“As a foodie who lives in Beijing, I can’t believe that I’ve never visited Yong He Palace.” This sentence may not make much sense to you, as Yong He Palace is not the number one place that people tend to run to when looking for food. However, this sentence has been in my head all day yesterday. Let me explain.
Yesterday, I paid my first visit to Yong He Palace not as a tourist, but as a foodie. Being so close to the subway station, the first food joint to catch my eye was a dessert place called Nan Shuang Bei Cheese. This “cheese” isn’t the kind of solid, huge slabs that people outside of China refer to as “cheese”, but rather a much more delicate form that resembles a light pudding. This is a traditional Chinese dessert that was served in palaces in the old days, and it is very popular nowadays as well.
I ordered the traditional cheese because it was obviously the signature dish. A picture of a durian sago pudding also caught my eye, so I ordered that as well. Finally, I ordered a Hong Kong “stocking
” milk tea to wash everything down. If you’re wondering about the “stocking” milk tea, it is a milk tea that has supposedly been poured through the fabric of silk stockings to ensure its incredibly smooth, velvety texture.
The signature cheese was actually pretty disappointing. It lacked the fragrance of cheese, and did not have thick enough of a consistency to be considered as pudding. To be honest, the whole thing resembled yogurt more than anything else. This might be good news for the health freaks out there, but for the price of 12RMB, this was some expensive yogurt.
SCORE (cheese): 3/10
The durian sago pudding (22RMB) was the best of the lot. In fact, it was easily the best durian sago pudding that I’ve had in Beijing so far. The consistency of the pudding was incredibly thick and smooth, yet each spoonful still managed to melt on my tongue. Unlike most durian desserts in Beijing, the durian flavour really came through, and was super fresh, just like the real fruit. “What makes this pudding so fresh?” I wondered as I dug through the golden dessert. I found the answer when my spoon scraped the bottom of the container, and came up with an entire mouthful of fresh durian fruit. In fact, the entire bottom was coated with a layer of real durian. The sago was scattered consistently throughout the pudding, and offered an interesting texture to contrast with the smoothness of the pudding. I was disappointed when I had
scraped every glob of the pudding from the container and could find no more.
SCORE (pudding): 10/10
The milk tea (10RMB) was not bitter enough to resemble a real Hong Kong “stocking” milk tea, but it was alright. Just your average milk tea in Beijing.
SCORE (milk tea): 7/10
All in all, Nan Shuang Bei Cheese is a cozy place to stop for a snack. And when I say snack, I mean “get the durian sago pudding”.
ADDRESS: Xicheng District, #185 De Sheng Men Nei Street
We decided to get the Berry Blast waffle (58RMB), because it looked wonderful with just the right combination of ice cream, fruit, and whipped cream. The waffle itself was slightly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, but the crispy layer was super, super thin. Therefore, I barely tasted any crispiness when the waffle reached my mouth with the additional ice cream, fruit, and whipped cream. A little more crisp on the outside would have been way better. The fruit compote consisted of blackberries and blueberries, and fresh strawberries were thrown on top. The fruit compote surpassed my expectations with less of the canned fruits or jam flavour that most joints serve up, but the strawberries were quite sour. The berry ice cream was good with a soft consistency and a creamy taste that wasn’t overly sweet. The whipped cream was heavier than most whipped creams, had a fragrant taste, and went well with the ice cream.
My bestie feels an instant attraction to all good-looking drinks, so she ordered the strawberry milkshake (38RMB). I had a sip, but was put off by the watery texture and bland taste. However, it did have some milky flavour in there, so I suppose that they at least attempted to use the right ingredients.
As you can see, our order came with a bear. To our dismay, we didn’t get to keep it, but the bear actually acts as an item that servers can look for in order to locate our table. We also got free breadsticks, but for the record they were awful. The sticks were overly dry, and had a strangely sweet flavour that I couldn’t identify. Perhaps they will taste better with tea or coffee.
The Caramel Frappuccino is basically a caramel milkshake with bits of ice. It is made with milk, ice, and caramel flavouring mixed in a blender. It is topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel. This has the same creamy texture as the Javachip, but is more smooth and watery with no crunch. It can also be overly sweet, but is great if you love all things caramel.
First of all, I was thrown by how flat the scones were. I was hoping for the tall, thick, fluffy scones that you would find in the UK, but was met with the unfriendly flatness of a row of Starbucks scones. Not losing hope, I ordered the raison scone (18RMB), and immediately regretted my decision. The scone was super dry. In fact, it was so dry that I couldn’t even break it apart without using my teeth. Therefore, I was left with the option of gnawing on it like a biscuit. The raisons were also pretty flavourless, and the scone lacked the buttery taste that all good scones should have.
The Beijing Foodie 