Chinese street food: Jiān Bǐng.

One of the things I really love about Beijing is the street food. They come in all shapes and forms and there’s something for everyone, including sweet, sour, spicy, and savory. It really is a delight walking through some of the streets at night and looking at the massive array of foods on display.

A lot of foreigners shy away from the street food, citing that it’s unclean, and thus terribly unhealthy. While I will go far as to say it’s not the cleanest food going around, it’s not half as bad as people make it out to be. The most common complaint I hear is, ‘The food made me sick all night’, which I can understand seeing that I’ve been in that position many times before.

Much of it comes down to the constitution of ones stomach. Some people just can’t handle the heavy use of spices and/or the overuse of oil that is synonymous with Beijing cuisine. To those people I really sympathize, there’s lots of awesome food that they simply can’t stomach, and that seems ungodly unfair.

I thought I would share one of my great loves here in Beijing; Jiān Bǐng.

Jiān Bǐng is one of the simple most delicious, quick, and cheap foods that one will ever come across. There’s a great link for the food here, but for those too lazy too go there, here’s a quick description of it;

A batter made of flour and powdered beans (although you can have a variety of different batters) are spread over a large round metal pan, much the same as a waffle iron. They spread it evenly over the pan.

On top of the thin layer of batter, they break an egg and spread it over the surface.

When the egg is just about cooked, they flip it over.

On the cooked side, they spread hoisin sauce and sprinkle it with finely chopped spring onions and coriander, and some chili paste.

On top of that, they put a piece of fried dough (crunchy style), and fold it all up.

It’s absolutely delicious when eat freshly made and it costs as little as 3 yuan (50 cents). I buy mine from a supermarket opposite work and it costs 4.5 yuan (75 cents), because they make it large and put lots of yummy sauce in it, and is a convenient.

I’m not going to say it’s great for you, but it’s hard the worst food either. Still, easily my favourite Chinese street food.

Protected: Taken out for lunch.

Trying out some Chinese.

I have mentioned previously, I have started taking Chinese lessons and have been doing so for the past month. In addition, Em has been helping me with my every day Chinese as well as coaching me with what I’ve been learning in class. As a result, I seem to be excelling a little faster than anyone else in my class, at least with pronunciation, despite the fact that some of them have up to 3 different Chinese classes or tutors to work with.

I never thought I’d be very good with foreign languages, having never learnt one during my school years, although after 5 years in Korea, I thought I did a fairly good job with my Korean, despite never having a formal Korean class (although I can only relate my Korean with other foreigners I worked with).

Of course the advantage in Korea was that I had to learn Korean in order to be able to enjoy and be comfortable with a lifestyle that was agreeable with me. In Beijing, Em has been able to for fill those needs with her Chinese and thus me not having to learn key phrases and words that I need, at very least, to survive. That’s not Em’s fault, that’s solely mine, for no other reason than a degree of laziness and convenience.

With that in mind, I really have been making a conscience effort to improve and use the Chinese I’ve been taught. At this stage it’s not a lot, but I am using what I know as much as possible. With one of the other teachers in the office also going to the same Chinese classes as I, we do like to challenge ourselves by asking questions to each other, at random, to help us remember what we have learnt in class. Little things like that really do make a difference.

I’ve also been brave enough to start ordering some food in Mandarin. While I can’t remember the names of the food, I can at very least get Em to write them down for me to say, correctly, when I’m ordering. The Chinese teachers at work have also been of good assistance and been helping with pronunciations with some of the more tongue-challenging names. I’m now confident enough to order dinner for both Em and I after work and bring it home. Tonight after work I managed to order the following meal;

• Jìàng bào tīng  (???) – similar to gong bao chicken but it doesn’t have any peanuts.
• Xī hóng shì chǎo jīdàn (西红柿炒鸡蛋) egg and tomato fried together.

I actually did order something else, but rather amusingly, I’ve already forgotten the word for it. That’s a bit how it is when learning a new language, one moment the word or phrase is there, the next it’s hidden away in your head until you can remember what it is again. And with Mandarin it isn’t enough to just remember the word, you also need to remember how to say the word correctly. One bad tone and you could end up in hospital!

