Yuanxiao

Like what I mentioned in my tweets earlier, Spring Festival also known as Chinese New Year ( some day between 01/21 and 02/19 each year by lunar calendar) is the most important festival for Chinese people; well, for most Asians~ Most of you knew that we eat Jiaozi (dumplings) in Chinese New Year, now, I would like to introduce you to another holiday, Yuanxiao Festival also know as Lantern Festival.

One thing you should know the difference between Yuanxiao and Tangyuan is the way they made. Other than that, they are pretty much the same. You can check out the video and find out more about the differences.

  

Now, let’s focus on Yuanxiao.

You can fill the glutinous rice flour with black sesame, sweetened bean, wuren (five nuts) and hawberry, those are the most traditional flavor choices. Recent years, the venerable Daoxiangcun (one of the most famous brand in making traditional local snacks in Beijing) have more flavor choices for variety of people; chocolate, aloe, meat, pumpkin, green tea, different kind of fruits… just named one, and you will find that flavor. Moreover, you can choose your favorite color for the dough too, suck as, green, purple and orange…even with leopard texture; most importantly you can eat that safely.

With all of these new flavors and the invention of various dough, Yuanxiao is not longer single white and black, but add more color for the big festival.

Holidays are coming, it’s time for family and friends gathering around enjoy all kind of holidays and getting ready for a new year!

PS: I wish you all the best for the upcoming 2012!!!!

  



I am always jealous of those food critics, they can eat everywhere they can and get paid by give a review by their own.

Sam Sifton, former New York Times food editor who gives a lot of reviews for restaurants; even on his twitter account, he have 75 thousand of followers. I really hope that one day I can get that position, so I can let more people know about my culture through foods. I will continue working on my blog and tweet, not only for the passion I have for food, but to present the nearly missing cultural.

Protect Beijing's traditional snacks

The rising costs are giving many business owners difficulties in this economy. According to Ecns.cn, the old Beijing traditional snack, the money they made each day is not enough for those sellers daily rent, although the cost of the dish is much higher than before, those places are still not making any money. The business mode for those traditional local snacks is “small profits, quick turnover”, with hope to keep protect Beijing’s traditional culture. What I can do for the whole economy is very a little, but let more people know more about traditional Beijing local snack through my blog and twitter is the thing I can do! 

Promote a video_ Beijing bygone snacks

Really speaks out for Beijing bygone snacks.

Like the old days, people lived together in Hutong (a courtyard residences) in Beijing, neighbors are nice to each other; but with new residential buildings are been being built, those traditional Beijing homes will disappear (well, maybe I need to say the disappeared Hutong) and make way for new development homes for the rich; this is really sad for Beijingers. Anyhow, about the food, as types of culture heritage in Beijing, traditional Beijing snacks are close to the edge of disappears. As a Beijinger and a foreign student in the U.S. I feel I have some responsibility to promote something, and that’s the reason I choose this video to promote on my blog. 

Thxgiving jiaozi / dumplings

start over the thxgiving jiaozi video~

X and O Hoops

As a former basketball player for Academy of Art University in San Francisco from 2008 to 2011, Phillip Samuel, son of the head football coach in OVC conference pursuing his career on coaching college basketball now. For those of you who are into basketball, you can find more WHYs of unspoken of NCAA basketball stories at his blog at http://xandohoops.blogspot.com; also in his twitter @X_and_O_Hoops.

Thanksgiving Jiaozi

Dumplings also known as Jiaozi is a traditional Chinese major foods, especially in northern China. In Chinese New Year, every family will gather around the dinner table and making Jiaozi. It’s like American celebrity Thanksgiving day by eating turkey.

Last week, the manager of my building made us jiaozi for Thanksgiving day, which is odd because we supposed to eat turkey that day… anyhow, all of us were very happy about that.

Here’s a short MV made by me about Jiaozi we ate that day. It’s only for fun~

There’s a big difference about the Jiaozi we eat in Beijing, and the one we ate that day, it’s about the shape. Different region have different shapes, since the manger of where I live here is from southern China, and what we called of the Thanksgiving Jiaozi is called Huntun actually. Beside of shapes, the making process is kind of the same.

