My friend Bridget and I were tired, hot and hungry after a long, but happy day on the Olympic Green. We had one bicycle and two empty stomachs. She had never tried this before, but gamely told me to hop on the back of her bicycle and she would try to ride me the half mile back to her house. It was the least she could do after watching the Olympic athletes compete. We started out unsteady, wobbly and enthusiastic. She made it onto the main boulevard and we were in business. Passersby wondered aloud at the two laowais on the bike.
About half-way home, we stopped at an intersection with a massive restaurant on each of the four corners. She pointed to one—“I tried that one before, it wasn’t very good,” she said of a Sichuan restaurant. We looked without much interest at the nearest restaurant, which had giant photos of food posted on the exterior, none of which looked particularly enticing and the whole place looked a more fast food than genuine cuisine. But, it was late. We were starved, and we had a lot of critical things to do that hot Olympic night—like meeting friends for drinks and parties. So she parked the bike and we walked in.
It appeared better than I had expected. The place was packed, always an encouraging sign, and all the dishes I examined on tables we walked past looked delicious. We sat down and examined the photo menu. It was Xibei cuisine, which I had not even heard of. Apparently it’s not nearly as well promoted as its cousin to the right Dongbei cai. But there is absolutely no good reason for this, we discovered.
This Xibei stuff was lip-smacking. We had cold noodles with wheat gluten and fresh crisp cucumber, we had spicy minced lamb and veggies rolled in pancakes, we had a big fluffy and chewy “bing” of baked bread which was perfect for sopping up the gravy of a giant bubbling pot of lamb cubes with onions and big, soft, garlic cloves (see pic). We had fatty, spicy lamb skewers. I particularly like the fatty cubes, although I have seen some people discard those best bits—perhaps they think that is a good dieting principle, but I think it defeats the whole purpose of eating lamb skewers.
All the dishes were well smoothed with the pairing of thick, tart yogurt, which came in a ceramic jug. Those old jugs, filled with creamy dense yogurt (瓷瓶装酸奶), are still to be found in places around Beijing, while in Shanghai, they are a much-missed dying breed.
As I always find in Beijing, the portions are about 1/3 larger, while prices are 1/3 lower. It’s a great big city for eating generously and heartily, with much less of the frippery and vanity of Shanghai’s scene. I hope to be doing more food exploring around the country soon, and when I’m back up north, I’ll be eating Xibei cai for sure.
FYI: The restaurant is 西贝莜面村 Xibei Youmian Cun. It’s a chain with 8 branches in Beijing, 4 in Shenzhen, but none in Shanghai yet. I went to the branch by the Olympic Green in Chaoyang, located at Yayuncun Anhui Beili’an Yuan, Building 8. Tel: 010-6498-4455
