Fresh eats from Beijing & beyond
I’ve grown up eating kumquats all my life, but it hadn’t ever occurred to me to do anything with them. They were usually associated with Chinese new year, when my grandparents sometimes had a little kumquat tree, its branches laden with golden fruit. But the success of the hawberry-kumquat pie, as well as a lemon tart that used not one but three whole lemons, led me to reconsider, and so was born this kumquat tart.
Last year in April, my intrepid companion and I were walking the hills of Guizhou province, in southwestern China. We wandered through villages of the Dong and Miao minority, traipsed through tea fields and orchards of “tea oil nuts”, befriended ducklings, and became acquainted with every pothole on National Road 321. And we ate some amazing food, too, unlike that of anywhere else in China.
Dianke Dianlai might be my favorite new Yunnan restaurant, always excepting those unshakeable classics Yunteng Shifu and Baoqin Daiwei of course. The chefs are from Yunnan, and so is the owner – a decided rarity in Beijing. The food is creative and modern while staying true to the province’s bold, sassy spice melangé. It even manages to capture some of the diversity of Yunnan food – with 24 different ethnic groups, there’s perhaps as much variety here as in a small country. The innovations, like touches of rosemary and thyme, are subtle; everything works together.
Or hot pagan buns? Hot nihilist buns? As they rather lack that defining cross, perhaps they really shouldn’t be called hot cross buns. But they’re not quite in the spirit of nihilism, either, being full of candied haw berries (but of course), along with some of the most delightful raisins I’ve come across. Usually I’m [...]
No, Wushan is not a master chef who works out of his hutong kitchen, luring young Beijingers in the know to his grubby yet charming hidden restaurant¹. Straddling the Yangtze River, Wushan is the eastern gateway to Chongqing. And in Beijing, Wushan is associated with Chongqing-style roast fish, and Wushan Roasts the Entire Fish is the literally translated English name of an extremely popular local restaurant chain, Wushan Kao Quanyu (巫山烤全鱼).
Tanghuoshao (糖火烧) are sweet brown-sugar buns generously swirled with roasted sesame paste. Baked in an oven, they have a crunchy, nutty outer shell, and a warm, soft interior melting with sugar and buttery sesame. A cousin of the savory roasted sesame buns (shaobing 烧饼 ), they make a fine afternoon snack or breakfast – for me, they were part of the weekly breakfast rotation during the summers at my grandparents’ house.
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