I was at Wangfujing shopping the other day, and my mom had the brilliant idea of showing me some “old Beijing” culture by taking me to the famous Wangfujing Street Food Lane. This place is a foodie’s dream, with an entire street filled with vendors of different traditional and modern Beijing street food. It was here that I tried out some interesting, some delicious, and some just downright scary street foods.
The first dish that I tried was called “MenZi”, which when directly translated to English means “cooked in a covered vessel”. These are made with pressed flour, and are put on huge stoves. When you order a bowl, the vendor shovels some into a small bowl, garnishes it with some sesame sauce, and hands it to you along with a spoon. I didn’t quite like the bland taste combined with the squishy texture, but perhaps this dish is made better in Dalian, where it originated from.
SCORE: 3/10
The second food item that I tried was a Beijing traditional dessert called “LvDaGun”, which literally means “rolling donkey”. Thankfully, there is no donkey meat in this dish. However, donkey sandwiches is a popular dish in Beijing, but that’s another story. Back to the rolling donkey. This dessert is made with a base of glutinous rice, which is rolled up with a sweet red bean filling. The whole thing is then rolled in bean crumbs. I loved the chewy, bouncy texture of the dessert, and how it wasn’t overly wet or sticky. The red bean paste is obviously freshly made, as I can still taste the fragrance of the beans. The paste also has a satisfyingly thick consistency and wasn’t overly watery. The fragrant, melt-in-your-mouth bean crumbs complimented the entire dessert extremely well, and the dry texture also helped to balance out the stickiness of the glutinous rice.
SCORE: 10/10
At the same venue where I got the donkey roll, I got another Beijing traditional dessert called “TangErDuo”, meaning “sugar ears”. This resembles a MaHua with its twisted shape, but is more oily and less crunchy. My mom says that this should be oozing with honey when I bite into it, but that sadly didn’t happen. The texture was also too hard, slightly resembling plastic.
SCORE: 4/10
After the desserts, I set my attention on a dish that didn’t originate from Beijing. Its name is “ZhuTongFan”, which means “rice cooked in bamboo”. This dish was extremely cute with its bamboo container, and the vendor claimed that it had “six different ingredients” hidden on the inside. However, the rice was a letdown with no ingredients besides rice and beans to be found. The taste was rather bland, and the rice itself was hard and overcooked.
SCORE: 5/10
The last dish that I tried was called “LuZhuHuoShao”, and was downright scary. This dish consists of whole pig’s lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach cooked along with Chinese pita in a pot. Sounds appetising, I know. When I ordered a serving, the vendor pulled out an entire lung, a lengthy bit of intestine and huge chunks of stomach and liver right out and chopped them up. He then chopped up some pita and piled everything in a bowl, remembering to ladle in some soup from the pot as well. I was scared to try this dish at first, but after I got over the fact that there were pig organs in my bowl, the dish was decent. The organs all have distinct textures, the liver melt-in-your-mouth, the intestines chewy, the stomach slippery, and the lungs like normal meat. The pita absorbed flavours from the meat, but was a little too mushy. The soup had a distinct, meaty flavour, but was a bit too thick in its consistency for my liking. Overall, this was a great dish for helping me understand Beijing culture, but I wouldn’t choose to eat this every day.
SCORE: 7/10
All in all, Wangfujing Street Food Lane is a great place to find authentic Beijing street foods. It is also filled with scary and interesting foods for all the adventurous foodies out there. When on a trip to Beijing, make sure to pay a visit here, and it will be an experience that you won’t forget.
The Beijing Foodie 