HUGUOSI AND BAITASI
Travel back to northern China with a basket of the Hebei specialty xiedi huoshao, so called because the baked huoshao buns are shaped like the sole of a shoe (xiedi). Baoguang Xunrou Xiedi Huoshao netted themselves a spot on BTV’s popular food show for their supremely crisp buns, stuffed with juicy smoked pork hock.
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has been lovingly preserved as a mini museum complete with costumes and recordings of his premier performances.
LIBATIONS Time to help digest all that food with a spot of booze. Head to the innocuous Huguo Xintiandi, where you will find one of Beijing’s lesser known brewpubs, NBeer. Popular with students from the nearby universities, NBeer has beers from local brewers on tap, as well as rare imported bottles.
AN EDIFYING START Start your journey at Prince Gong’s Mansion – you’ll want to get there either early or late in the day to avoid the tour groups. The largest extant courtyard in the world, many consider Prince Gong’s crash pad to be better preserved than the Forbidden City. It also houses the city’s only fully preserved Qing Dynasty opera house, where if you’re lucky, you can catch a traditional performance. Head west from Prince Gong’s Mansion to the Former Residence of Mei Lanfang at the eastern entrance to Huguosi Jie. Often cited as the greatest Peking Opera singer of the 20th century, Mei Lanfang’s home
SOURCING SUSTENANCE Let’s be real though, the reason you’re in this area is for the epicurean delights offered along Huguosi Jie. Start your culinary journey at Huguosi Xiaochidian, where you can jostle shoulders with the crowd to sample some of Beijing’s hearty local snacks such as miancha (millet porridge topped with sesame paste) or wandoughuang (a slightly-sweet cake made of peas). The snacks on offer here haven’t changed much since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Not every dish on offer along Huguosi hails from nor ther n China. Head to incredibly popular Xiaoluohao (1,666 Dianping reviews and counting) for a bowl of luosifen (river snail rice noodles), a signature dish of Lizhou in Guangxi. The rice noodles are served in highly spiced broth made from river snails and pork bones.
A MOMENT OF CONTEMPLATION If you’re still on your feet after NBeer, head south towards Xisi then west along Fuchengmen Neidajie to reach Baitasi, or White Dagoba Temple. The temple’s eponymous dagoba is one of only two in Beijing (the other being in Beihai Park) and is in fact the oldest, completed in 1279 by Kublai Khan. The grounds of the temple itself are quite small, but the hutongs around it now offer some interesting diversions, since the area was named one of the core Design Hop areas for this year’s Beijing Design Week (until Oct 7). For example, head to 22 Gongmenkou Sitiao to visit Vector Architects’ project, the Hybrid Courtyard, the renovated space blending old and new, both in terms of lifestyle function and construction materials. A few hutongs over, Electric Sheep are screening a series of films about
he hutong areas around Gulou are well documented, but fewer people venture slightly further to the area west of Shichahai. Spiraling out from Ping’anli and Xisi subway stations, this area holds one of the best attractions for budding Beijing foodies – Huguosi. Think of it as the Nanluogu Xiang of food, but without the flag-toting tour groups.
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OCTOBER 2015