
- Woodear mushrooms
- (some other) mushrooms
- Beef
- Duck intestines (again?)
- Kidney (cut expertly)
- Beef Tripe
- Beef Esophogus
- Seaweed
- Soy Bean sprouts (seriously good!!!)
- Spinach
- Fish Balls
- Fish paste
Esophagus, tripe, kidney and more duck intestines
Beef, tofu noodles, spinach, gross meats and schrooms
Our server demostrates how to dump the fish paste into the hot pot. When it floats, its done.
woodear mushrooms. (VERY GOOD)
The esophagus really didnt have much of a taste as much as it had the kind of texture that you would expect from something that nature never intended to rupture. I think that what makes Americans squimish is not the flavor or origination of what they eat but the texture.