Dim Sum Till Dawn: The Jindingxuan Challenge
By Noelle Mateer
Images by Holly Li
Jindingxuan won That's Beijing's Editors' Choice award for Best Chain Restaurant.
Thanks to its 24-hour service and tasty dim sum, Jindingxuan has always been there for us, like the loud, Cantonese mother we never had. In honor of her recent ‘Best Chain Restaurant’ award – we did the unthinkable: went from midnight to 7am (or attempted to, anyway).
Not that we hadn’t been to Jindingxuan many times before during those sodden, slobbering hours. We just hadn’t been from midnight to dawn all in one sitting. And thus we decided to, as this would give us a fuller – dare we say anthropological – perspective on the institution.
The idea simultaneously allured and daunted us. Would Beijing’s beloved bastion of baozi and belligerence ultimately shit us out, beleaguered, bitchier versions of ourselves? Or would we reemerge at dawn triumphant, having looked into the face of God itself? (Answer to the latter: No. See note from 6.22am.)
Here is the descent into Beijing’s drunken bowels that followed.
Midnight: I enter with That’s Beijing photographer and designer Holly Li. We are stone cold sober.
12.14am: I order a Diet Coke. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
12.25am: A poppy, Cantonese version of ‘Joy to the World’ begins playing on loop.
1.03am: I bite into a bun full of custard. Normally I’d combat my lactose intolerance with sheer mental fortitude, but in this instance, I put the bun down. We’re only just entering the second hour, after all.
1.10am: The first screaming fight of the evening breaks out. This is what we’re here for, people!
To be continued.
Click 'Read more' below to view the rest of the article in all its drunken and sleepy glory via That's Beijing.