My last post from Beijing is at a Szechuan place called 俏江南 (Southern Beauty). Thanks again to my Uncle John for taking us out.


spicy pork with veggies


veggies wrapped in sliced pork


fish in chili oil


dan dan noodles


potstickers The spicy pork thing came out like that, but they served it with all the ingredients mixed together, making it some sliced pork in that chili sauce. This was probably the spiciest dish and very tasty. The pork rolls weren't spicy but very refreshing and delicious. The fish in oil LOOKS the spiciest, but actually wasn't. It was really good, but as usual I'm very lazy when it comes to picking out fish bones. Still very addictive though. Dan dan noodles were awesome. Good noodles, nice spicy/nutty kick. Potstickers were excellent. I've come to conclude you can't find a bad bun (or anything wrapped really) in all of Beijing. Next up is Hong Kong...

Time for a Beijing monster update! This is another meal with Mike and his family at 张生记 (Zhang Sheng Ji), a Shanghainese restaurant.


smoked duck


some veggie I don't know how to translate


pig ear, flavored pork, roasted duck


pan fried pork bun


duck & ham soup


beef with green peppers


plain stir fried baby shrimp


stir fried rice cake (nian gao)


red pepper fish head


stinky STINKY tofu Excellent meal all around. I dunno what the veggie is called but it was great. The pan fried pork buns were delicious... the best sheng jian bao I think i've had. Crisp on the bottom, good filling. The duck soup is supposedly the signature of the place and was also excellent... Tons of flavor to the broth. The shrimp were awesome. Very light a refreshing. Nian gao was one of the best I've had as well - the texture was perfect; no mushiness at all. Now, to the stinky tofu. I just don't get it. It's so stinky. It doesn't taste particularly good. Why not just eat non-stinky tofu that can be just as good or better? Ah, whatever.

Here is another middle of the night meal in Beijing, at 不见不散 (Be There or Be Square Cafe). The funny thing about this place is that it's inside a little mall, and everything else in the mall is closed... but the mall stays open because this restaurant is open.


fried chicken with vanilla sauce To be honest, I had no idea what the menu meant by "vanilla sauce" and Mike couldn't figure it out either. So I was intrigued. After eating it, if I had to guess, I'd say that somewhere in the translation "black pepper" became "vanilla", cuz that's what this tasted like. Not a bad thing; it was good. Especially for the 20 or so RMB it cost.

My dose of Peking duck in Beijing came at 大董烤鸭店 (Beijing Da Dong Roast Duck Restaurant). Thanks to my Uncle John (who lives in Beijing) for taking us out.


peking duck


peking duck garnishes The duck was very good. The style was a little bit different than I'm used to... The duck itself is less fat than I've seen before, but the skin was extremely well done. Crispy and caramelizing. Another interesting thing was the variety of garnishes. The usual sauce and spring onions were there, but there were also cucumbers, sugar, and those other sauces that I don't even know how to identify. Very interesting stuff. I still prefer the straight up normal sauce with some scallions though.

In Beijing you can eat at any time of the day. This is an odd morning hour meal at 大成家 (Gino Bakery), which is both a bakery and a restaurant that has noodles, snacks, and a variety of other things.


beef noodle soup - 13 RMB 13 RMB means less than 2 dollars. LESS THAN 2 DOLLARS! The noodles were just awesome. Good soup, good noodles, good beef, good veggies. It was a fairly good sized portion too, though you can't see all of the noodles and beef under the veggies. For freakin less than 2 bucks.

Finally, here is Beijing. The first meal is from 湘临天下 (Xiang Lin Tian Xia). I won't have many prices for this trip, and my descriptions will be vague at best. Sorry in advance.


fried pork fat


red pepper fish head


shark's fin soup


fried squab


duck chin The pork fat was delicious. Then again, fried fat - how could it go wrong? Really good though, and with a little bit of kick. The red pepper fish head was also very good, but had a lot of bones which apparently is always the case with fish head. I liked it a lot but I'm a little bit lazy with the bones. Shark's fin soup was a little bit short on actual shark's fin, but the broth was probably the best broth I've ever had. Just awesome. Squab was excellent - juicy and tender. Vancouver does this dish well but I think this was definitely better. The duck chins were interesting. They tasted good but didn't have a whole lot of meat... again, a lot of work for the reward. The meat was great though! Thanks to Mike and his family for taking me out.