beijing: street snacks and beyond

Hello everyone! After a 3-week-long trip in China spanning Beijing, Guilin and Shanghai, Simon and I have returned to Melbourne safe and sound. I took over 1500 photos whilst on holiday, and whittling them down for this blog was quite a task - there is so much I want to share with all of you.

Now without much further ado, I present our first stop: Beijing.

I wish I had the time to try all the delicious-looking food I saw in Beijing. Sigh.

I loved the dazzling array of street food in Beijing. Stalls and vendors are dotted liberally across the city, and every so often we would stumble upon a market or a food street.

One of the most popular snacks sold in Beijing is tanghulu - candied fruits on a stick, not unlike toffee apples. Chinese hawthorn is the traditional fruit used in this candy, but I also saw plenty made with strawberries, pineapple and kiwi.

bing tanghulu.

Not as ubiquitous is the dying art of candy blowing and dough shaping, but I did come across two or three artists doing their thing. And yes, I couldn't resist. I bought myself a candy dog.

a candy blowing artist and his wares.

There was a place with great takeaway options a short walk away from our hotel and for the first several days this was our spot for breakfast on the go. We loved their mini vegetable buns.

mini vegetable buns.

On our first day out, Simon saw some people munching on these pizza-like pancake snacks (diaozhabing) in the Xidan area and decided he had to try one. Fresh from the oven, lightly swiped with a sweet, savoury sauce and sprinkled with spring onions and sesame seeds, these simple Chinese pizzas were light, crispy and utterly delicious.

tujia brand diaozhabing.

Wangfujing and its famous snack street was on our list of places to check out, and during our week in Beijing, we went there twice. At night, this was a bustling hub of activity, packed with both locals and foreigners.

wangfujing snack street.

Here, you might opt for spiders, scorpions, starfish, seahorses and other strange creepy crawlies. Were they gimmicks or true delicacies? I never saw anyone munching on one of those, so call me unadventurous, but I gave it a miss.

are you up for some creepy crawlies?

Instead, we went with some beautifully seasoned lamb skewers. Now this was a good choice!

grilled lamb skewers.

We also liked these thin, crispy meat-filled pancake-dumpling things.

fried thin dumplings.

When in Beijing, having Peking duck is a must. I knew I probably wouldn't get around to trying all the best restaurants serving this dish, so I decided early on that the Dadong chain would be my top pick. I can say I was very, very satisfied with my choice - the Peking duck served here is the most refined I've ever had. One could not say the same about my assembling skills, however...

peking duck from dadong.

Lamb tripe (baodu) is also big in Beijing so I had to try it. This plate came with a bowl of thick dipping sauce. I couldn't quite identify the flavours, but it matched quite well with the chewy tripe. Having said that, I didn't particularly like nor dislike this. I would say the one I had wasn't really my thing, but I'd seen lamb tripe prepared in other ways and I would be happy to give it another go should I visit Beijing again.

lamb tripe (baodu).

Being the huge city it is, you can quite easily find a wide selection of Chinese food from various regions in Beijing. Sichuan food seemed to be quite popular here. Quite a few shops and roadside stalls would sell squid, tofu and vegetables sizzled in an oily and exhilaratingly spicy chilli concoction.

sizzling hot!

We also had a really scrumptious Sichuan-style hot and sour fish soup with preserved vegetables in a restaurant.

we drank this soup by the spoonful.

We got somewhat lost one day and wandered into a rather drab superstore where locals do their shopping. There would be a floor with stalls devoted to socks and underwear, a floor just for toys, and so on. This didn't really interest us, but we did walk around a little and stumbled upon a food court with very cheap food. At this point we still haven't had a taste of the dumplings (jiaozi) in Beijing, so here we jumped at the opportunity. Simply dipped in a bit of vinegar and chilli, these were absolutely moreish.

some classic steamed dumplings (jiaozi) in a bamboo basket.

On one cold night, we got this warm and toasty adzuki bean mousse from a hip little dessert bar, sprinkled with peanuts and strewn with grass jelly and tapioca pearls.

a thick, comforting dessert - just the thing for a cold night in beijing.

During our last two or three days in Beijing, we adopted another place near our hotel as our takeaway breakfast spot. Duck burger to go? Yes please.

this duck burger was a little soggy from being reheated in the microwave, but it was still rather scrumptious.

And - that's it for now, but there's more to come. Stay tuned!