Nowhere on the Chinese mainland has the culinary wealth of
Beijing, with every style of Chinese food available, just
about any Asian, and a smattering of world cuisines. Amongst all
this abundance it's sometimes easy to forget that Beijing
has its own culinary tradition - specialities well worth trying are
Beijing duck ( Beijing kaoya) and Mongolian
hotpot . Beijing duck appears in Chinese restaurants worldwide
and consists of small pieces of meat which you dip in plum sauce,
then wrap with chopped onions in a pancake. It's very rich and
packs a massive cholesterol count. Mongolian hotpot is healthier, a
poor man's fondue, involving a large pot of boiling stock, usually
heated from underneath the table, into which you dip strips of
mutton, cabbage and noodles, then if you're really committed, drink
the rest as soup.
There's ample opportunity to eat Western food in Beijing,
though it generally costs a little more than Chinese. French food
is currently fashionable with the nouveaux riches, though it's
pretty mediocre and expensive. An exception is the excellent
DeliFrance chain, which has brought great French baking to
Beijing at a fraction of what it costs in the West - and no praise
is high enough for their coffee, about the only decent stuff in the
whole country. German food is better, though again expensive, with
a number of outlets in the more exclusive parts of town. If you
really want the comforts of the familiar, try international places
such as the Hard Rock Café - everything just like at home,
including the prices. Japanese and Korean cuisine is
mainly available from restaurants in upmarket hotels, though it's
possible to eat both without breaking your budget, and they're well
worth trying.
Fast food comes in two forms: the Chinese version, a
canteen-style serving, usually of noodles in a polystyrene packet,
which you find in department stores or buy from street stalls; and
Western imports such as Pizza Hut, McDonald's and
KFC, which have made a considerable impact and are now
greatly imitated. McDonald's arrived in 1992 and there are
now more than fifty branches, often so packed that getting served
is an experience not unlike that of buying a train ticket. Prices
are cheaper than in the West, but expensive by Chinese standards.
Street food , mostly noodle dishes, is widely available,
though not in the centre, where vendors are shooed away by the
police; your best bet is at one of the designated night markets.
Avoid the ice cream vendors who hang around the parks as their
home-made wares are often of a dubious standard.
If you want to get a picnic together, or have the facilities to
try some self-catering, the capital is well stocked with
supermarkets . The Wellcome Supermarket - part of the Hong
Kong chain - in the basement of the World Trade Centre is the most
impressive, though everything costs about fifty percent more than
you would pay in Hong Kong. The supermarket on the first floor of
the Friendship Store is not nearly as good, but it does sell
butter, cheese and Western beers, as do the supermarkets in the
basements of the Parkson Store and the SCITECH shopping centre.
Head for Sanlitun to find speciality shops catering to homesick
Westerners; Jenny Lou's on Gongrentiyu Bei Lu is renowned, but not
cheap.