KangShiFu Instant Noodles

Like what I said in my tweet, all of a sudden, I want to have a bowl of KangShiFu instant noodles. Because of my curiosity, I searched some of the background info about KangShiFu, and the shocking part for me is that there are 84 different flavors... It is no exaggeration to say that all Chinese students, whether they like the brand or not, they have eaten Kang’s instant noodles before. It’s like the well known brand- Cocacola in the market.  

Here is what I found from KangShiFu’s official website, which shows there customized flavors in mainland China. Pretty amazing~

Hello Kitty Themed Restaurant in Beijing

Once upon a time, a female white Japanese bobtail cat was born and she’s name is Kitty White also known as Hello Kitty. She was first introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to United States two years latter. Year after year, Hello Kitty products, such as pen sets, clothing, some computer equipments…even restaurants have spread globally. Girls, old ladies, all kinds of people love that kitty who always wearing pink.

Few hours ago, one of my friends in china told me that a Hello Kitty themed restaurant will open soon in Beijing, Sanlitun this Dec. That kind of news can make the pink cat’s fans crazy, I really mean it, oz I got a friends who loves all kind of Hello Kitty’s things even she is working at an agency now (don’t know her boss, but I can’t stand it, it’s just pink is not my thing~). Anyhow, I verified that news by searching online, right now seems like that is not officially announced, but the hiring thing is happening. If that’s true, that will be the first Hello Kitty themed restaurant in Asia. That is pretty big for fans in Asia, because they have product stores, dessert stores and café in South Korea, Japan and other places, but never a restaurant before; if that news is real…can’t imagine those young or all kind of fans can do, but two things for sure, the first one is their princess dream can dream come ture; the other one is sad for those boyfriends who need to go with their fairy tale princess. LOL



Number One Wang Jing

My friends in China always upload pictures about what they eat or where they go to renren (a facebook alike place), there’s one place they vote for the most popular restaurants recently is a place called “Number one Wang Jing”. Two days ago, one of my friends told me she will go to the legendary restaurant and she promise she will take some pics for me. Well, after such a long long time for waiting she uploads pictures took from there, here they are.

They eat a lot of good foods without me and that really makes me so jealous L

“Number One Wang Jing” is famous for “spicy, tasty and rich pepper flavors”defiantly a Sichuan cuisine restaurant. My friends told me that place is hard to find, because it located in a small aisle of WangJing area; but you can ask the near by people, they all know that place for sure. After you reach to the near places, you can defiantly smell the rich pepper and chill flavors, find the restaurant easily, just follow your nose. My friend said the taste of the foods are not that different with other Sichuan cuisine restaurant, the specialist”chicken in two ways” is ok, but the environment… a Beijing courtyard with birds on the big trees, flowers around…it’s just a dreamy place. Because of that, that place is not that cheap. However, that is definitely a place for hanging out with friends.

Address:

Chao Yang District, WangJing, Beijing.

Work:

11:00am to 11:00pm, 7 Days a week.

The Difference Between Hunan Cuisine and Sichuan Cuisine

Chinese food can be divided into eight distinct regional cuisines, for now, let's just focusing on two of them, Xiang cuisine and Sichuan cuisine.

So, what’s the difference between Hunan also known as Xiang Cuisine and Sichuan Cuisine? Both of them are spicy and use a lot of oil~ mostly, they all taste great! Well, they interact with each other recent years, so it’s kind of hard to separate those two cuisines if you are not a professional eater. The only different I can tell for now is Xiang cuisine tastes sour and spicy, and Chuan cuisine is more dry spicy.

Xiang cuisine also as Hunan cuisine is known for its liberal use of chili peppers, shallots and garlic. The steamed fish heads in chili sauce is the one everyone ordered if you are in the right Xiang cuisine restaurant. It is often spicier by pure chili content, contains a larger variety of fresh ingredients, and tends to be oilier.

Sichuan cuisine is known for its distinctive málà (hot and numbing) seasoning and other complex flavor combinations, frequently employ Sichuan peppercorns along with chilies which are often dried, and utilizes more dried or preserved ingredients and condiments.

