Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
One exception to the rule is caramelised fruits, including apples (
básī píngguǒ
) and
bananas (
básīxiāngjiāo
), which you can find in a few restaurants. Other sweeties include
shaved ice and syrup (
bīngshā
); a sweet, sticky rice pudding known as Eight Treasure
Rice ( Bābǎofàn); and various types of steamed bun filled with sweet bean paste.
Regional Cuisines
All of China's cuisines converge on Běijīng, from far-flung Tibet to the hardy northeast,
the arid northwest and the fecund south. In fact, you can eat your way around the country
without ever leaving the capital. The most popular cooking styles are from Sìchuān,
Shànghǎi, Hong Kong, Guǎngdōng (Cantonese) and Běijīng itself. If you want to explore
China's full compendium of cuisines, Běijīng is
the
place to start.
BĚIJĪNG
Běijīng's native cuisine (
jīngcài
) is classified as a 'northern cuisine' and is in one of the
four major styles of cooking in China. Peking duck apart, many popular dishes, such as
hotpot (
huǒguō
), have their origins in Mongolia and arrived in the wake of Genghis
Khan. Běijīng's bitter winters mean that warm, filling dishes are essential. Typically, they
are made with wheat or millet, whose most common incarnations are delicious dumplings
(
jiǎozi
) or noodles, which are preferred to rice in the capital. Vegetables are more lim-
ited, so there is a heavy reliance on freshwater fish and chicken; cabbage and turnips, as
well as yams and potatoes, are some of the most ubiquitous vegetables found on menus.
MǍIDĀN!
The Chinese pride themselves on unwavering generosity in public and the arrival of the bill (
mǎidān
) among a
group of diners is an excuse for some elaborate histrionics. People push each other aside and almost fight for the
right to pay, but generally it is the host who does and if he didn't he would lose face.
Splitting the bill is less common here than in the West, so if you invite someone out for dinner, be prepared to
foot the bill. And remember that most places will expect you to settle it in hard cash; only top-end restaurants
take credit cards.
Two of the region's most famous culinary exports - Mongolian barbecue and Mongoli-
an hotpot - are adaptations from Mongol field kitchens. Animals that were hunted on
horseback could be dismembered and cooked with wild vegetables and onions using sol-
diers' iron shields on top of hot coals as primitive barbecues. Alternatively, each soldier
