What is the first food that comes to your mind when you think of Beijing, the capital city? Many people’s answer must be Peking duck. However, roast duck is not eaten every day. Here we introduce to you ten snacks that are often eaten in daily life in old Beijing.
When you go to Beijing, you not only have to climb the Great Wall, but also eat Beijing’s delicacies. When you come to Beijing, you must try these authentic Beijing snacks!
Bean juice
When talking about Beijing snacks, the first thing that reminds people is bean juice. Beijingers love to drink bean juice and regard it as a kind of enjoyment. But the first time I drank soy juice, the swill-like smell made it difficult to swallow. After holding my nose and drinking it twice, the feeling was different. Some people are so addicted that they look for it everywhere and have to wait in line to drink it.
If you haven’t drank Douzhier, you haven’t been to Beijing. Drinking bean juice is purely exclusive to Beijingers. Beijing bean juice looks gray and green in color, and tastes smelly and sour. But once you drink it, it will taste endless, just like foreigners eating stinky cheese. Those who are not used to it will find it difficult to swallow and may even feel nauseated. If you are addicted to it, you will feel like you owe something if you don't eat it for a day. Therefore, the reputation of the small shop "Douzhihe" in Dong'an Market back then was no less than that of Donglaishun, the big restaurant next door. There are many people who dress luxuriously and come in private cars to drink a bowl of bean juice that costs five cents.
Address of Lao Ciqikou Bean Juice Shop (Qianmen): Yangmeizhu Xiedie Street, Chongwen District (near Furun Hotel)
Braised and Fired
Braised and Fired It is a snack unique to Beijing and originated from Nanheng Street in the south of the city. According to legend, ordinary people in the past could not afford meat, so they used animal waste instead. Braised and roasted is a pure thing of old Beijing. It is native to the country and is even more pure than Peking Opera. When talking about stewed and roasted dishes, old Beijingers will definitely think of "small intestine Chen", but little did they know that this delicacy, which has a history of more than a hundred years and is considered only eaten by the poor, originated in the palace.
Braised and roasted food is a well-known food in Beijing and a traditional snack in Beijing. There are probably not many authentic Beijingers who don’t like braised and fired dishes. Cut the tofu into triangles, chop the small intestine and lungs into small pieces, scoop a ladle of old soup from the pot into the bowl, and add some mashed garlic, chili oil, fermented bean curd, and chive flowers. A piping hot bowl was served, and the roasted tofu and lungs had absorbed enough of the soup. The roasted meat was thoroughly cooked but not sticky, and the meat was rotten but not bad. Occasionally eating a piece of white meat made the mouth full of fat.
Braised Small Intestines Address: 400 meters south of the East Gate of the Temple of Heaven, Chongwen District
Fried Liver
Beijing's specialty snack - Fried Liver It has the characteristics of bright and red sauce, fat liver sausage, thick but not greasy taste, thin but not watery. Fried liver is a Beijing snack developed from the folk foods "boiled liver" and "fried lung" in the Song Dynasty. It is a Beijing snack made with pig liver, large intestine, etc. as the main ingredients, as auxiliary ingredients, and thickened with starch.
Address of Yaoji Fried Liver Shop: No. 311, Gulou East Street, Dongcheng District (southeast corner of Gulou Bay)
Paodu
Paodu is a famous snack in Beijing. Most restaurants are run by Hui compatriots. Buried belly has been recorded as early as the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Stuffed tripe is made by washing and sorting fresh beef tripe (referring to beef louvers and tripe collars) or fresh sheep tripe, cutting it into strips, frying it in boiling water, and dipping it in oil, sesame paste, vinegar, chili oil, soybean curd soup, and minced coriander. Eat it mixed with seasonings such as green onions and chopped green onions. The texture is fresh and tender and the taste is crispy. Halal restaurants and vendors in Beijing sell fried belly.
Address of Qianmen Baodu Feng: No. 56, Langfang 2nd Street, Menzhang Hutong, Qianmen Street, Xuanwu District
Aiwowo
Beijing's traditional snacks are now available all year round. Aiwowo has a long history. This kind of food is made by washing and soaking glutinous rice, then steaming it in a basket, letting it cool, kneading it evenly, making it into small pieces, pressing it into a round skin, and wrapping it with peach kernels, sesame seeds, melon seeds, green plums, and golden cakes. , white sugar, mixed into filling, and became a food called wowo during the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty.