Personal I like sichuna cuisne better, oz their well-known dishes are all my type. Such as kung pao chicken, tea smoked duck, twice cooked port, mapo tofu, sichuan hot pot, cicken with chili and dandan noodles…. Gosh, I can’t help myself!

Chinese restaurants in LA

My friends and I went to LA last week, and we stayed at Hilton Los Angeles / San Gabriel for two days. To be honest. the location is kind of good, oz there are a lot Chinese restaurants around the hotel and all of them are not that expansive at all (well, just comparing with the Chinese restaurant in san Francisco at this point). Sadly, I forgot the name of those restaurants we went, but three of them are sharing the same parking space with the hotel, so it is not hard to find at all.

The first lunch we had is Xiang (HuNan) cuisine, tastes suppose to be spicy, turns out is not that spicy for me~ another than that, great serves and you can what we ordered back then, that only cost 90 dollars.

The next day to tried DongBei cuisine, and the picture only shows half of our orders (we are too hungry to take pics before we eat). Because three out of five people are came from Dong Bei, as a result, that restaurant is not that close to their taste, but they said that is the one closed enough with the real Dong Bei cuisine than other restaurants they had been in America.

The next day to tried DongBei cuisine, and the picture only shows half of our orders (we are too hungry to take pics before we eat). Because three out of five people are came from Dong Bei, as a result, that restaurant is not that close to their taste, but they said that is the one closed enough with the real Dong Bei cuisine than other restaurants they had been in America.

Well, we only tried three of the Chinese restaurants in LA, but three of them are all taste fine (the tastes are great, it's just not close enough to the real cuisine in China), you guys should try that the next time you go to Los Angles around that area.

secret ingredient of beijing roast duck

You guys probably know panda is China’s national treasure, koala as the Australia’s national treasure, and odd-eyed cat in Turkey, raja elephant of Sri Lanka, etc. but let’s focusing in one country, China for now; if you knew a little bit about the china, you will know that SiChuna is famous for panda, DongBei’s tiger, but have you ever heard about what animal is from Beijing? Well, if you know that answer shouts it out!

Well, if Beijing roast duck came out your mind then you have the correct answer for that. It is true that Beijing is known for ducks.

The different between normal duck is Beijing duck is the high standard of its meat; also Beijing duck is kinda huge than normal duck due to the force feeding process. Newborn ducks are raised in a free range environment for the first 45 days of their lives; then move to the fast growth. It takes around 70 days, to gain a duck up to 5 to 7 kg (11-15lbs). After that, the duck will be ready to serve to Quan Ju De (the famous beijing duck restaurant in China) as the main ingredient. Because the duck makes the difference, that’s why all roast ducks can be cut in exactly into 120 pieces and every piece is the same with perfect layers of the meat. So next time you eat Beijing roast duck, you will know the difference.

About Chopsticks

I ate noodles for today, and kinda sudden chopsticks give me an idea for this new post. So, I was searching online about the approximated number or percent of how many people in the world use chopsticks; here’s what I got (the number is the best answer chosen by voters): if 70% of China 1.3 billion people use chopsticks (those 30 percent are new born and old people), it will be 91 million; add a few of millions in Chinese communities around the world, Japan, Korea, it definitely exceed a billion. Such a huge number, huh? Well, are you one of the billion that known how to use chopsticks? If you don’t here’s some simple steps to help you get start it.

First, hold one stick is held between the thumbs and rests one the third finger. Then, the other is held between the thumb and the base of the first two fingers. Technically, that’s how it works. Since practice is very importantly to bring the sticks together. The demo will help you as well as the figure.

Tips:

Using chopsticks is to practice at every mea is very helpful. In china, we even have a stupid game about using chopsticks to eat peanuts when we were young.

Old Mandarin Islamic

Just came back from a Beijing style restaurant named “Old Mandarin Islamic” in Sunset. The food style is pretty much like the “real” food in Beijing, so if you want to try something real, that is definitely the place to go; also it is one of the top 100 Chinese restaurants in the States. The eating environment is much more like home than eating in Chinatown, because the staffs are from north of China (the Chinese people who speaks Mandarin not Cantonese) also a lot of the customers. Today is kinda cozy, so we ordered the Beijing style hot pot and two meals for today, and it costs us 130 including tips and taxes for four of us. Not that expansive I think.

