Voting for Project Food Blog Round 8 is open!

Voting for Project Food Blog Round 8 is now open! You can check out my entry and vote here.

I can't reiterate how much I appreciate all your support in this competition so far. Thank you so much for your kind words, encouraging comments, and of course, votes, the last seven (!!) rounds. I never anticipated I would make it this far in the challenge, but here we are!



For this round, I really wanted to honor family traditions yet incorporate a modern and creative spin at the same time. I contacted Bryan's mother and asked her for instructions on how to make her famous CHE family savory Chinese pumpkin cakes. This is a dish that has been passed down all the way from Bryan's great-grandmother, and is always requested at every family function. She's the only one in the extended family who learned how to make this from Bryan's grandmother before she passed away.

After tackling the traditional dish, I created two sweet interpretations inspired by the Chinese pumpkin cakes - pumpkin mochi cake and pumpkin thousand layer spiral mooncakes. Come check them out here.

In other news, I am back from Japan and China (again) and I have lots to report on that front. I checked out awesome street foods in Beijing, took a hand-pulled noodle making class, and had some incredible sushi in Japan. So many posts! So little time! Stay tuned, and thanks again for all your support.

Project Food Blog Round 8: An Unusual Take on Pumpkin

Voting is now open! To vote, click here.

Just imagine with me for a moment . . . .

It is the late 1800's and you are living in Xiamen (Amoy Island) in Southern China. It's only 6AM, but you know you have to get to the market soon before the rice mill closes.

Rice mill?

Well of course! How else are you going to be able to get the rice to that fine consistency to make your lovely pumpkin cakes? You would hate to have to hand-grind it! Thank God for modern technology! You're so glad you remembered to soak the rice overnight so that you could bring it to the mill today.

Wait, did you say Pumpkin cake?



Oh, the savory Chinese pumpkin cake is a very unique regional specialty. It's so localized, you're not sure if they make this in any other part of China. The dish takes a ton of work, but it's so worth it. In fact, if there were just one dish you would want to pass down to your family, it would be these scrumptious pumpkin cakes.

After getting your rice milled to a lovely paste, you pick up some pumpkins from the market and begin the laborious task of slowly peeling off thin shreds of pumpkin layer by layer with a knife. It takes a few hours, but eventually you have a huge bowl of finely shredded pumpkin, which you then slowly cook in a huge wok until they are soft.

Finally, several additional steps later, you serve your family the famous "CHE" pumpkin cakes. Beyond excited, the entire family devours these moist, slightly crunchy, and very pumpkin-y cakes. You think about how long it took you to perfect the skill of making these, and you vow to keep it alive in the family, hopefully for generations to come.

Family Traditions
If you haven't guessed yet, the above story refers to Bryan's great-grandmother who grew up in southern Fujian in China. We love love love these savory pumpkin cakes and always look forward to having it in the fall when Bryan's mom makes it for the holidays.

For three generations straight, this pumpkin dish has lived on in the CHE family. Bryan's mom learned it from Bryan's grandmother, who likewise learned it from her husband's mother. Bryan's mom is now the only person in our extended family who knows how to make this dish. In fact, she is expected to bring it to all family potlucks because everyone loves this dish, yet no one knows how to make it.

When Challenge 8 for Project Food Blog came around (yes, I'm still in!) with the charge "bake something with pumpkin," I knew it was time for me to accept my responsibility and keep the family tradition alive. I contacted Bryan's mom and asked her to teach me how to make the CHE savory pumpkin cake.

In order to add my own spin to the challenge, I also decided to create two sweet interpretations inspired by the traditional CHE family recipe.

Traditional Savory Pumpkin Cake
You read above how labor-intensive this dish used to be - can you imagine hand milling rice flour or shredding pumpkins? Bryan's mom, who emigrated to the US a little over 30 years ago, felt that the traditional Chinese method was TOO time consuming (I can't believe she actually tried it the traditional way a few times).  She modified the recipe by incorporating modern technology available in western kitchens.

Instead of wok-frying tiny shreds of pumpkin into a puree, bake pumpkins (in a pan filled with a little water and covered with foil) at 350 °F for about 1 hour. Mash up the pumpkin puree.

There is a lot of flexibility in what ingredients you choose to put inside the cake. The traditional CHE family recipe uses a mixture of dried shrimp, scallions, shallots, Shitake mushrooms, and pork loin. These are separately stir-fried with soy sauce, rice wine, and a few other flavoring agents before being mixed in with the pumpkin.

