Nan Shuang Bei Cheese

“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

Ice Monster

I have seen a great number of posts about the newly opened and extremely popular Ice Monster, and my friend was begging me to go, so decided to visit and see what the vibe was all about. We got the mango shaved ice, which for some reason was what almost everybody got. People would stand in a huge line for this, but I totally missed what they see in this place after a few bites. The milk tea shaved ice was a freebie but the mango one cost 69rmb, which was totally overkill for some ice. I will admit that the shaved ice is pretty decent with an extremely soft texture resembling cotton candy, and the mango one has huge chunks of fresh mango with some gooey, thick mango sauce, a scoop of fresh mango ice cream made with actual mango fruit, and some delicate, velvety almond tofu. The serving is also big enough for two, but to tell the truth nothing can really take away from the shameful ripoff of a price. I can get something similar at less than a third of the price at most joints anywhere.

SCORE (mango): 7/10

The milk tea shaved ice tasted too unnatural for me, with an overly bitter and sweet taste. Imagine a frozen cup of HK bubble milk tea. The pearls were nice and chewy and soft though, which I liked. My friend did say that she liked this better than the mango one, but oh well.

SCORE (milk tea): 6/10

In conclusion, Ice Monster is a great place to get your shaved ice fix, if you’re using someone else’s money. No shaved ice should cost this much.

ADDRESS: east district wangfujing st, beijing apm 6th floor