Beijing foods

There is quite nothing like a perfectly roasted duck with bronzed crispy skin and tender, succulent meat. There are literally dozens of restaurants that serve this famous dish, and I had my first dinner in Beijing at Beijing Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant, a restaurant chain that is famous for its duck.  The area where the ducks were roasted was open for viewing by restaurant patrons and we saw many ducks inside the huge furnace.  Maybe I should learn some investment tips from Timothy Sykes and earn enough capital to bring this franchise into Malaysia.

(R) The beautifully presented napkin and menu

Ducks being roasted 

Among the dishes we had: Spicy Szechuan chicken (cold dish), stewed pork ribs with green plum, seafood soup in orange, fried prawns with spicy sauce, lobster noodles with traditional Beijing bean paste sauce, stir fried scallops with XO sauce and traditional Beijing snacks

The star dish of the night - super lean Beijing roast duck 

We then visited the shopping district of Wangfujing and at the north end of the pedestrian street is the Wangfujing Snack Street, densely packed with restaurants and street food stalls.  Little boothes covered by red and white striped canopies one right next to the other line the snack street as far as the eye can see.

There is a wide variety of food here, much of which originates from Xinjiang province, such as squid, fish, chicken and lamb kebabs.  For the more adventurous, there are scorpions, cicada, centipede and other bugs kebabs.  There are also ping tang hulu or candied fruits on a stick, dessert soups, fried dumplings, noodles, drinks, and much more.

Variety of snack foods on sale.  Most stalls sell almost the same things.

The next day, after visiting the Great Wall, we had lunch at Chiang Nan Mansion Restaurant (if my memory serves me right), with a luxurious dining environment.  Food was good, and definitely worth a visit.

Dongpo meat, curry lamb, lobster noodles in cheese sauce, Peipa chicken, steamed scallops with garlic, steamed fish, abalone with broccoli, stir fried mushroom with gingko, stir fried beancurd

 Other than these two restaurants, I had hotel food for the rest of the time I was in Beijing L