The glutinous rice used in the outer shell of Aiwowo has been steamed, and the filling is also fried in advance with peach kernels, melon kernels, sesame seeds and sugar, so it can be eaten after it is made.
Address of Huguosi Snack Street: Huguosi Street, Xicheng District
Donkey Rolling
Donkey Rolling, also known as bean flour cake, is an ancient snack in Beijing One of the varieties, the southern region likes to call it ma wallow. Its raw material is yellow rice flour, steamed with water, and when mixing, add a little more water to make it softer. After frying the soybeans, roll them into noodles. When making it, dip the outside of the steamed and yellowed rice noodles into soybean flour and roll them into slices, then spread them with red bean paste filling (you can also use brown sugar), roll them up, and sprinkle with white sugar. When making, the stuffing is required to be rolled evenly, with clear layers, and a yellow appearance. It is characterized by being fragrant, sweet, sticky, and has a rich soybean flour aroma.
Address of Huguosi Snack Street: Huguosi Street, Xicheng District
衡袢火烧
衡袢火烧 is a kind of fried food with golden color and burnt aroma. Overflowing, delicious and delicious. Some people are easily nauseous when eating leeks, but they like the taste of leeks when making stuffing. Therefore, the middle part of the leek is wrapped in a braised bag similar to pot stickers, and after frying, the leek is taken out and eaten. When it comes to the burning of trousers, no one in "Old Beijing" doesn't know about it. It not only has a long history but also has a unique flavor, so it has always enjoyed a high reputation.
Left Neighbor House Huoshao (Yangqiao Branch) Address: Next to Yangqiao Building, No. 88, Majiabao East Road, Fengtai District
Fried Pimples
Fried Gupao is a traditional halal snack unique to Beijing. It has a history of nearly a hundred years. It is cooked and stir-fried during the production process. It is brown in color and is served with seasonal vegetables. The ingredients are carefully selected. It tastes soft and strong, and the more you chew it, the more delicious it becomes. It is actually a rare product among halal snacks.
Address of Huguosi Snack Street: Huguosi Street, Xicheng District
Enema
Enema is a favorite snack of Beijingers and is also a popular street snack. . Enema began to spread in the Ming Dynasty. One is a large enema, which is made from pig fat intestines, mixed with more than 10 kinds of raw materials such as high-quality flour, red yeast water, cloves, cardamom and other seasonings to make a paste, poured into the intestines, cooked and cut into small pieces, and fried in lard. , topped with salted garlic sauce, the taste is crispy, salty and spicy. The other is called small enema, which is made by adding starch, red yeast water and tofu residue to make a thick paste. After steaming, cut into small pieces, fry with lard, and pour salt water and garlic juice for consumption. The enema is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It is eaten with a bamboo skewer, which is quite distinctive.
The earliest "enema" shop in Beijing was "Fuxingju" on the east side of Qiaotou Road, Houmen. It opened during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. The shopkeeper's surname was Pu, and he was known as "Enema Pu". The real pig intestines are stuffed with minced meat, starch and other spices, cooked until they are neither soft nor hard, and seared until they are neither old nor skinny. It is said that the Empress Dowager Cixi came here to taste the incense after offering incense at the Di'anmen Fire Temple and praised it highly. Among the snacks in Beijing, enema is considered to be high quality, low price, and absolutely popular.
Heyizhai Snack Bar (Huguosi Main Store) Address: No. 67-69, Huguosi Street, Xicheng District
Tang Ears
Brown butter and bright butter , the texture is moist and soft, sweet and delicious. The honey twists at Nan Laishun Restaurant in Nancheng are made all year round. The quality is stable, mainly because the alkali is properly added, there is no sour taste, it is fried thoroughly, the honey is evenly eaten, and it meets the quality requirements of being soft and moist. In 1997, it was rated as "Beijing Famous Snack" and "Chinese Famous Snack".
Address of Huguosi Snack Street: Huguosi Street, Xicheng District