World Foodie Guide

This is the eleventh in a series of Postcards from the recent Hong Kong, Macau and Beijing traveleating trip. Rather than writing up each food experience in separate posts, which would have taken me up to Christmas, I thought it would be more fun to outline the trip in diary form, to include travel and sightseeing tips as well as food recommendations.

Day 12 highlights:

• Beijing Glasses Centre & Panjiayuan
• lunch at Din Tai Fung
• foot massage at Taipan

Today was our last day in Beijing, and I had left it quite open in the schedule. We were also exhausted by this stage of the trip, and the last thing I wanted to do was sightsee all day, so it was nice to take it easy. The only planned event was lunch at Din Tai Fung, not to be missed. After having eaten at Din Tai Fung in Taipei (from where the world-famous chain originates), I’ve become a convert. All the photos are from lunch, except for the one of the vanilla ice cream with hot raspberry sauce, which we had for dinner after home-cooked mushroom risotto…

Beijing Glasses Centre & Panjiayuan:

Beijing Glasses Centre (sorry, a rough translation only) is about 5 minutes walk from Panjiayuan market. There are actually two buildings, across the street from each other, both full of shops selling only spectacles. Everyone goes to these two places to buy their spectacles as they are a fraction of the cost in retail shops, and you could spend an entire day here choosing from tens of thousands of pairs. We went so that the husband could choose a pair of reading glasses.

He ended up with two pairs made of handmade acetate, with ‘foreign-made’ lenses rather than domestically produced ones, costing just under £90 in total. The eye test was quite comical, as I had to do the translating, and there was a bit of haggling on my part, as our friends’ driver had told us that we would definitely be charged more as foreigners. Because it would take two hours for the lenses to be fitted, we returned to Panjiayuan to while away the time.

It was a very different affair on a Monday morning, with barely any visitors, and even the vendors looked too tired from the weekend hustle and bustle to work up the energy to sell to us. The shops around the perimeter were open, but not many of the stalls in the centre (perhaps one tenth of the total number). So if you plan to visit Panjiayuan, it’s got to be at the weekend, and preferably in the morning.

Lunch at Din Tai Fung:

The long-awaited event – lunch at Din Tai Fung. We chose the branch at Shin Kong Place, because we knew the building, and I’d had enough of hunting for elusive restaurants in an unfamiliar city. Located in the heart of CBD (the business district), it’s popular with nearby office workers, like our friend based next door in China Central Place. Although it was quite late, the restaurant was still busy.

It’s a large space, with some prized window seating, and the kitchen is visible from the outside (en route to the toilets), as the walls are entirely glass. This naturally attracts curious diners, and of course this food blogger. I was happily snapping away at the sci-fi scene, when I was politely asked by the manager to stop taking photos. Bizarre that the kitchen is on full public display, but photography is forbidden. Anyway, I took more than enough photos to show you…

The menu is bilingual with good quality photos (this seems to be the standard in all the restaurants I’ve visited in Beijing, making it very easy to order food). I was delighted to see that Din Tai Fung do half portions of most of the xiao long bao (Shanghai dumplings) and other varieties of dumplings, which meant I could try different things. After a quick read through, we hurriedly placed our order for:

• steamed specialty pork dumplings (RMB23 half steamer/RMB45 full steamer – these are Din Tai Fung’s most famous xiao long bao. I had one half steamer, consisting of five , then later ordered another half steamer! It’s also good if you don’t want them to get cold, as there’s nothing worse than cold XLBs. I’ve waited nearly three years to tuck into these, and they were worth the wait! (even though I remember them being even more amazing, so perhaps the Taipei ones are better quality. I’ve been comparing the photos of the Beijing and Taipei XLBs and the latter seem to first have more pleats and second appear more plump and full!)

• steamed specialty Shanghai hairy crab roe, meat and pork dumplings (RMB24 for half steamer) – as it was Shanghai hairy crab season, I thought I’d try these. Strangely enough, I didn’t like these so much, especially when compared to the plain pork ones. Perhaps I found them slightly too bland for my liking

• steamed vegetable dumplings (RMB23 half steamer/RMB46 full steamer – the vegetarian husband’s number one choice, we ordered one and a half steamers in total (not at the same time!). He loved them – the wrappers were super fine, and although the filling was not so flavourful, these tasted great with a chilli and soy sauce combination. The difference between these and the xiao long bao is that the vegetable dumplings contain no soup filling

• sautéed pea shoots (RMB38) – fresh and tender, cooked in garlic, this was an excellent accompaniment. Pea shoots can cost around £10 in London Chinese restaurants, so every chance we had, we ordered pea shoots in both Beijing and Hong Kong

Lunch for two came to RMB194 (£17). And the rest of the Din Tai Fung photos can be found here.

Foot massage at Oriental Taipan:

Two nights ago, when we were at Oriental Taipan having a foot massage, I decided to return for more. So after lunch, with nothing much to do and feeling quite satiated, we headed back for another 90 minutes of bliss. Despite thinking that my feet didn’t really need a foot massage just two days after the first one, in fact it felt almost as good. And best of all, daytime treatments are discounted, so for two of us, it cost a total of RMB237 (£21). If you’re in Beijing, I really recommend having a foot massage, particularly if you’re going to be on your feet a lot.

N.B You’ll find all the China Postcards under Restaurant Reviews – China, and the entire set of food photos on Flickr.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Din Tai Fung
No.2 Beijing Branch
6/F, Shin Kong Place
China Center
87 Jianguo Lu
Chaoyang District
Beijing
Tel:86 (0)10 6533 1536~7
OR
Din Tai Fung
No.1 Beijing Branch
24 Xinyuanxili Zhongjie
Chaoyang District
Beijing
Tel: 86 (0)10 6462 4502
www.dintaifung.com.tw/en/index.asp

Oriental Taipan (there are 5 other branches)
2F Block 9 Lido Place
2 Fangyuanxi Lu
Chaoyang District
Beijing
Tel: +86 (0)10 6437 6299

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Tags: Beijing, China, Din Tai Fung, dining out, food, restaurant review, restaurants, Shanghai dumplings, Taipei, Taiwan, travel, traveleating, vegetarian, xiao long bao