Beijing Trip

The trip to Beijing was a really nice getaway. We stayed at a boutique hotel that was within walking distance to Tiananmen located in a quiet street amidst hutongs and local eateries. With only 3 full days in the city, all we could really do was the mandatory tourist sights - Forbidden City, Great Wall & Temple of Heaven.

Having an ice cream break in the Imperial Garden, Forbidden City

Then, there were of course the evenings where we hunted down Beijing's famous ducks. The first evening, we went to the almost obligatory QuanJuDe (全聚德) where the dish is supposed to originate in the late 1800s. We even headed to the original shop (there are now several branches ;) where the old shopfront was preserved. Despite the wait of 50min, even though we got there at 5:30pm, it was well worth it as the Peking Duck was the best I'd ever eaten. There was none of that heavy layer of fat that I'd come to associate with Peking Ducks eaten in Singapore or Chengdu. Instead, its skin was crispy and the chef had nicely included a sliver of meat. All in, I could eat a whole lot of it without feeling guilty! :D

minibeanie's favourite dish of the house was its liver (盐水鸭肝). It was tasty & soft... quite unlike the overboiled chicken liver pieces sold in Singapore's chicken rice stalls. Again, I could finish off the whole plate if it wasn't for the nagging voice in my head that tells me preggies shouldn't be eating too much liver for their Vitamin A :P

Other dishes we tried were their deboned webbed feet dipped in a wasabi-like radish sauce (芥末鸭掌) as well as fried duck hearts (火燎鸭心). Both were good but weren't in the same league as their Peking Duck or liver.

The other duck restaurant we tried was Da Dong (大董), a new-age restaurant that married tradition with avant garde blending of flavours & serving. The tradition I was referring to was what they're famous for - Peking Ducks roasted in a good old fashioned wood-fired oven. The new age twist in their menu was in the way they served some of their appetizers or dishes - 3 little mouthfuls of appetizers on a long plate, soup in a martini glass... u get the idea. Well, we stuck to their Peking Duck and liver since that was our first visit. Again, the food did not disappoint :)

So, if anyone wants to try the best Peking Ducks in Beijing, here's an article written in Chinese on the Best 5 places to have the duck in Beijing. Otherwise, print out the addresses at the bottom and show it to your concierge to make the reservations 3 days ahead.

全聚德 (no reservation taken; dinner queue starts at 4:30pm -no kidding!)
崇文区前门大街32号

大董
东城区东四十条甲22号南新仓国际大厦1-2楼(东四十条桥西南)
Tel: 010-51690329 51690328


minibeanie is 1 year, 10 months, 1 week & 2 days old
microbeanie is 25 weeks 1 day in utero