A few other Chinese (and Korean) dishes I’ve added to my vocabulary are;

• sùcài bàn fàn (素菜拌饭) – otherwise known as bibimbap in Korea.
• pǔ tōng zǐ cài juǎn fàn (普通紫菜卷反) – gimbap.
• zhá jī pái gā li (炸鸡排咖喱) – curry rice.
• chǎo lā miàn mǐ tiáo (炒拉面米条) – ra-bokki (instant noodles with rice cakes and chilli sauce).

For the most part my pronunciation has been good enough where I haven’t had to repeat myself. It’s a start and it’s good to see myself making some progress.

Cooking with Dave: Beijing Lasagna.

One of my favourite dishes is lasagna, in particular the lasagna my mum makes which in my opinion is second to none.  While I was in Korea, I made lasagna several times, enjoyed by everyone, especially Em who can never seem to get enough of it (she agrees that my mum’s lasagna is the best she’s ever had). With my new oven here in Beijing, an old, but opened pack of lasagna sheets from Daegu (South Korea) that we brought over, it seemed like a good idea to make some delicious lasagua for dinner last night.

One thing I have noticed here in Beijing, as with Korea, is the expensive price of regular cheese (not the white plastic cheese slices either). In Daegu I actually made my cheese sauce by using a simple white sauce and then adding some pre-made nacho cheese sauce that was a hell of a lot cheaper than regular cheese and gave the lasagna a slight spicy-Mexican taste to it. I can’t find that anywhere near where I am (although ironically I can buy taco kits fairly easily, which I couldn’t in Korea) so I had to fork over 31 yuan ($5.35 AUD) for a small 225 gram piece of mild cheddar cheese. While that’s not devastatingly expensive, it was nearly twice as much as the 500 grams of mined beef that I also purchased.

Still, with good imported cheddar cheese, one would expected an excellent cheese sauce and a wonderful lasagna.

The result was just that, and in fact one of the best lasagna’s I’d ever cooked. The pasta was a little undercooked, although Em and I both enjoy it a little underdone, so that was perfect. The meat sauce, made with Hunt’s Mushroom Spaghetti sauce as a base, fresh ground beef, lots of cut mushrooms, basil, oregano, and red wine was exactly what I had hoped for. The cheese sauce was very, very cheesy, and I’m glad I spend the little extra and got some good quality cheese.

A beautifully cooked lasagna straight out of the oven. As I don’t have a cheese grater, the top looks a little unorthodox, but delicious.

 
Plumb, juicy layers, made this a perfect result.

We only ate half of it, and as we all know, lasagna always tastes better the next day. I’m not sure if we’ll have it tonight for dinner, but more likely on the weekend we’ll polish it off.

I suppose it’s kind of strange posting about making a lasagna, but it’s a good illustration of how well we’ve settled into lifer here in Beijing. For me, it was kind of a landmark when I was in freshly moved to Daegu in Korea. It signaled that I had enough resources, in the kitchen anyway,  to make something as delicious as a lasagna.

Now I really must work on my Chinese cooking…

Protected: Wine tasting at Crystal Cafe in Guomao.

Korean BBQ in Beijing.

Last night I went out with some of my co-workers for Korean barbeque. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m living in an area of Beijing with a high number of Koreans, hence the name ‘Little Korea’, so there are plenty of Korean stores and restaurants. In fact, I have Korean food almost every day for lunch (it’s also one of the few meals I can actually order!).

The restaurant was quite up market, nice tables and chairs, and the typical barbeque pit and exhausted on each table. The menu was extensive, at least 15 different type of cuts of beef alone, and a good array of both Korean and Chinese side dishes. One could tell it was a good quality restaurant by the number of Korean (or Chinese -Korean) dining there, and the prices very reasonable, too.

It tasted pretty much spot on, and the kimchi was of excellent quality, too. We even managed to order a bottle of Jinro soju. And yes, soju is equally as dreadful in China as it is in Korea (although not half as bad, or as strong, as the Chinese liquor!).

I was a little disappointed that none of the staff there spoke Korean, so while I could read the menu, I couldn’t order anything more than simply point and choose. When one thinks about it, why would you need to do more than that?

We had a great night, and it was good to be able to have a nice Korean meal with some new people (sadly, Em was occupied).

Huda -胡大饭馆 Szechuan Restaurant.

