Eating in Beijing last chapter
Its been fun eating here. I hope I didn’t end up with any food issues. I generally stuck to places that outwardly looked pretty clean. I only ate from a street vendor once, and the food was in a boiling broth. It was duck blood on a stick, so it couldn’t of been that bad.
Some of the more notable dishes I had were found in an area North of center by the Drum and Bell tower. This was one of the more interesting parts of town. I did not see any tour groups which was a start.
Probably the best wings I ever ate were found here on Gulou Dongdajie (1 km SW of Andingmen station where Nan Luoguxiang drops out). The menu had them billed as chicken “Swings”. I was just going to look at the menu but was swiftly sat at a seat. The swings were grilled on skewers as were the shrimps and mushrooms wrapped in tofu noodles. A good snack at 28 RMB.
Another cheap and tasty surprise was a Shaanxi restaurant on Dianmen Dongdajie (55-2) where Beiheyan Dajie intersects it. (1km NE of JingShan park). CHEAP eats. Jia Mo is the first thing on the menu. Its what they called a hamburger, but its a thick unleavened bread bun (like nan guess), crispy and filled with shredded pork. 7 RMB. A big bowl of homemade noodles was 12 RMB. Total bill under 3 bucks for a meal that lasted me till breakfast. Shaanxi is the breadbasket of China and most everything is wheat based. Noodles and breads. Many items were vegetarian too.
The last day of work, we were taken to another hotpot. This one was very good. The service was amazing. Again, I got to try duck blood and esophagus. This is easier to eat than it sounds. We also had noodles made fresh right at our table. It was a fairly athletic display.
The spiciest thing I ever ate was at this place north of the 3rd ring just off of Andingenmen. Im not really sure where it was. It was not HOT hot, more of a continuous simmer really. The kicker was the fennel. You know that bowl of fennel seeds you chew on when you leave an Indian restaurant? There is that crunchy stuck in your teeth texure. This dish had it.
Fennel, Red pepper and sesame. On a bed of Cilantro for good measure. Very crunchy texture.
In addition to that dish I ordered what I thought was minced pork and green beans. This was my safe dish. Nope, these were not green beans…but peppers. Again, it was not like stupid hot, but the spice content was a little over the top.
