Chowing down in China

Beijing had some delectable eats. Here are some photographs of our culinary journey through the capital city of China. The two highlights of our trip were the Peking Duck and the traditional Chinese style hotpot. We were treated to a wonderful evening out by our friend Haowei in Beijing at the upscale and famous Da Dong duck restaurant just off of second ring road in Beijing. I had never had authentic Peking Duck and was unfamiliar with the process. The duck is cooked in a special broth which is saved and served alongside the meal as a soup. Similar to an American moo shoo pancake, the pieces of duck are eaten in smaller pancakes. Alongside the pancakes are condiments to be wrapped with the duck including onion strings and lettuce as well as a sweet Hoisin sauce. The waiter delivers the entire duck to the table and artfully carves the cooked duck in front of the patrons. The most surprising part of the meal was the duck skin. It is common to dip the skin in large grains of sugar and pop it in the mouth. The skin is like cotton candy- once it's in the mouth, it just melts. The savory skin and the sweet sugar make for a sumptuous treat.

The hotpot experience was a mixture of great fun and lovely food. Carl and I were still a bit nervous about our bellies in Beijing so we chose a more upscale hotpot restaurant called Din Din Xiang, or Hot Pot Paradise. We were overwhelmed with the huge menu, and had to first figure out how the proccess worked before making ourselves comfortable. The Hot Pot is all about a steaming hot broth served over a lit fire which is used to cook finely cut slices of meat. First, we selected a mushroom broth to serve as the cooking medium as well as the soup base. Then, we selected sliced Mutton and sliced Sirloin. The server dropped two hot pots in front of us, lit the fire under the pot, and pored the broth. As the broth just began to bubble he laid down the two platters of meat alongside vegetables and mushrooms which we added to the soup broth. Gently, so as not to splash ourselves with boiling broth, we picked up the slices of meat with our chopsticks and dropped them into the soup. The meat is sliced so thinly that it cooks in seconds. The sirloin was tender and flavorful but the mutton was a bit tougher and more gamey. I think it had too stroing of a game flavor for my taste, I preferred the sirloin!