What do Beijing people eat for breakfast?
Breakfast is not a terribly important meal for Beijing Peple. Beijing people start the day early, but that means breakfast is often just a question of wolfing down whatever’s to hand in order to fill the belly until lunchtime.
A typical Beijing breakfast is a bowl of congee (zhōu – 粥), a rice porridge brightened up with the addition of pickles, peanuts or meat. Beijingers also love yóutiáo (油条), deep fried sticks of dough to dip in huge bowls of steaming soya milk (dòujiāng – 豆浆). There are also puffy sheets of steamed bread, also to be dipped in soya milk. Any of these breakfasts could be accompanied by a couple of boiled eggs.
A typical Beijing Breakfast including Baozi, Egg, Doufunao
A bigger breakfast could include a range of cold dishes, especially nuts and greens and a variety of pickles, the most common of which is zhàcài (榨菜) which is made from the pickled stem of a type of mustard.
For the adventurous one thing not to be missed (and also not to be mistaken for anything else) is dòufu rǔ / xiándòufu (豆腐乳 / 咸豆腐), a pickled, fermented tofu. It looks like tofu, but ranges from off-white to a deep red in colour. The taste is far too strong and salty to eat it alone, but it goes down very well if you dilute a tiny scraping with a chopstick’s worth of plain rice.
A breakfast buffet will hopefully also have a selection of sweets – most likely just bāozi (steamed stuffed buns) filled with sweet red bean paste, but occasionally also sweet spring rolls, or passable sponge cake.
Famous restaurants offering typical Beijing breakfast;
Jiumen Xiaochi 九门小吃
1 Xiaoyou Hutong, Houhai
孝友胡同1号后海北沿
6402-5858
Open 10am-10pm
Price Less than Y99 per coupleJiumen Xiaochi houses more than ten of Beijing’s traditional xiaochi vendors, tucked away in a hutong. Add value to the in-house charge card at the cashier’s counter, pick up a well-used wooden tray and utensils and load up on agar jelly in sesame sauce and hawthorne berries on a stick for a taste of Old Beijing.
Huguosi Xiaochidian 护国寺小吃店
93 Huguosi Dajie, Xicheng
护国寺大街93号
6618-1705
Open 9:30-5pm
Famous for their delicious traditional Beijing snacks, this chain eatery’s menu offers a variety of authentic local delights. Service is slow with the crowds, so it might be a better idea to order take away.
Longfusi Xiaochidian 隆福寺小吃店
1 Longfusi Qianjie,
Dongcheng
隆福寺前街1号
6406-0668
Open 6am-8:30pm
Satisfy your craving for lao beijing xiaochi at this bustling canteen-style eatery. Try a plate of chaogeda, stir-fried bits of dough resembling gnocchi, and order sweet and sticky treats like lvdagun’r and niangao.