Separately, the pumpkin puree is mixed with rice flour (yay, we can buy it in the market now, no need for hand-milling!). Finally, mix everything together and bake!

You can eat these lovely cakes straight out of the oven. Or, if you like an extra crunch, you can pan-fry them right before serving.

These were absolutely delicious, and I got Bryan's stamp of approval (most important judge!!!).  Tons of thanks to both Bryan's mom and dad for sharing with me the recipe and the story behind the recipe (recipe at the end of the post).

Pumpkin Mochi Cake
As rice flour was the key ingredient in the savory pumpkin cakes, I decided to make a sweet version by replacing the rice flour with sweet rice flour (e.g., Mochiko). I based this cake off of an earlier red bean mochi cake I had made).

I actually tried two versions of this cake. The first one, I used butter, coconut milk, and 5 eggs, a version that is very popular in Hawaii. The second version, I used vegetable oil and only 3 eggs. The two cakes were different, but both very good - it's really a matter of preference.

If you like a moist and more pudding-like cake, you might prefer the butter version. If you love the dense chewiness of mochi, you might prefer the vegetable oil version. I brought both to a dinner party the other night (all Asians), and they all preferred the second, "mochi-like" one.

Thousand Layer Spiral Mooncake

The second pastry I decided to make was inspired by one of my favorite pastries from Taiwan. These pastries are called "Thousand Layer Spiral Mooncakes" because layers upon layers of flaky pastry are rolled up into a beautiful spiral. The version that I loved from Taiwan was made with a taro and mochi filling.

Because I had pumpkin mochi cake already on hand, I decided to incorporate it into my own "pumpkin" version of this spiral moon cake.

These pastries are a bit complicated to make, as the method involves making two types of dough - an "oil dough" and a "water dough." Have you heard the old saying, "oil and water don't mix"? That is the loose principle behind why this dough works. You wrap one type of dough over another, and then you flatten, roll it up, flatten again, and roll it up a couple times in order to create the layers. I will post a video later on this week to demonstrate the exact steps for making these cool pastries!
[Update: Video is here! For video post click here!] 

As a final step, you flatten the rolled out halves (which you have cut with a very sharp knife), and you wrap your favorite filling.

I decided to make cinnamon flavored pastry and I filled the inside with sweetened pumpkin puree (sweetened with brown sugar), and pieces of pumpkin mochi (from above). Bake at 350 ° F for about 30 minutes, or until the edges are brown. Serve!

Look at those lovely layers!


You can be super flexible with the fillings. I did a mixture of sweetened pumpkin puree, pumpkin + mochi, and mochi only pastries.

Epilogue

So there you have it - a trio of Asian snacks all originally inspired by the CHE family pumpkin cakes. As a person who does not bake on a regular basis, this challenge truly stretched me to my limits. I definitely had my share of trials and errors (can't even tell you HOW MANY spiral mooncakes are hanging out in my kitchen right now), but I came out of it a stronger baker, I believe.

Thanks all so much for your support thus far. If you are so inclined, please vote for me tomorrow (voting opens Monday!). Update: Voting is open now! Please click here to vote.

RECIPES

"Nan Gua Gao" Savory Chinese Pumpkin Cakes

From Bryan's mom

2 lb pumpkin flesh, baked and mashed

1 lb long grain rice flour

1 lb pork loin, cut into 1-2 cm chunks

1 T soysauce

1 T cornstarch

1 T vegetable oil

1 T Dried shrimp, soaked and rinsed

5-7 Dried shitake mushrooms, soaked, rinsed, and sliced

3-4 shallots, peeled and chopped

3 stalks of scallions, chopped

1/4 tsp five spice powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

white pepper (To taste)

1-2 T Chinese Shaoxing rice wine or sherry

        

Stir Fry Ingredients

Mix pork with soy sauce and cornstarch and let marinate for 20 minutes. Heat the vegetable oil in a large wok (or Dutch oven) until hot. Add dried shrimp, Shitake mushrooms, shallots, and scallions and stir fry for a few minutes until the shallots are translucent. Add the marinated pork and stir fry for about a minute. Add five spice powder, garlic powder, white pepper and cooking wine and continue to stir fry until the meat is cooked. Set aside.

The Rice Cake

Mix mashed pumpkin with the rice flour and mix thoroughly.  Add the Stir Fry Ingredients and mix well. Pour batter into a well-oiled pan. Put the pan inside of a larger pan full of water. Cover both pans with foil and bake at 350 °F for about 1.5 hours (for a 9x13 pan) or about 40 minutes for individual muffin tins. Time varies depending on the size of the pan, so definitely check often. Cake is done when a toothpick or fork inserted comes out cleanly.

