Biáng Biáng Mian

In week 2 of my Mandarin course here at BLCU, we had a cultural lesson to explain the basics of Chinese characters. No prizes for knowing that like many other ancient scripts Chinese characters are pictograms, their current form represents what man thought the word looked like. But what on earth did the Chinese see when they came up with this character…

A Jujube a Day

I first called these small fruits "funny little Chinese apples" because that's exactly what they look like. Sweet, crunchy and available from street-side fruit trucks in Beijing these are jujubes or zao. I see carefree grannies dip into plastic bags filled with these green and brown skinned fruits, spitting out the stone oh-so elegantly into their palms whilst mid-gossip.

Jian Bing (Egg-Drop Pancake)

On my morning cycle to college (there's nothing like dodging various vehicles in wild traffic to make you feel alive!), I see about 3 or 4 of these food carts on a small 2.5km stretch. They are purveyors of breakfast street food favourite jian bing, which literally translates into "egg-drop pancake".

The dish that put Peking on the map: Roast Duck

As cliche as it sounds, when in Beijing a Roast Duck has got to be done. After considering these luminary eateries known for their version (Duck de Chine, Made in China, Da Dong), I decided to go less upscale and check out Liqun Roast Duck, tucked up in the Beixiangfeng hutong.

Off the Tian'an Men drag, we ambled over loose bricks and a dusty path led by handpainted ducks on the brick wall towards the restaurant.