Beijing Boyce

Starting Wednesday, the JW Marriot is hosting a weekly Hospitality Night so that people in the bar, restaurant, wine, hotel, and related businesses can get together, talk shop, relax, and – I’m just guessing here – have a drink (or four). The details:

Are you part of the hospitality business and interested in linking with others in Beijing ? Come out to the Loong Bar and connect with people and share your experiences.

For only RMB100, the Loong Bar offers two complimentary drinks from our selected beverages and finger food featuring:  The Wine Republic’s Xanadu “Dragon” Wines from Margaret River Australia accompanied by Cru Steakhouse Treats.

你是酒店行业的精英吗？或者你是社交界的达人？ 到龙吧来结交新朋友，敞开心扉，交流分享

两杯龙吧美味饮品，酒店各世界级餐厅提供的丰富小吃自助，票价仅人民币100元

It’s Hospitality Night … Every Wednesday from 9:00 p.m. until late.

社交之夜，每周三，晚九点至深夜

For more information about Hospitality Night, call 5908-8995.

I thought a shift from drinking to eating might make for a nice change of pace and thus asked Diana Kuan, author of the Appetite for China blog, for her take on the Beijing food scene. Kuan is a freelance writer and cooking teacher, who grew up in a family that ran a restaurant in Puerto Rico and later a bakery in Boston. Here is her take on our fair city’s food scene.

-

Beijing has restaurants that serve cuisines from all over China. What are the three places that serve the most authentic?

For Shaanxi-style noodles, I like Qin Tang Fu on Chaoyangmen Nanxiaojie; they make great vinegar and garlic noodles and a nice, mellow milky rice wine. Out of Beijing’s sea of Sichuan restaurants, I have two favorites: Chuan Ban, the Sichuan provincial government restaurant, and Yu Xin, which serves delicious versions of both high-end and home-style cooking.

-

If someone came to Beijing and wanted to try some street food, what three items you would recommend and where?

My top three street food snacks:

1. Roujiamo: the Shaanxi-style snack with rotisserie pork or lamb in a pita-like shell;

2. Jianbing: Chinese crepe with egg, chili sauce, leeks, and fried crisps;

3. Bingtang hulu: A stick of haw (a fruit that resembles a crab apple), mandarin orange slices, grapes, or other fruits wrapped in a hardened sugar casing.

Where to get them? Anywhere other than Wangfujing Snack Street, which caters to tourists and has bad food. These snacks are all over the city, especially in hutong, university, or business areas.

-

What is the one Beijing food anyone could learn to make?

Chinese tea eggs are super-popular and sold everywhere. You hard-boil eggs and then simmer them in soy sauce, black tea, star anise, cinnamon, and orange peel. Beijingers seem to like their tea eggs dark all over, but my recipe for southern-style tea eggs shows how to make an impressive marble design on the eggs.

-

What is your favorite Western, favorite Chinese, and favorite Japanese restaurant in Beijing?

I love Din Tai Fung, which has incredible Taiwanese interpretations of Shanghainese xiaolongbao (soup dumplings). For Western, I would recommend Senses at the Westin; they hold an amazing weekend brunch with fresh seafood and the best bouillabaisse this side of the Atlantic. Many people have their picks for top Japanese in the city, but I honestly haven’t found any to be worth visiting again.

-

Given the tough economic times, which places are serving up the best deals in town?

If you’re looking to save money, Chinese restaurants will always be a better value than Western or other Asian eateries, which are priced high because of novelty and lack of competition. Vietnamese and Thai food isn’t expensive due to costly ingredients, but a simple bowl of pho will average 30 or 40 RMB in Beijing, beating New York prices. At places like Chuan Ban, Yu Xin, and your corner noodle shop, you can treat for people for the same price as a meal for one at a non-Chinese eatery.

-

How did you get interested in food and what inspired you to start a blog?

I guess you can say food runs in my blood; both my parents worked in hotel restaurants and bakeries until they retired. While attending culinary school in New York I began freelance writing for newspapers and magazines. I moved to China to understand the food better, right at its source. I started the blog after realizing there was a lack of quality web sources on Chinese food in English. There are many misconceptions that Chinese food is just cheap fried stuff, or weird animal parts, or this homogenous cuisine of noodles and Peking duck that hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. I wanted to show the dynamic side of food in China, complete with photos, recipes, and stories.

… but is slated to reopen on Wednesday, if the sign on the door is any indication. Apparently, some changes to the design are required before the Rabbit comes back out of its hole.