Cake can be eaten as is or pan fried for further "crunch."

Pumpkin Mochi Cake

Adapted from Jen's mom's recipe

1 lb glutinous rice flour

1 cup pumpkin, baked and mashed

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups milk

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

3 eggs, beaten

Combine all ingredients and mix until well combined. Bake at 350 ° F for at least one hour depending on the pan. A bundt cake will take over an hour, whereas two loaves will take less time. Cake is done when an inserted toothpick comes out cleanly.

Alternate Pumpkin Mochi Cake recipe

1 lb glutinous rice flour

1 cup pumpkin, baked and mashed

1 stick of butter, melted

1 can (14oz) coconut milk

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

5 eggs, beaten

Cream together sugar with butter. Add remaining wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients. Bake at 350 ° F until inserted toothpick comes out cleanly (about 1 hour and 15 minutes if using a bundt pan).

Important! Let cake cool completely before trying to remove from pan (this can take several hours). I learned (the hard way) what happens when you don't wait. Essentially, part of the cake will stick to the pan and your entire cake will fall apart and be ruined. :(

Thousand Layer Spiral Mooncakes

adapted from Cafe Nilson

Water dough

100 g all purpose flour

1/4 tsp white vinegar

25  g shortening

15 g sugar

50 g water

Oil Dough

90 g all purpose flour

50 g shortening

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Filling

Pumpkin butter mochi

pumpkin puree

for the water dough

Mix all ingredients together (easiest with hands) until a soft dough forms.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes. Divide into 4 balls. Set aside.

for the oil dough

Mix all the ingredients together until a soft dough forms. Divide into 4 balls. Set aside.

Assembly

Wrap water dough over the oil dough (repeat four times).  Take one dough and roll out flat to about 1/8 inch thin. Once rolled out, roll up like a swiss roll.  Using a rolling pin, flatten and roll out the swiss roll lengthwise. Using your fingers, roll the flattened dough up again into another roll. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough in half.

With cut side up, flatten a dough half and roll it out to about 4-5 inches in diameter. Measure about 100g of filling for each ball.  Wrap the dough over the filling.

Bake at 350 ° F for about 30 minutes or until the edges are browned.

Da Dong {Beiing, China}

How often do you get to eat some of the best Peking duck in the world four times in one week?

I personally don't love Peking duck (if you haven't picked up by now, I'm not a huge meat eater), but it's one of Bryan's favorite foods, so while we were in the mecca of Peking Duck Land, it seemed imperative that we at least check out the best places.

There are several of those.

We only had a week in Beijing.

So guess what? We ended up eating Peking duck almost every night.

I already described in a previous post Bryan's favorite Peking duck restaurant in China. Although I agree that Made In China has a beautiful ambiance, excellent duck, and superb service, I personally enjoyed my experience at Da Dong the most.

Unlike Made In China, which is beautiful, high-class, and quite westernized in many ways (it IS in the Grand Hyatt Hotel after all), Da Dong feels like the authentic Asian deal. It's bright, loud, and the service is fast. The space is still very nice, but you don't feel like you have to step lightly, use low voices, or keep your elbows off the table. For me, that meant I felt more comfortable in my casual outfit (Domo!) and much more at ease in general.

The menu itself is HUGE (literally, look at the picture!) and is filled with mouthwatering photos of TONS of dishes. Even though their duck is very famous, they actually have a diverse menu full of many interesting dishes. All the dishes are plated beautifully, and the menu is truly a delight just to peruse. Thankfully, it's written in English too!

Of course we ordered a Peking duck. Their ducks are unique in that they are super lean. Unlike most Peking duck, which is fatty, Da Dong's signature dish is the "Extra-lean Peking Duck." The duck is refreshingly flavorful and crisp yet not fatty at all.

Bryan still preferred the duck at Made In China, which was a bit juicer (ha ha, probably due to extra fat?). However, the duck here is still VERY GOOD and definitely a joy to eat.

What's also cool is that their servers teach you how to eat Peking Duck if you've never had it before. For example, in Beijing you are supposed to dip the skin in sugar and eat it plain. No wrappers, no sauce. You then make little "rolls" with the wrappers using duck meat from either the breast or the leg. Add hoisin sauce, scallions, cucumbers, or whatever you fancy. There are a number of different types of wrappers you can make. For example, you can also use the mashed garlic, pickled vegetables, or any other combination of the condiments that they bring you.

