EAT
You are currently browsing articles tagged EAT.
In defiance of the revolting pollution soup that we must wade through daily this summer to go about our Beijing business, I resist the temptation to write on cool drinks and icy treats, and will instead talk some hot, steamy mutton. I wish I could claim to be contrairian, but this post on long-time favorite King’s Mutton Soup was actually spurred by some pleasant dinner conversation on … dissecting eyeballs. Talking about anything I’ve eaten, even utterly out of context, always fires up some memories. Besides, why dissect eyeballs for science when you can eat them for sustenance? (Ah, yummy. Ah, sarcasm. See picture above for a preview. ) But I run ahead of myself. Mutton is what this Shaanxi canteen… READ MORE | 3 Comments
Tags: EAT, eyeball, King's Mutton, lamb, mutton, restaurant
In a debate over what to eat in Yunnan, it’ll always be a tough call. So many glorious options! So little time. On a recent and tragically food-deficient trip to Yunnan, I was denied the chance to stuff my face in a manner that paid proper respect to this region’s culinary cornucopia. There are, after all, only 24 hours in a day, and much of my five days was spent zooming around in a car looking for commodities and stopping too late to eat, or stuck with a conference buffet. My obvious go-to choice here would be mushrooms, but I won’t speak here of the stunning variety of wild mushrooms that this Southwestern province is famous for. Partly because it’s not the season, partly because it pains me that I didn’t get to eat mushroom hotpot. Instead, in honor of springtime in this land of eternal Spring, I’ll post an ode to the edible art growing about the region that I found plucked and ready to fry. As flowers are fragile, they ship poorly and taste best when cooked the same day – making these ingredients hard to come by in the desert that is Beijing.… READ MORE | 4 Comments
Tags: blossoms, EAT, flowers, LIFE, yunnan
Burma. Still quite the land of mystery, with only a smattering of tourists. For those who have been thinking of going, I heartly encourage it. It’s stunning in its beauty, the people unbelievably warm, and there is always the scent of something roasted in the air. Burmese food is not well-known internationally (how many Burmese restaurants have you seen?) and though I enjoyed many meals there, I see why it’s hard to translate. It’s cuisine is influenced by its geography – borrowing flavors from neighbors India, China and Thailand, and centuries of migration between the countries means that in many parts of Burma, the local food will be dominated by one of those cuisines. Here’s a rundown of the best ghetto street food we ran across while running across Burma.… READ MORE | 6 Comments
Tags: burma, EAT, Indian, LIFE, samosa, shan noodles, Thai
The rabbit year was supposed to usher in calm and fuzzy good feelings, but so far it hasn’t. It feels more than a bit silly to blog about food right now, especially as so many in Japan struggle to get potable water for a ramen-in-a-cup and worry about the future of their food supply. Still, one has much hope for a people and nation and the business know-how that have inspired a company that has penetrated the Chinese snack market with ….. chickenettes. And baconettes.
Tags: China, EAT, snacks, xiaochi
As a variation on our beloved theme of the Tianjin-style egg crepe jianbing, I’ll post an ode to jianbing‘s cousin, the jidan guanbing (鸡蛋灌饼), also roughly translated as egg crepe. Both are fantastic for late-night munchies or more traditionally, a quick on-the-go breakfast. As we’ve lovingly recorded in past posts, the jianbing is a hefty sandwich-sized crepe filled with egg, a deep-fried crisp and assorted green bits. The guanbing is a less glamourous creature, a dough pocket with an egg poured into the center (the term guan 灌 means “to pour”). It’s smaller, about the size of a pancake, and the oily crisp is replaced by some healthy lettuce (though it can be argued there is nothing healthy about a greasy guanbing).
As the humble, runty cousin of the glorious jianbing, it doesn’t get much notice. However, in Suzhou off the west gate of the university, I met a guanbing genius.… READ MORE | 2 Comments
Tags: EAT, egg crepe, guanbing, jianbing, LIFE, Suzhou
Once upon a time, we snuck into Yellow River Shaanxi Noodles (huanghe shui shanxi mianguan, the Meishuguan branch) in our quest to learn how to make the oh-so-heavenly youpo chemian. I was promptly booted out of the kitchen, but not before I picked up a few tricks (see previous posts). As providence would have it, one weekend we got invited to run around the kitchens of Yellow River (Gongti branch) and learn how to pull noodles from the masters.
While I stubbornly maintain that C and I made one damn fine bowl of biangbiang mian, but we were never able to get our dough to be stretchy and pliable enough to pull and slap – effectively leaving the “biang” out of the mian. So we jumped at the chance to learn from the noodle master, and see how it’s all done.… READ MORE
Tags: biangbiang mian, COOK, EAT, noodles, yellow river
Most noodles in Beijing run from 6-15 kuai in the small mian dians. If you want to go fancier and hand over a few more kuai, you can get specialty noodles made from unusual ingredients, or double or trip up on the meat. To go even more exotic, a bowl of Japanese ramen would bring you to 20-50 kuai. But one of the most enjoyable, and indubitably the most pricey bowl of zhajiang mian I’ve had in China was at Xiaolumian up in Beigou village by the Mutianyu Great Wall. It’s an adorable old Chinese village house, with a little outdoor terrace where you can see the Great Wall in the distance and smell the lavender growing in their gardens (lavendar! in China! wonderful). … READ MORE | 3 Comments
Tags: EAT, noodles, zhajiang mian
I really miss afternoon snacks. There used to be something really acceptable about eating a cookie and having a juice in the middle of the afternoon, and really humane about acknowledging that hunger strikes every three hours. Or two hours. In any case, in the last few weeks I have taken to stopping by Daoxiangcun on my way back from school to buy a little afternoon snack. This is consumed with tea, instead of juice, but same concept. What’s different is the idea of sweet, or perhaps that sweetness doesn’t just come from pure sugarcane but also other types of carbs: red beans, mung beans, jujube date pastes, pumpkin (okay, that crosses over neatly), lotus seed… READ MORE | 6 Comments
Tags: beijing, cakes, cookies, Daoxiangcun, EAT, LIFE, snacks, xiaochi
Yusheng (鱼生) is a Chaozhou appetizer eaten during Chinese New Year among the Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese. It’s been part of my family’s New Year feast ever since my parents moved to Malaysia eight years ago, and I’m unreasonably fond of it. It’s not exactly gourmet food – a salad consisting of a variety of shredded vegetables (usually lettuce, pickled carrots, turnips, peppers, ginger and other unidentified oddly-colored vegetables), sprinkled with peanuts and crispy deep-fried wonton bits, and topped with slices of raw fish. You can get a great detailed recipe here. It’s then drenched in a dressing based on plum sauce and all family members join in to toss the salad using their chopsticks. … READ MORE | 11 Comments
Tags: EAT, malaysia, salad, singapore, yusheng
Maison Boulud a Pekin is a happy place in Beijing. Located in the former Legation Quarter at Qianmen, the renovated interior is gorgeous, chock full of delectably tatty antique rugs, hand painted canvas murals, and enviable moderne bulb-shaped white ceramic lamps. At lunch on weekdays there is a very good deal at RMB 188 for a three course prix fixe meal. On the weekends there’s brunch, with a huge selection (perhaps overly broad for perfect quality control) to pick from. If I remember correctly, two courses run RMB 168 and three courses, RMB 238. The service is almost perfect (with the exception of one dirty martini made in a shaker that had been used for a lychee… READ MORE | 1 Comment
Tags: beijing, EAT, maison boulud, restaurant