As a feedback, you should really try their Beijing style hot pot; it tastes much better than other Chinese restaurants. I am not kidding, my friends and I totally four (all from China for sure) felt the same. If you don’t like hot pot, it’s fine in that place, because they also served a lot of delicious meals.

Do you think you can take your stomach up for a challenge and eat something hot enough and makes your tears drop? If you do, the “extremely hot pepper” is the one you must order. That dish have a funny name in Chinese, because the dish is actually called “la si ni” translate to English is “too hot that could kill you”. By looking all kind of chiles and chopped chicken makes in that dish makes you tears drop already, and can you hold that?

This restaurant is located at

3132 Vicente (at 42nd Ave.), if you have a large groups of people, don’t’ forget to call 564-3481 make a reservation first before you go if you don’t wanna wait in the waiting list.

Ps: here're more photos 

Traditional Hand Style Popcorn

Have you ever thought about going back when you are blue? For me, the golden age is around 6. Nothing to worry about, and the only three things you need to do are eat, sleep and play, like a panda~ but the reality is we can’t go back; the only thing we can do is recall memories from the old ages. The first thing that pops out of my head is popcorn (might be the words “POP” pops out~), but not the microwave one or what they sell inside the theater, what I am talking about is a traditional hand style popcorn.

The image above shows the popcorn machine, it’s not that clean by that look, but the taste is absolutely delicious! Sweet, crunchy and smells amazing! The good thing is you can still find this types of popcorn in some second or third-line cities in China, if you do find one, don’t forget to try that!

Here is a video that I found from YouTube, which shows the process for making popcorn by the hand machine. Enjoy!

Traditional Popcorn Hammer for making Popcorn or Puffed Riced

(the video is kinda long, you can just drag to 2:40 and watch for 20sec)



Having trouble with what to order? I don’t know about you guys, but when I go to Chinese restaurant in San Francisco Chinatown, I am confused by the menu and I just don’t know what to order, even I am from mainland China. After digging into this issue, I found out that the English menu is actually working for foreigners (English speaker), because the name of the foods are named by the main ingredients (“scrambled egg with tomato”) or the way they cook(“soft-fried pork fillet”), even the shape or texture of the food(“cutlets chicken with hot pepper”). I don’t know how to cook which I am not proud of, but seriously, what is that!? Anyhow, some of the names like” tangerine chicken”, “kung pao chicken/prawn/tofu” are pretty much the same in china, just direct translation from Chinese to English, it’s much easy to understand what those foods are. That is not happening to me, a lot of the Chinese students are having trouble ordering Chinese food from the menu until the food comes so they know what they ordered. The same thing could happen to you if you want to visit China someday, so you can have some basic idea of what to order in the restaurant, I will teach you some of the foods name in Chinese mandarin with suggestions lists for restaurant you must try if you are in the neighborhoods. Stay tuned!

Food Combination

1. Tang Huo Shao (sweetened backed wheaten cake) vs. Brownie

figure#1

Tang Hou Shao is one of the favorable local snacks in Beijing. Its origin is traced back as far as 300 years ago. The tastes of Tang Huo Shao is sweet and with sesame flavor inside. It also has a crunchy, nutty outer shell.  As you can see from figure#1, Tang Huo Shao is kinda the same as chocolate brownie. I mean, from the taste and the look; moreover, they are all served as dessert.

2. Lv Da Gun (Soybean-flour Cake) vs. Roll Cake

figure#2

Lv Dagun or bean-flour cake is one of the long-established snacks in Beijing. It is mainly made of soybean flour. At the end of preparation, the bean-flour cake rolls in the soybean flour at the end, which looks like a donkey rolling over in dust. It is featured smelly, sweet and glutinous and it has thick smell of soybean flour. combining with Roll Cake in figure#2 is just showing their looks are the same. Actually, they also named likely, the reason for that is Lv DaGun has a funny nickname, which is Rolling Donkey.