Here's Bryan willing to get his hands dirty to dig into his favorite food. [Bryan usually HATES getting his hands dirty and won't even eat oranges if he has to peel them.]

They also gave us these fun little sesame puffs. The puffs were completely empty inside so you could fill them with some duck and veggies to make a little sandwich.

As I mentioned earlier, Da Dong has an amazing selection of other types of food, which is actually the main reason I like Da Dong more than the other Peking Duck places we tried. As I flipped through the menu I wanted to order everything but knew I couldn't. Next to me I saw a table of 10 who had ordered up a storm. I was so jealous!!

We ordered just a few extra dishes. Each dish is presented beautifully and is surprisingly really reasonably-priced. I think all of our side dishes were well under $10 US each.  Above, a beautiful braised eggplant.

Fun little tofu starters. The yellow one is more of a tofu custard with a spicy/savory meat sauce inside. The white one is traditional silken soft tofu with a savory black sauce inside (seaweed maybe? I can't remember). Both were absolutely delicious.

Of course, you end with a bowl of delicious, creamy duck soup.

I was already super pleased with this place when they brought out the free desserts!

I almost cracked up at the over-the-top presentation. You can't really tell from the picture, but there's DRY ICE below the grapes. As they bring you your plate, white wisps of gas billow out, surrounding the grapes in this sort of unreal glow.

And it's STILL not over! Next came the free sweet corn ice cream. I know this may sound gross to some of you, but it was FANTASTIC! I love the sweet creamy taste of corn already and I love ice cream, so it was inevitable that I would totally love this dessert. I ate both mine and Bryan's, heh heh.

Overall, my total experience at Da Dong was super fun and relaxed. Not only is the Peking duck excellent, the entire experience is fun. From the front row "show" of the duck carving to the beautifully presented dishes and the wacky desserts at the end, I just had a great time there.

I think I also felt relaxed because the prices are so reasonable. True, the duck costs about the same as the duck at Made In China (around 200RMB a duck, or $30 US). However, the rest of the dishes were really reasonable, and you get so many random freebies it's actually an excellent value.

Definitely check this place out if you have time while you're in Beijing. It was one of my favorite restaurants there, and I would happily go back with a large crowd to sample all the other dishes if I had a chance. I believe they have several locations throughout Beijing. We went to the one in Chaoyang, which was near our hotel.

This is part 6 of the China Series detailing my recent trip to Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. 
Other posts in this series: 
part 1: Wander the Streets of Beijing
part 2: Xian'r Lao Man (Dumplings)
part 3: Made in China {Peking Duck}
part 4: Noodle Bar
part 5: Bao Yuan Dumpling
China: Lost in Translation
Happy Birthday Bryan: an Ode to Noodles and Ducks

Dumpling Cafe

The Taiwanese restaurant scene in Boston today is eons better (and continually improving) compared to what it was 15 years ago when I first moved to Boston. Back then, Wisteria House on Newbury Street (now closed) was the only option around. Cantonese dining was the predominant Chinese cuisine, and most of that was in Chinatown.

Fast forward to 2010. Not only do we have a nice variety of excellent Taiwanese-style restaurants from which to choose (e.g., Taiwan Cafe, Shangri La, and Gourmet Dumpling House), we also have upscale Taiwanese inspired restaurants along with Taiwanese restaurants in the suburbs.

So is there room for another Taiwanese restaurant?

Just a few months ago Dumpling Cafe opened in Chinatown. Though its name implies it's merely a dumpling house, Dumpling Cafe actually has quite an extensive menu of authentic Taiwanese dishes, traditional Chinese dishes, and (of course), dumplings.

A couple weeks ago I was in Chinatown with my friends Peter and Chia Chi filming footage for my Hand-Pulled Noodles video (you can see me walking into Dumpling Cafe in the video). Because I had heard initial positive reports about this place, we decided to see what it was all about.

Though "Dumpling Cafe" does not necessarily scream Taiwanese restaurant, once you take a look at the extensive menu it's quite obvious. The menu reminds me of Taiwan Cafe or Gourmet Dumpling House. You see a lot of your classic Taiwanese appetizers such as oyster pancakes, stinky tofu, intestines, duck tongue, and scallion pancakes. There's also a huge assortment of more traditional Chinese dishes, as well as dumplings (jiao zi) and soup dumplings (xiao long bao).

Given the restaurant's name, we knew we had to try their dumplings. We ordered the mini juicy buns with pork and crabmeat ($6.50) and the pork and leek boiled dumplings. My friend Peter got the noodle soup with pork and special mustard greens ($5.95), and we also tried the Taiwan style hot and sour soup ($4.95).

