Beijing & the North
京菜
Imperial kitchens, Mongolian lamb, wheat rather than rice, and the most famous roast bird in the world.
Photo: City Foodsters · CC BY 2.0 · resized
Northern cooking is wheat country — noodles, buns, pancakes and dumplings rather than rice — with a heavy Shandong influence in the classical repertoire and a Manchu and Mongolian influence in the meat. Beijing's own tradition is the imperial kitchen filtered down into restaurant food, plus a stratum of genuinely local snacks that visitors rarely try and that Beijingers are fiercely attached to. The northern winter is long and the cooking reflects it: braises, stews, pickles, and a great deal of garlic.
06Dishes to seek out
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Peking duck 北京烤鸭
Air-dried, hung in a fruitwood oven, carved at the table into skin and meat. Eaten in thin pancakes with sweet bean sauce, scallion and cucumber. Siji Minfu for value, Da Dong for refinement.
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Zhajiangmian 炸酱面
Thick wheat noodles under a salty fermented soybean and pork sauce, with a ring of shredded raw vegetables you mix in yourself.
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Lamb hotpot 涮羊肉
A brass chimney pot of clear broth, paper-thin lamb swirled for seconds, sesame dipping sauce. Donglaishun has done it since 1903.
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Jianbing 煎饼
A crepe cooked on a griddle with egg, coriander, sauce and a sheet of fried cracker folded inside. The definitive Chinese street breakfast.
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Baozi and jiaozi 包子 · 饺子
Steamed buns and boiled dumplings, eaten by the dozen. Northern families make jiaozi together at New Year.
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Douzhi 豆汁
Fermented mung bean drink, sour and pungent, and the true test of whether you have become a Beijinger. Most visitors manage one sip.