Beijing 99

danw

Thanks for the words of advice, though I read the more helpful ones once I'd got back.

A few thoughts:

The food was a lot more to Western tastes than I thought it would be. A few people had said that the food wouldn't be like Chinese food is over here. However, I thought it was quite similar; just better cooked and a wider variety of stuff.

Quite a few places had English translations; even a backstreet cafe that I chose in the hope that it wouldn't cater to Western tastes. At that particular place I ordered an eel dish and 'ducks' web'. I was expecting the latter to be deep fried and crunchy or at least stir fried in a sauce. Unfortunately, it was cold, unflavoured, and gelatinous. I left a large portion of it on my plate. Got a few odd stares from the other patrons too. The eel was delicious though.

Other good stuff I tasted was:

Fish Jelly. Basically a set, jellied fish stock marinated in soy and spices. Cold and very yummy. I like aspic so very much to my taste.

Duck's tongues. A lot tastier than duck's web. Kind of gamey flavour with small bones in it.

Fantastic Peking Duck at some huge touristy place. They had a glbutt wall for punters to viw the ducks going into and coming out of large wood burning ovens. They then carved it at the table; with the first serving being the skin which was truly magnificent. It seemed that only the Chinese patrons got to eat the ehad and gizzards. Oh well, maybe I'll get them next time.

The rest was pretty standard chinese fayre. Dumplings in soup, beef with peppers, lots of msg etc. Good though. And cheap.

Dan