Best Things to Eat in Beijing

Besides kaoya (Peking duck), there are at least two other things that you must eat if you come to Beijing: hot pot and jianbing. Hot pot is probably something everyone is familiar with from eating versions from other East Asian countries like Vietnam, Korea, and/or Japan. Jianbing is distinctly Chinese and can be found on any street corner in Beijing and in many other Chinese cities. As a type of street food, it is both cheap and tasty; it can be eaten day or night, but it seems to taste best in the early morning.

Jianbing starts out as a batter that is poured onto a round cooking griddle sort of like a French crepe, but the jianbing batter is spread out very thinly with a wooden dowel which makes it start to look like a large Vietnamese banh xeo. The person then cracks one egg or if you ask two eggs on top of the cooking batter. Being so thin and made with egg and batter, the jianbing cooks very quickly. The person then either flips the crepe first then asks if you want onion and cilantro added, or does the reverse, adds onion and cilantro then flips the crepe. Next a tasty sauce is painted on top using a brush. The person will now ask if you want it spicy or not and adds the chili sauce if needed. Finally, a large square, crispy wafer is added to the assembly. The street vendor then quickly folds everything up into a nice compact package to be placed into a plastic bag (sometimes you might get paper) so that you can take it along and eat it while walking somewhere.

The whole thing costs 4 kuai or less and is great for breakfast, as a snack, or just something to fill you up. It’s crispy, salty, sweet, spicy, fragrant with onion and
cilantro; has a good amount of carbs and some protein. What more can you ask for? I’ve tried it twice already at two different places on this trip; there’s also one man who sells it right outside the university gate here that I’m hoping to visit soon. The versions I’ve tried have been OK, but the best, I’ve every had was in Shanghai near the south gate, I think, of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU). I think I had it about 5 times a week for 5 straight weeks when I studied there. Some people are said to travel around Beijing just eating/looking for the best jianbing. I’ll take a picture and post it here next time.