March 2008

Beijing means duck and I intended to have plenty of it and a few other Northern specialties to boot. Unfortunately, with the Forbidden City, Olympic facilities, the Great Wall and points in between, Beijing also has a lot of sights to visit, which tends to cut into eating time, especially when you’re only in town for two and a half days. Which is a shame because, more than any other Chinese city, Beijing is the place to try not only those filling Northern specialties but also great dishes from all of China’s regions.

DUCK

Peking duck (I can’t bring myself to call it Beijing duck–it just doesn’t seem right) is the city’s most renowned culinary export. Traditionally it should be made from a domesticated offshoot of the mallard duck called a, wait for it, Pekin Duck which is free range raised and force fed for the last few weeks before slaughter, resulting in meat that is both flavourful and fatty. The skin is separated from the fat and the ducks are air dried, basted and roasted in batches in special closed brick ovens fueled by fruit wood.

As you might imagine, Beijing boasts a number of famous duck restaurants and sorting the wheat from the chaff was the first hurdle on my duck quest. Quanjude and Bianyifang have both been in business for well over 150 years and have established reputations (Quanjude in particular is the destination for foreign dignitaries), but while tourists flock to these two well known restaurants, many locals will tell you that the reputation is greater than the product and that the duck is ordinary at best. Liqun Roast Duck , tucked away in a ramshackle hutong alley in the Chongwen district south of Tiananmen Square, also gets a few nods in travel guides for the authenticity of the surroundings and food but local opinion seems to be that its best days are behind it now that it has been discovered as a tourist destination. What do the locals recommend? Da Dong Roast Duck in Chaoyang quite a ways east of the Forbidden City gets consistently strong recommendations for its duck, reputed to be lower in fat than that of many competitors.

With only 48 hours in Beijing, our plans to eat at Da Dong fell through after getting stuck in traffic on our way back from the Great Wall. We did eat at another restaurant reputed to have the top duck in the city, the oh-so-cleverly named Made in China in the Grand Hyatt. Perhaps its just a sign of the times in this former Communist country that the best place to get this traditional dish is in a restaurant housed by a major American corporation. I was leery at first but recommendation after recommendation gave me a change of heart with the tipping point being the write-up by über high-end foodie Andy Hayler (http://www.andyhayler.com/) who says that if you go to only one restaurant in Beijing it should be Made in China. After all, who am I to argue with the likes of Mr. Hayler?

Made in China was everything it was advertised to be. From marinated broad beans and slices of duck gizzard with sesame marinated in spicy oil served as an appetizer, to an amazing complexity of flavours in a stirfry of lamb, shallot and Chinese greens and the delicate taste of wild mushrooms and green onions sauteed in shaoxing wine.

But it was the duck that took the day. Roasted over date wood in one of the brick ovens that frame this modern restaurant, the deep golden duck is served head on and carved tableside. Crispy skin is served first dipped in sugar or a pungent garlic sauce. It is almost euphorically fatty with a nice salty bite. It is followed by juicy breast meat served with julienned shallot and cucumber, a Hoisin-like sweet sauce and the most delicate steamed pancakes. Connoisseurs can sample the head, which is not bad but not something I’d fight over either. Be forewarned, the yield on a Made in China duck is minimal and they will leave half the meat on the carcass if you don’t watch them like a hawk. With duck this good, that would be a real shame.

WANGFUJING SNACK STREET

Tucked in an alley off popular shopping destination Wangfujing Street this little collection of outdoor stalls, small open restaurants and souvenir hawkers was described as bustling but pretty tame when I visited. The specialty here is skewered protein cooked on a griddle in a couple inches of oil. Not for those on the Oprah diet but a tasty result if you’re not.

Yangrou chuan (lamb skewers) are a Beijing favourites and this is a great place to try them. There are also starfish, scorpions, sea horses and several tasty looking bugs for the more adventurous. All the Chinese people I saw were sticking to lamb and chicken so I’m not certain the sea horses aren’t just a joke the Chinese play on gullible Americans.

A number of other stalls serve noodles, steamed buns and Szechuanese specialties, but all in all, this wasn’t as big or as impressive as described. Since you’ll likely be coming down this street if you’re a tourist it doesn’t hurt to stop in for a snack, though, especially at RMB3 to RMB5 for a kebab.

DONGHUAMEN NIGHT MARKET

Donghuamen night market is a few hundred feet north of the entrance to Wangfujing Snack Street but only gets going… (wait for it)… at night. Having lived part of my misspent youth in Taiwan, I expected the same crush of people and no-holds barred shopping and eating of the great night markets of Taipei. But Donghuamen is actually a very regulated and orderly place, obviously designed to be a tourist friendly showcase.

The smell of chou dou fu (a fermented tofu dish with a distinctively pungent odor) permeates parts of the market giving it a distinctly authentic feel but the uniform stalls with prices listed on menu boards and neatly dressed hawkers feel a little out of place. Much of what is on offer replicates the food on Wangfujing snack street but is available on a wider scale.

The ubiquitous kebab of protein predominates but you can get a wider variety including deep fried soft shell crab on a stick, there are pancakes, jiaozi (dumplings), baodu (seasoned boiled tripe), an assortment of pancakesand meat balls and tanghulu (fruit on a stick dipped in liquid sugar) for dessert. I even found a variant of a snack called gao bao that I used to love when I lived in Taipei: a fresh mantou (soft wheat flour roll) split open and filled with fatty meat, crushed peanuts and coriander. Sooo good. Donghuamen is a great place to try out street food in an untimidating atmoshphere.

JIAOZI

One of my favourite Chinese foods is the jiaozi (dumpling), whether fried (guotie) boiled (shuijiao) or steamed (zhengjiao), these robust wheat based dumplings filled with pork, lamb, cabbage, scallion or anything else were one of my top cravings when I got off the plane.

Top rated Niuge Jiaozi on Nanheyan Street just east of the Forbidden City had my fix. The house specialty are shuijiao, boiled dumplings dipped in a combination of soy, vinegar and hot sauce that you mix yourself at the table. Niuge has a list of dumplings as long as my arm but a big plate of pork and scallion dumplings and another of lamb with leeks finished us off. Spotlessly clean and centrally located, it’s a nice spot for lunch if you’re in the neighbourhood (and you will be). Nobody speaks English and the menus are all in Chinese but as long as you know a few ingredient words you should be able to get by.

Sadly, we didn’t get to eat nearly everything we would have liked but that’s what next trips are for.