3. Bing Tang Hulu (Candied Haw in a Stick) vs. Candy Apple

figure#3

Bing Tang Hulu is a types of candy and commonly available in Beijing. It is part of my childhood and also part of the history of Beijing City. Bintang Hulu could be a primitive but traditional candy, which is made of fresh fruit, particularly wild fruit like hawthorn. Looks the same with Candy Apple? The technique they used is even the same.

4. Bai Yu tofu (a kind of tofu but more tender than the regular one) vs. Puding

figure#4

Looks the same right? But one is tofu, the other one is puding~

5. Xian Bing (Chinese meat pies) vs. Pizza 

figure#5

Actually the techniques are pretty much the same, the only different is that Xian Bing have two sides, the top and the bottom~ they all are delicious! If you want to try making one Xian Bing of your own, here is an post that teaches you how to make one step by step. http://stiwyd.blogspot.com/2009/03/xian-bing-chinese-meat-pies.html

Bing Tang Hulu!!!!

Beginning Chinese_ For Ordering In Chinese Restaurant

I remembered the first time I went non-Chinese environment for eat, I actually ordered a typical American food, cheeseburger and fries, but it’s not in Macdonald or Burger King those kind of fast food restaurant, you can just say the number from their poster to order. But still, I am nervous about ordering that meal. Because of that reason, the first lesson I will teach you guys is some simple sentences that can help you avoid embarrassment when ordering in non-English speaking Chinese restaurant in China.

Say Hello/Hi:

Hello (您好 nin hao) ; Hi (你好 ni hao)

Not that difference, it’s just the first one is more polite, but saying in English also works.

Tell waiter or waitress how many people are here to eat, so they can help you find a table.

Only one (一位; yi wei); Two (两位liang wei); Three (三位san wei); Four (四位si wei)

If you have a large group, just let them to count, you can just circle your group, or use your hand to show the number, they will understand you for sure.

After you sit down, and the menu don’t have pictures, ask them the specialists.

What is the specialist? (特色菜有什么te se cai shi shen me)

Also, if you have no idea about what they tell you for the specialist, just look around and find out which one are you interested in more and order that by point the dish. Nothing should embraced, people understand you. Maybe someone speaks English will help you ordering.

The good thing is waiters / waitresses will let you know if the dishes you ordered are enough for your table.

Ask for a doggie bag when eating out

(请帮我打包 qing bang wo da bao)

Usually they will also bring the check to you at the same time. but if not, ask them 结帐 (jie zhang)

If you have friends in China, and he or she invites you go somewhere to eat, you don’t need to pay for anything~ it’s just a traditional “face” thing, you don’t need to dig into it, just show there and eat that’s all.

Starting On The Right Track

Having trouble with what to order? I don’t know about you guys, but when I go to Chinese restaurant in San Francisco Chinatown, I am confused by the menu and I just don’t know what to order, even I am from mainland China. After digging into this issue, I found out that the English menu is actually working for foreigners (English speaker), because the name of the foods are named by the main ingredients (“scrambled egg with tomato”) or the way they cook(“soft-fried pork fillet”), even the shape or texture of the food(“cutlets chicken with hot pepper”). I don’t know how to cook which I am not proud of, but seriously, what is that!? Anyhow, some of the names like” tangerine chicken”, “kung pao chicken/prawn/tofu” are pretty much the same in china, just direct translation from Chinese to English, it’s much easy to understand what those foods are. That is not happening to me, a lot of the Chinese students are having trouble ordering Chinese food from the menu until the food comes so they know what they ordered. The same thing could happen to you if you want to visit China someday, so you can have some basic idea of what to order in the restaurant, I will teach you some of the foods name in Chinese mandarin with suggestions lists for restaurant you must try if you are in the neighborhoods. Stay tuned!

Visiting China? Must-know expressions in Mandarin – Part 1: At the Restaurant

Visiting China? Must-know expressions in Mandarin – Part 1: At the Restaurant

Welcome Blog

Greetings to the Beijing Takeout Welcome Blog!

Welcome to Beijing Takeout! This only blog that tells the difference between Chinese foods severed in San Francisco and the REAL Chinese food in Beijing for food lovers of every nation.

You can also find me on Twitter @BeijingTakeout.