2016 Year in Review: The 5 Best and 5 Worst Beijing Street Eats
I know some of you can’t wait to say goodbye to 2016. The same goes for me, but one of the main reasons I can't wait to send off this year is to finally put some of Beijing's worst terrible street eats behind me. No pain, no gain, they say. Well, there was certainly pain, but there was also gain. Let's take a look back over the top 10 things we ate on Beijing's streets this year: five of the worst, and five of the best.
Five Best Street Eats
Fried Chicken Fillet 大鸡排 (dà jīpái)
We tried this remorseless and evil food at The Top Best (第1佳, dìyījiā), which opened in 2009 and has more than 200 outlets in Beijing alone. The basic Big Chicken (RMB 15) wasn’t greasy at all, and was so good. It took a lot of will power not to get a second one. You can also upgrade to the Exploding Chicken (RMB 20), which is stuffed with a big dollop of sloppy melted cheese. There are five flavors to choose from: original, spicy, sweet plum, cumin, and curry. Even the weird plum-flavored chicken fillet was surprisingly moreish. Read our first impressions here.
New Zealand Sweet Cheesy Toast 岩烧乳酪 (yánshāo rǔlào)
We got into the cheese toast trend in March, and New Zealand Sweet Cheese Toast is still going strong to this day: the original three outlets have expanded to 30 branches. The main attraction of this particular cart is warm slices of toast topped with a sweet cheese-like substance (RMB 8 per piece), which according to legend is all the rage in its home country of New Zealand. The bright yellow sticky coating atop a slice of the cheapest supermarket bread was tasty. Be careful, the after effect is that it is kind of mesmerizing: you will want one everytime you walk past. Click "Read more" to read our first impressions.
Jiānbǐng 煎饼
The jiānbǐng is our long-time love, and also Beijing’s most popular and most readily-available street snack of all time. This late night comfort food is also the best breakfast to deal with your hangover the following day. It is made of wheat, grain flour, egg, and fried dough sheet or deep fried batter (油条, yóutiáo). It can be found at almost every corner of the street, at every supermarket (like in Jingkelong), or you can try a fancy version at Goubuli. Read our first impressions here.
Grilled Cold Noodles 烤冷面 (kǎo lěngmiàn)
This is another popular comfort food for hungry night walkers or pub crawlers. The chef stir-fries a pre-made sheet of dough, which has a texture similar to that of Korean cold noodles (naengmyeon), on the flat skillet, cracks an egg on it, and sprinkles with scallions, chopped onions, and cilantro. Don’t forget to say yes to hot sauce. Read our first impressions here.
Banh Mi at Roll Box
Banh Mi
Banh Mi, a Vietnamese style sandwich filled with meat, fresh cucumber, cilantro, and carrot. The one we visited in late September, Rollbox, has two branches in Chaowai Soho and Xingfucun Zhonglu. Six delicious variations include pork, barbecue pork, chicken, beef satay, tuna roll, and egg salad, ranging between RMB 15-30. The crisp crust and slice of carrot, preserved radish, cabbage, cucumber, cilantro, bird’s eye chilies, lettuce, sliced pork, and ham in the pork one (RMB 25) couldn’t be more comforting. Rollbox has become our go-to shop. Click "Read more" to read our first impressions.
Five Worst Street Eats
Grilled Pig Trotters 爆烤猪蹄 (bàokǎo zhūtí)
We encountered these grilled pigs feet on Sanlitun's dirty bar street. During our visit in April, there were 22 people in line on a weekend afternoon. The RMB 13 boney trotter was covered with a suspicious yellow powder and chopped peanuts, and the overwhelming monosodium glutamate (MSG) couldn’t save the chewy-rubbery taste. 0 stars. Click "Read more" to read our first impressions.
Street Burger
Trying to scout out the city's best burgers for the Beijinger 2016 Burger Cup, we expanded our horizons and tried some street-style burgers. The double beef burger (RMB 9) had two “beef” patties, and cabbage in the bun. The patties seemed to not be made of meat, and the creamy-sauce was akin to mayonnaise, but more like crayon. This microwave-heat burger was gross on every possible level. It didn't only get me plenty of complaints from fellow editors about the smell, but it also got me sick, and made me question my decision to become an F&B editor. Sigh. Click "Read more" to read our first impressions.
How could jianbing be unedible? Jianbing Houzi made it!
Jianbing Houzi 煎饼猴子 [CLOSED]
You read it right, jianbing. Located in front of U-Town Shopping Center, this place irritated us, not only because of the overpriced jiānbǐng for RMB 21-30 (which was not even good) but also because of their perverted narcissism. To get an extra egg, you have to meet the following conditions:
You post a picture and write several sentences on the WeChat Moments about Jianbing Houzi;
You are Muslim;
You are a fan of Guo'an and are wearing Guo'an gear;
Your back, arms, or legs are covered with tattoos;
Your tongue can touch your nose;
You're wearing a low-cut top that shows your cleavage;
You're wearing a short mini-skirt without any leggings;
Your ID number starts with 110103 or 110104.
We were happy to see it closed, and wouldn’t hesitate to throw it under a bus over and over for their rampant sexism. Click "Read more" to read our first impressions.
RMB 34 coffee beer was half good
Coffee Beer 咖啡啤酒 (kāfēi píjiǔ )
We like coffee, and beer, but when Gloria Jean's Coffees put them together, it was not that appealing. The RMB 34 drink tasted like leftover Budweiser that you’d find in a half-empty can. And the salad (RMB 25) should be avoided too, for the small portion and lack of flavor. All in all, we prefer Gloria Jean's “normal” coffees. Read our first impressions here.
The copycat at Cocktail Box was bad
Cloudy Cotton Candy Ice-cream 乌云冰激凌 (wūyún bīngjīlíng)
We found a Remicone copycat, Cocktail Box in Sanlitun and tried their Hawaii Beach (RMB 25). There was a diluted Listerine mouthwash-kind of blue flavoring in the mix, and plasticky pink and yellow stars dotted throughout. The worst was the texture, which was like toothpaste or wax you put in the fridge overnight. Eww… Read our first impressions here.
There are also a dozen street eats that made me feel 'meh,' that I wouldn’t force you to go through. If you do want to read more, click "Read more". Here's to many more street eats in 2017!
Photos: Tracy Wang, giphy