Chow

In various Chinatowns our kids have complained that they almost starved to death before we decided which restaurant had the "best" menu. They feared we might be paralyzed by indecision in Beijing. But with no readable menus, it was much easier. We just walked in. We hit a lot of winners, but we were so busy eating, we often forgot to take a photo.

Peking Duck You really can't go to Beijing and not have the Peking Duck. Really! Here the chef carves our duck.


The banquet included ALL of the duck from the webs up. Our favorites were the hearts and, shown here, the liver pate.


Menu Selections We found a great Sichuan restaurant a few blocks from Tianemen Square. Sorry you weren't there to enjoy both the chili pork and the pepper chicken with peanuts.

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Plenty of vegetables made the cut, too. We especially liked the presentation of this spinach. What a great idea for the center of a Christmas dinner table.


This restaurant tried translations. The greens on the left were called kale on the menu, but tasted more like celery and looked like thick spinach stems. The dish on the right was titled "autumn fungus." The black stuff tasted like really good mushrooms and the white part like jicama. We'd give several stars to both.

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Street Eats There is lots of street food in Beijing, from breakfast through midnight snacks. These crepes filled with vegetables were our favorites. The cook may be bored with them, but we weren't.


Marketing The Wu Mart near our hutong was truly a super market. It sold fresh roasted Peking Duck for $2 each, or if you want to save a Yuan or two, get one that comes shrink-wrapped. The produce was abundant, varied, fresh, and amazingly cheap.


Presentation of the food was attractive. The fish man was carefully arranging his fish into a fan. We were not sure we recognized all the food, including what looked like insect pupae in a plastic box, some starting to hatch.


International Dessert Chinese cuisine is not known for its desserts, but China is in that lucky group of countries where one can buy Magnum ice cream bars!