The other day I mentioned that Em and I may be going to the entertainment district in Beijing, Sanlitan. In the end we decided to leave Sanlitan for another night as Em had a much better idea, having some seafood in one of Beijing’s famous food districts (Dongzimen - 东直门（Ghost street – guijie 鬼街). The restaurant, Huda (胡大饭馆), she had in mind is a famous ones for a few dishes, in particular the Szechuan yabbies (mala xiaolongxia 麻辣小龙虾（麻小）) (similar to yabbie anyway) and a egg drop soup with bits of cooked dough and tomato, Gurda tang (疙瘩汤). I had had Szechuan food in the past, in particular a fish dish in oil, chili, and pepper, that quite literally makes your whole mouth and tongue go numb, which wasn’t surprising seeing as the yabbie dish, mala xiaolongxia in Chinese, means something about having a  ‘numb feeling’.

The yabbie dish was, in fact, as numbing and delicious as one could possibly hope for. Served with disposable plastic gloves and big plastic bowls to dump your shells, the experience alone is worth the meal. While each yabbie doesn’t contain a huge amount of meat, there is plenty there in the body, legs, and head, and the sauce, which is an oil flavoured with dried chili, garlic, pepper, and too many other spices to mention, is sucked in to add this amazing amount of flavour.

Of course a photo tell a million words, so here below is the heaven we experienced on Friday night.

Mala xiaolongxia (麻辣小龙虾)
We ordered 20 yabbie’s, which with the soup and a Chinese salad, left us with filled, fiery bellies.

 
Of course I had to have a beer with the meal to help control the spice, although as I found, the carbonation of the beer only made the numb feeling in my mouth that much more!

 
Gurda tang (疙瘩汤)
A delicious soup. If I wasn’t so full on yabbie’s I probably would have asked for another bowl. The soup and the yabbie’s are famous in Beijing at this particular restaurant over a very long time. The restaurant (Huda -胡大饭馆) is open 24 hours, so should the need ever arise where I need soup or yabbie’s in an emergency, I know where to come.

 

Dongzimen - 东直门（Ghost street – guijie 鬼街)
The street is full of amazing restaurants for all sorts of dishes for every possibly meat you could imagine (and those that you may not want to imagine).
I have no doubt that both Em and I will be visiting this street again, very soon!

The only thing missing from the night was a Baskin Robbin’s to help extinguish the fire in both my fire and mouth.

Restaurant rating: 5/5

Getting some grub.

Living in Beijing presents a numerous amout of challenges, almost too many to count, that I have to deal with. Be it crossing the road, catching a taxi, or asking a simple question such as the time or direction of a place. Unlike with Korea, you can’t get away using broken English here (most of the time), you either ask in Chinese or figure it out yourself.

Or, if you’re like me today, you just try another language altogether.

I’m very lucky to have a food court below where I’m working. It means I can easily grab lunch or dinner should I decide not to bring any food in. Of course, and I’m sure you have worked it out already, ordering food is by no means an easy task. Unlike most, I don’t have the luxury of simply pointing at something that looks good and asking for it, due to dietary restirctments, so I always have to ask at least one or two questions whenever I order.

So far I’ve been lucky enough to have Em with me to order for meand ask the appropriate questions. She’s even shown me where, on the Chinese menu, the food is that I want to order. So far that extends to two dishes, beef noodles, and double beef noodles. That’s awesome, assuming I want beef noodles, so there has to be another system. Short of actually taking a photo of ALL the menu’s and having Em translate them for me prior, I decided to go to one of the Korean food outlets.

The Korean outles have, thankfully, Korean menus which I can read very easily. What’s even better is that, for the most part, the people working there can speak Korean. It makes ordering food, be it only Korean food, within my grasp and without any problems. For those workers who don’t speak Korean, I give a rather disappointed look at, but I can still point to the menu of the dish I want (there’s Chinese underneath).

Today I enjoyed a delicious bibimbap, although I have to add that it certainly tasted more Chinese than it did Korean, but never-the-less equally delicious. With a side of kimchi, it was a good lunch. Oh, and for the record, I don’t care what any of you Korean’s say, Chinese kimchi is as good Korean kimchi, although I’m not sure what credability my palatte has.

And now I’m already thinking of what food I can order tomorrow. I should also be thinking about learning enough Chinese to order something that isn’t beef noodles.