Perverted Wings: Hot Bean Cooperative (炒豆合作社)

Last Saturday afternoon, with snowflakes starting to beard Beijing, we made our way to the Hot Bean Cooperative 炒豆合作社.  Opened by a group of young hipsters, it’s a snack bar (canba 餐吧) known for its many types of chicken wings. This concrete-walled joint is excruciatingly hip, with the walls scribbled over with chalk, slightly grimy around the corners in that way that betokens deliciousness.  So we felt no compunctions about sitting down and ordering every wing on the menu, plus a large glass of grape-and-grapefruit hot tea to balance out the effects of chicken wing consumption.  Beer would been better, but we were the first customers, it was 4pm, and it was very, very cold.

Wings range from RMB 5-6 per skewer, two wings to a skewer.  We sampled:

• Honey-spicy (mila jichi 蜜辣鸡翅)
• Tomato (fanqie jichi 番茄鸡翅)
• Garlic (suanni jichi 蒜泥鸡翅)
• Korean (hanshi jichi 韩式鸡翅)
• Fragrant-spicy (xiangla jichi 香辣鸡翅)

The honey-spicy came in several variations: original flavor (yuanwei 原味), slightly spicy (weila 微辣), spicy on one side (yimianla 一面辣), spicy on both sides (shuangmianla 双面辣), perverse (BT).  Rashly, we tried to order the BT.  The waitress, who possessed the wisdom of saints, advised us to get the slightly-spicy.  All of the wings were scrumptiously grilled, with crispy skin and tender meat, but the undisputed winner was the honey-spicy wing, which combined sweetness with the crackling surface created by a savory coating of the usual cuminy shaokao spices.  The tomato wings were almost cloyingly sweet, and the garlic wings were pungent and satisfying.  The Korean flavored ones were just ok.  None were like the honey-spicy – one each was just not enough.  We wanted more.

Drunk on warm tea, we went for it: the perverse wings (biantai jichi 变态鸡翅).  They came coated with a thick layer of crushed dried peppers.  Jen immediately and circumspectly scraped at her wing with a discarded bone.  Christine tucked into hers without doing due diligence, and she was rewarded with the a mossy layer of chili powder, the sensation not unlike biting into a tasteless, crumbling crimson red lipstick, a somewhat indecent feeling.  There was pepper-lipstick smeared all over table, face, and teeth.  Then came the wave of heat.

Address: Hot Bean Cooperative (炒豆合作社), Chaodou Hutong, Dongcheng District (东城区炒豆胡同).  It’s located just west of Jiaodaokou South Dajie (交道口南大街).