I was actually quite pleased with both the soup dumplings and the handmade boiled dumplings. I tend to like a thinner dumpling skin, and their homemade boiled dumplings had decently thin skin. The flavor was also pretty  enjoyable.

I was even more pleasantly surprised by the soup dumplings. Though they are still a far cry from the best soup dumplings I've had in both California and Asia, they are up there with the best soup dumplings in Boston. I am almost tempted to say they are better than any other soup dumpling in Boston, but I think I should go back and try it a few more times before I make that conclusion.

The soup dumplings have a nice thin skin that is quite strong and does not break (good sign). They are quite juicy and have a pretty pronounced crab flavor. Soup dumplings are best enjoyed fresh, so I would recommend avoiding take-out if you can. Chia Chi ordered take-out soup dumplings a few weeks back and was not that impressed. She confirmed that it tastes much better in the restaurant.

Peter was not that impressed with his noodle soup (he was sick so I didn't try his soup). Though Chia Chi and I thought the hot & soup soup was pretty good (generously full of bamboo, wood ear, tofu, and pork), Peter though it needed more white pepper.

Overall, I was still quite pleased with our first visit to this newcomer to Chinatown. If nothing else, the dumplings are very good and reasonably priced. If I were to go back again, I would be tempted to try their wide array of Taiwanese specialties.

Dumpling Cafe
695 Washington Street
Boston, MA 02111

Bao Yuan Dumpling House [宝源饺子屋]

This is part 5 of the China Series detailing my recent trip to Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. Other posts in this series include part 1: Wander the Streets of Beijing, part 2: Xian'r Lao Man (Dumplings), part 3: Made in China {Peking Duck}, part 4: Noodle Bar and some other preview posts: China: Lost in Translation, and Happy Birthday Bryan: an Ode to Noodles and Ducks.

Back early in the days when we were still dating, Bryan once asked me,

"If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

The silence lasted only a few moments. "Dumplings!" I blurted out with confidence.

You can imagine his surprise. Not fatty tuna? Not ice cream? Dumplings???

I think dumplings are the perfect food: tiny complete packages with virtually all your food groups tucked inside. An ideal dumpling (in my opinion), has a healthy ratio of vegetables to meat (I prefer about 7:1, but I'm veggie-centric in that way), and is wrapped up in a thin yet strong and wonderfully chewy skin. My favorite dumplings are from Din Tai Fung.*  Their pork vegetable dumplings have the absolutely perfect combination of the three elements I describe above.

So of course while I was in Northern China, which is known for its dumplings, I had to seek out Beijing's local rendition of my favorite food.

Bao Yuan is the perfect place for anyone who likes to try interesting flavor and texture combinations. Their dumpling menu is vast and slightly overwhelming. Thankfully, the menu has tons of pictures, though I can't remember if the menu had English or not - maybe not. They have all sorts of interesting filling options, such as water chestnuts, pumpkin, fennel, various types of greens, corn, etc.  You also have your choice of meat fillings  (chicken, pork, lamb, shrimp, beef, etc).

What's also fun is that you can get the colored dumplings (dyed with vegetable juice) for only a few extra RMB (less than $1 US).

This place is typically very busy, as it is popular with both foreigners and locals. Luckily, since we were catching an early flight that evening, we stopped by Bao Yuan around 5PM, so we did not have to fight any crowds at all.

All dumplings are made to order, so expect to wait around 20-25 minutes before your dumplings are ready. It's worth the wait! If you love vegetables (which I do), you will love the variety of choices that are available . We did not order any vegetarian dumplings, but I'm sure they would be pretty tasty as well given the wide array of vegetables offerings.

The prices are really cheap (about 4-8 RMB for 50g, with a minimum of 100g per order; between $1 and $2 USD). I think our entire bill was around $5 USD and we were stuffed with all the different dumplings we tried (I think we ordered like 30 dumplings!!).

I would highly recommend trying this place. Excellent food, great prices, and a fun experience overall.

Tip: Most Chinese taxi drivers do not speak any English. The best way to tell them how to get somewhere is to print out the name of the place with address in Chinese, ideally with a small map print-out in case they do not know where it is. Your hotel concierge can help you with that, or just come armed with some map printouts!

