Best Food in Beijing
By admin on 2015-01-23

Beijing has a lot of famous and delicious food that is from everywhere in China. Talking about the best food in Beijing, you must name Beijing duck as number one. Actually the Peking imperial cuisine, Mongolia hot pot and the local traditional snacks you have not to missed.

Peking Roast Duck

China is one of the first countries to domesticate ducks for the table. Cooking methods include steaming, boiling, stewing, roasting, frying and so on. Historical records show that Beijing Roast Duck started some 300 years ago, and roasting duck first began in Nanjing, then known as Jingling capital city of Jiangsu province. At that time, Jinling was the capital of the early Ming dynasty. When the capital moved to Beijing, the dish was also brought to Beijing as a delicacy on the imperial menu. In about 1630, a eunuch wrote a book on the imperial diet and referred to roast goose, pork, chicken and duck as the most favor courses in the palace. Ideally, the duck must be the white Beijing variety. It should be 65 days old when slaughtered and weigh 2.5kgs every 6 hours of the last 20 days of their life, they queue obediently for a force feeding of highly nutritious mush that thickens the layer of fat under the skin. It takes four days to prepare a duck for the oven.

Chinese Hot Pot

Nothing can be more desirable and pleasant than sitting down with family and friends to a hot pot. Eating hot pot has become more than a mere culinary experience for Chinese. it has become a way of life. The way we say eating hot pot may sometimes be a little misleading. Actually a hot pot is not a kind of food, charcoal stove with a central chimney and an outer riny filled with hot water for boiling the food, now an electric stove will also do! Originating among my country’s northern nomadic tribes, the Mongolian version of the steaming feast has been called the father of all hot pots in china. Hot pot boasts a history of more than 1000 years and built its popularity during the Tang dynasty. In mid 17th century with mutton hot pot becoming a winter favorite of the supreme Qing rulers and the Qing royal family. According to historical records, the court kitchen in the Qing dynasty once prepared 1550 hot pot in one sitting for a new year’s banquet.

Peking Court Cuisine

Beijing Court Cuisine, as the name suggests, consists of dishes once prepared excl- usively for the imperial family. Every dynasty in Chinese history had an "imperi- al Kitchen " to prepare meals for the emperor and his consorts. The dishes were not only meticulously prepared, but also included rare and expensive fo-odstuffs, such as bear's paws, bird' nests, sharksfins, venison, sea cucumber, duck webs and other delicacies of land and sea. The Court Cuisine of today is based on the dishes prepared by the Qing imprial kitchens but further develop ever since.

Chinese Dumpling

Dumplings with meat and vegetable fillings, is very popular at the Chinese new year and at other festivals. It tops the list of delicacies of people in north china, where people eat dumpling at midnight on new year‘s eve and for breakfast on new year’s day. The history of dumpling dates back to ancient time. But the custom of making dumpling a special dish during spring festival, started in the Ming dynasty, some 500 years ago. The reason is simple. The appearance of dumpling looks like the V shape gold or silver ingot used as money in ancient china. As the spring festival marks the start of a new year, people choose to eat dumpling to connote their wishes for good fortune in the new year. Although Times has changed, the tradition has remained.