Discover Beijing Chapter IV: A Bite of OId Beijing

In China, Folk have a saying "food to taste a priority". Beijingers also take the food as the prime necessity in their lives. There are various kinds and delicious dishes and snacks such as the wolrd-renowned dish Beijing Roast Duck. But besides the Beijing Roast Duck, do you know any others? In this chapter, we will talk about the some dishes and snacks you may have not known but which have take the important position in the food culture of Beijing.

Chapter Four

Beijing, Beijing? Old Beijing!

                                                                  --A Bite of Old Beijing

Beijing snacks have a high reputation because of its long history, various kinds, refined materials and delicious taste. Beijing snacks flavors are mainly characterized by different ethnics. Until now, there are still many restaurants that have served the local snacks for hundreds of years. Beijing snacks used to be very famous in Beijing in the old days. The kind of snacks is varied, there were approximately more than 200 of them.

Famous and outstanding old Beijing dishes and snacks are just as following, to name just a few:


Beijing Roast Duck

Beijing Roast duck is thought to be one of the most delicious dishes all over the world; most visitors coming to Beijing will never forget to have a try. Eating Peking duck is seen to be one of the two things you are absolutely supposed to do while in Beijing. 

Beijing Roast Duck

The two famous restaurants that serve Beijing Roast Duck are Bianyifang Roast Duck Restaurant and Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant, both of which have a history of over one hundred years.

There is a proper way to eat it. First, pick up a slice of duck with the help of a pair of chopsticks and dip it into the soy paste. Next, lay it on the top of a thin cake and add some bars of cucumber and shallot. Finally, wrap the stuff into a bundle with the sheet cake (a thin pancake).





Glutinous Rice Rolls with Sweet Bean Flour/Rolling donkey

Glutinous Rice Rolls with Sweet Bean Flour/Rolling donkey

Rolling donkey (Lv Da Gun) are steamed glutinous rice rolls filled with red bean paste or brown sugar that is then rolled and covered in a soybean flour crumble. Its origins can be traced to the Qing Dynasty. The cake, which has a yellowish color, is sweet and a little sticky, with a very nice bean flavor.




Stewed Pork Liver

Stewed Pork Liver

Chao gan, or stewed liver, evolved from stewed pork liver and stir-fried pork lung, both folk foods from the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The cleaned chitterlings are cut into pieces after being boiled in water. They are then stewed in mushroom soup with garlic sauce, chopped spring onion, chopped ginger and pork liver. Chicken soup and mashed garlic should be added before ready to serve. The soup is a glossy dark red and the pork liver and chitterlings are tender. Chao Gan used to be served with small dumplings, but now there is no particular way to eat it. 


Actually, long ago in old Beijing, the food service establishments were strictly stratified by the food service guild. Each category of the establishment was specifically based on its ability to provide for a particular segment of the market. The top ranking food service establishments served nobles, aristocrats, and wealthy merchants and landlords, while lower ranking food service establishments served the populace of lower financial and social status.

The different classes are listed in the following subsections.

Zhuang 

Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character Zhuang are the top ranking foodservice establishments, not only in providing foods, but also entertainment as well. The form of entertainment provided was usually Beijing opera, and foodservice establishments of this class always had long term contracts with a Beijing opera troupe to perform onsite.

Beijing Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant

Tang

Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character Tang are the second class foodservice establishments were generally evenly divided among onsite banquet hosting and catering (at customers’ homes). In terms of catering at the customers’ sites, foodservice establishments of this category often only provided dishes strictly according to their menu, and would not provide any dishes that were not on the menu, because they were generally incapable of providing dishes outside their menu according to the specific occasion.

Zhai

Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character Zhai were mainly in the business of serving different customers onsite on a walk-in basis, but a small portion of the income did come from hosting banquets made by appointment for customers who came as one group. Food service establishments of this category would also only provide the few specialty dishes they are famous for, but they would mostly bring the already cooked dishes to the location, and would only cook on locations occasionally.

Old Beijing snacks and dishes have their own bright features that they can represent the spirit of a time, a nation and generations. How can you probe into old Beijing culture without tasting all these mouth-watering cusines?