10 of Beijing's best street foods you have to try at least once

A beginner's guide to the capital's quintessential street food dishes

From delicacy of every imaginable kind (deep-fried scorpion and seahorse in Wangfujing, anyone?) to cult food imports from all across China, the variety of eats you can order from street-side vendors in Beijing is what makes the capital a prime culinary hotspot. Below we list 10 quintessential street foods in Beijing you should at least try once. From breakfast, lunch, to dinner and even second dinner, they've got you covered.

Jianbing 煎饼

Photo: Wikipedia

Beijing’s most famous breakfast food: a thin wheat flour pancake fried on a flat iron dish, bulked up with a freshly cracked egg, fermented soy sauce, chilli paste, sesame seeds and sliced scallions, all folded up around a thin fried cracker for some structure and texture. Whether you prefer the Shandong version that has a thicker, chewier crust and lettuce or the ultra-spongy, egg-laden homegrown original, a jianbing is always a good decision for either a workday stopgap or late-night party fuel.

Kao chuan'r 烤串

Photo: Wikipedia

The gold standard by which all other food on a stick is judged, kao chuan’r, almost always shortened to just 'chuan’r’, is a staple of a hutong-shoestring diet, and has fuelled the fires of countless all-night ragers since time immemorial. Small chunks of cubed lamb, interspersed with equal parts mutton fat, are roasted over charcoal until charred to perfection. Anything on a stick is a chuan’r, but in Beijing chuan’r really means lamb and chicken wings. Keep an eye out for gents from Xinjiang wearing caps – no one does lamb in China like they do it out west.

Lao Beijing suannai 老北京酸奶

Packed fresh regularly, if not quite daily, by local merchants in little white porcelain jars, lao Beijing suannai, or ‘old Beijing yoghurt’, is a soothing morning restorative or a remedy for a scorched tongue after a bit too much hotpot. The flavour is subtle, mainly sweet with a slightly fermented tang which lingers at the finish. Jars are recycled, so you’ll need to fork over a few extra RMB if you don’t want to drink it on the spot and return the container.

Tanghulu 糖葫芦

Photo: Wikipedia

As quintessentially Beijing as the Forbidden City, tanghulu combine two things we Beijinger’s love: Chinese hawthorn berries and sugar. The hawthorn, a crabapple-like fruit with the texture of a ripe apple and the flavour of a sour strawberry, is taken to the next level with a thin coating of molten caster sugar.

Shouzhuabing 手抓饼

Photo: Wikipedia

A popular import from Taiwan, shouzhuabing combine a flakey savoury pastry with fermented soy sauce, chilli paste, shredded potatoes, lettuce, onions, a fried egg and your choice of meat. It’s like a burrito in a way, although the spiral-kneaded flatbread affords a much more satisfying crunch than a tortilla. The flatbreads are not made to order, so getting a fresh one takes some planning – make sure you go for shouzhuabing during peak meal hours or in the early morning to avoid getting a stale one.

Chou doufu 臭豆腐

Photo: Wikimedia

Another popular Taiwanese import, chou doufu, or 'stinky tofu' is a Chinese street-stand staple that has enjoyed a divided reputation. There’s no ignoring its pungent and volatile stench. You can hunt down a stinky tofu outlet from miles away simply by following your nose. Constantly compared to the smell of blue cheese, rotten garbage, it's essentially a fermented bean curd that’s deep-fried and topped with a savoury or chilli sauce and green onion. But don't let the whiff deter you. Its taste – as long as you're brave enough to get past the dirty scent – is much more orthodox and delicious than the smell suggests. After all, it’s said the smellier it gets, the better it tastes. 

Youtiao doujiang 油条豆浆

Photo: Wikipedia

The classic Beijing breakfast pairing is fried dough and soy milk. Youtiao, literally ‘oil stick’, are wheaten strips that are deep-fried in hot oil until puffy, golden and undeniably delicious. Straight from the oil, it’s hard to imagine dampening the flavour of the salty-sweet layers of chewy dough, but Beijingers take their youtiao with fresh soy milk, doujiang. It’s kind of like the hutong version of a coffee and doughnut – so much so that the name youtiao doujiang is a byword for breakfast (and a euphemism for a morning quickie, but you didn’t hear that from us).

Kao leng mian 烤冷面

Photo: Wikipedia

Kao leng mian, or 'grilled cold noodles', is a lowbrow delicacy from the northern province of Heilongjiang. More of a pan-fried tamale than a noodle dish in the conventional sense, a thin sheet of uncut wheaten noodles is fried with a beaten egg and topped with sautéed onions and a dry spice mix before being supplemented with a protein such as a mega-processed hotdog (don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!). Rolled up and sliced, kao leng mian has more texture and a greater depth of a bbq flavour than its closest relative, the jianbing.

Roujiamo 肉夹馍

Photo: Wikipedia

Roujiamo is a street food staple hailed from the northwestern province of Shaanxi. Slow-cooked pork belly and trimmings are finely chopped and wedged into a cracked 'mo', or small circular bread. The tough bread is softened by the absorbed juices and a dash of vinegar. Fresh peppers (qingjiao, 青椒) cut through the cloying fat and allow the spices and natural porky richness to come through. 

Lü dagun 驴打滚

Photo: Wikimedia

A true lao Beijing snack with origin dating back to the Qing dynasty, lü dagun loosely translates to donkey roll, but rest assured, there's no donkey meat involved. It’s rather a sweet, glutinous rice roll with a distinct swirl of colours. It apparently got its name from how it's made. Steamed sticky rice dough is layered with red bean paste, and rolled into a log under a bed of a generous amount of brown soybean powder before it's cut into smaller gooey bites. 

You might have missed

More from Time Out Beijing