10 Foods you should try in Beijing

We've rounded up the top 10 must-taste foods unique in Beijing with pictures and descriptions easy for you to follow on your trip to Beijing. Some of the top 10 foods mentioned may sound a bit bizarre or weird.

1. Beijing Roast Duck （北京烤鸭）

Eating Beijing Ducks and walking on the Great Wall are the two must-do things while travelling Beijing for the first time. The making of Beijing roast ducks dates back to 150 years.

Generally, there are two ways of making ducks - Roasting ducks by using an oven without a door and roasting is done in an enclosed oven heated with crop stalks as the fuel.

Quanjude Roast Ducks are representative of the ducks roasted in an oven without a door while Bianyifang Roast Ducks of the ducks roasted in an enclosed oven.

After roasted and dried, the duck will look brightly dark red, shining with oil and with crisp skin and tender meat. Few people could resist its temptation due to its attractive appearance.

Recommended Beijing duck restaurants:

2. Mutton Hot Pot（涮羊肉）

Mutton Hot Pot is one of the traditional cuisines in Beijing. Here the mutton hot-pot refers to the Mongolian style hot-pot.

The lamb slices are put into the hot-pot, which is a copper pot containing a boiling soup base. After a few seconds the lamb slices are done and  dip them a sesame butter sauce. Mutton hot-pot is especially popular in winter.

3. Fried Lamb or Cow Stomach (Baodu 爆肚）

Fried Lamb or Cow Stomach is a traditional snack in Beijing. Put lamb or cow stomachs in boiling water, then take them out and cut them into thin slices. Then spread some sauce on the sliced stomachs. Fried Lamb or Cow Stomach is pronounced “Baodu”.

Recommended restaurants for “Baodu”:

4. Fried Pig Liver (炒肝)

Fried Pig Liver is a traditional Beijing snack. Its ingredients include fat sausages, pig livers and garlic. Yaoji Fried Liver Restaurant (Gulou)

Add：311 Dongdajie，Gulou, Dongcheng District, Beijing 东城区鼓楼东大街311号

5. Bittern flapjack （卤煮火烧）

Bittern flapjack is a traditional snack in Beijing. The pig intestines and lung are cooked together with bean curds tablets, blood tofu, and sold in a bowl of hot soup. Chenji Luzhu Xiaochang (陈记卤煮小肠）

6. Mending Meat Pie (门丁肉饼）

“Mengding” in Chinese literally means “door nails”. The meat pie looks like a door nail in the past, hence the Mending Meat Pie.

The yellow and crisp pastries contain hot meat.The best place to eat Mending meat pie is Mending Li (门丁李).

7. Steamed Stuffed Buns

Beijing is well-known for its yummy steamed stuffed buns, quite different from Tianjin’s stuffed buns known as “Goubuli”.

Beijing’s stuffed buns look more beautiful, not oily.It provides plentiful stuffed buns.You are highly recommended to eat the stuffed buns at Qingfeng Stuffed buns. You may visit one of its chain restaurants.

8. Shoulder Bag-shaped Cake 褡裢火烧

Place fillings into two dumpling wrappers, and put them into boiling oil wok. The fried cakes look like ancient shoulder bags, hence Shoulder Bag-shaped Cake.

9. Noodles with Fried Bean and Meat Sauce ( Zhajiang Mian 炸酱面)

Noodles with Fried Bean and Meat Sauce is most typical of Beijing. It is a unique and traditional way of making noodles. Add shredded cucumbers, bean sprouts, shredded carrots, scrambled eggs, fresh soybeans and hot sauce.

10.Wonton (馄饨)

Wonton is one of Beijing traditional snacks. Often placed in the bowl of hot made soup, which includes dried purple seaweed, parsley and sesame.

Tip: Hassle-free Beijing Guided Tours

If you don’t want to go the do-it-yourself route and prefer the hassle-free escorted tours,  here are some options for Beijing guided tours:

Further Readings