Bao Yuan Dumpling House
北京朝阳区麦子店街6号楼侧
Běijīng Cháoyángqū Màizi Diàn Jiē 6 Hào Lóu Cè
ChaoYang Park
+86 10 6586 4967

*The Asian branches are my favorites (The Shanghai & Beijing ones are awesome - more on those soon!),  but the one in LA is pretty good too). 

Greetings from Tokyo!

Greetings from Tokyo!

Bryan and I are here because Bryan had a business trip out here, so I decided to tag along. I absolutely love Japan, and what better way to spend my birthday (yes, today's my birthday) than in one of my favorite cities in the world?

This afternoon I trekked out to Kappabashi, Japan's premier destination for restaurant and kitchen supplies. This street is AWESOME! Imagine several city blocks worth of kitchen stores, all selling their own special wares. I saw stores dedicated to miso bowls, knives, fake display food (these were hilarious!), woks, baking supplies, store signs, chairs, and the list goes on and on. The prices were very reasonable (beautiful miso bowls for only a few dollars each!), and the variety of choices was astounding.

It was hard not to buy up the whole street (I have this weakness for pretty Japanese dishware even though my kitchen absolutely cannot fit any more things). I exercised tons of self-restraint and limited myself to buying things I could reasonably carry home.

In other food news, we plan on going back to one of my favorite sushi places as well as checking out a few others. While Bryan's been away during the day, I've been exploring Tokyo's depachika (gloriously diverse and bountiful food stalls in the basements of department stores). There's a ton of amazing food in these basements - definitely something worth checking out!

Anyway, I promise to report back on all the gory details of these food trips soon, complete with tons of photographs (and even video!!!).

Finally, as a reminder, today is the last day to vote for Project Food Blog. Check out my entry here and vote if you are so inclined.

Thanks!

Because I cannot access my photos from my actual camera right now, you are stuck with my iPhone pics!

Domo trying to eat Tokyo while Totoros stare off cluelessly in the distance.

Noodle Bar {Beijing, China}

This is part 4 of the China Series detailing my recent trip to Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. Other posts in this series include part 1: Wander the Streets of Beijing, part 2: Xian'r Lao Man (Dumplings), part 3: Made in China {Peking Duck}, and some other preview posts: China: Lost in Translation, and Happy Birthday Bryan: an Ode to Noodles and Ducks.

Welcome to Noodle Bar, a cozy, authentic, and absolutely charming hand-pulled noodle bar in Beijing.

I've realized I love true noodle bars. You know, the kind where the entire restaurant is just one circular bar with a bunch of barstools surrounding the bar. Everyone gets front row seats to the awesome hand-pulling noodle action. It's super fun to watch your noodle dough get pounded, bounced, and then pulled right in front of your eyes. Plus, you get to interact with the chefs a lot more in this setting (ha ha, assuming you are proficient in the language!). It's intimate, relaxing, and really enjoyable.

In view of my current entry in Round 7 of Project Food Blog (how to make hand-pulled noodles), I thought this post would be the perfect segue back into the China series.


Noodle Bar is tucked away behind an unassuming door inside of a courtyard of the 1949 Hidden City Complex. ("Hidden" indeed - this place is difficult to find). Thankfully, directions I found on this site were helpful enough to help me find the place. Yes, you really do walk through an art gallery before entering the courtyard. 

The place is tiny - there probably aren't more than 15 seats in the entire place. Thankfully, the menu is written in both Chinese and English. To order, you simply check off items on a piece of paper indicating which items you wish to order.

It's hard to choose between all the mouthwatering small eats (e.g., various pickled vegetables, soy braised eggs). We settled upon the roasted pork belly (see picture at top of the page), which was succulent, juicy, and crispy all at the same time - in short, it was fantastic. We also got the pickled pumpkin, which was interesting to try, but not something we would get again.

And of course, there are the noodles. The Noodles! The noodles were pulled with expert precision and ease. Look at how evenly thick they are! The menu choices are simple - you choose thick or thin noodles, and then you choose beef brisket, tendon, or tripe (or a combination of the above).

I love thick pieces of tendon, so I was thrilled that I had the option of ordering tendon only. I love tendon!

All in all, this is an excellent place to see and experience hand-pulled noodles in Beijing firsthand. It's a tad pricier than the hand-pulled noodles you'd find on the street ($5 USD versus around $1-2 USD on the street). However, if you like enjoying your noodles in a slightly nicer environment OR you like having the ability to use your credit card OR you want to rest assured that you won't have stomach problems later on, then this just might be the perfect place for you.

:)

Noodle Bar
1949 - The Hidden City
Courtyard 4, Gong Ti Bei Lu
Chaoyang District