6 Days of Xmas: Win RMB 200 Vouchers to YueLi Vietnamese
6 Days of Xmas
With travel outside of Beijing, let alone
outside of China, off the cards for the time being, we’re focusing on
traveling the world through food instead. Luckily, Beijing is a
veritable culinary atlas, from Argentina and Turkey to Mexico and
Vietnam. The latter, in particular, has been on our minds recently as we
think back to winter escapes in sunny Hanoi or Danang over the years.
If
you want to recreate memories of street-side dining in Vietnam without
leaving Beijing, read on to find out how you can win RMB 200 to spend at
casual Vietnamese restaurant chain YueLi.
YueLi currently has
two restaurants in Beijing, one in the center of Chongwenmen and one in
the hip new mall over in Haidian.
YueLi focuses on
recreating that “Vietnamese street food taste” that has attracted a
great many fans around the world. Everything is made from scratch
in-house, from the baguettes for their banh mi sandwiches to the broth
for their pho, with no unnecessary additives or colorings. Even the
traditional chả lụa, a type of Vietnamese sausage, is made in-house
despite the complicated process needed to ensure it reaches a perfectly smooth texture.
The
kitchen is helmed by Chef Sweeny Sui, who spent time working in Canada
and the USA, where he ate a fair amount of Vietnamese food but found it to
be less than authentic. Eager to get a taste of the real deal, he flew
to Vietnam in search of the flavors' origins and ended up spending more
than six months there eating, studying the food, and learning about the
country’s history. Finally, he decided to bring what he had learned back
to Beijing.
Among the many treats Sweeny brought back from
his travels, the banh mi – aka Vietnamese baguettes – are absolutely not
to be missed, his recipe learned during stints at three different
bakeries. The bread has a light and airy crumb and a crisp, friable
crust, which forms an ideal texture juxtaposed with fragrant fillings.
The
banh mi with special char siu roast pork is the best-selling item on
the menu, although there are plenty of other options to choose from
sandwich wise, including a meat feast banh mi stuffed with barbecue
pork, roast pork belly, homemade pâté, and the aforementioned chả lụa.
There
are also options for those that don’t eat pork, including a remarkably
fragrant grilled chicken breast banh mi and a double fried egg banh mi.
All the sandwiches come with pickled papaya and carrot, fresh herbs,
homemade chili sauce, and mayonnaise. And don’t expect elevated prices
just because you’re not in Vietnam – most of the sandwiches will set you
back less than RMB 30.
Fancy something other than a banh mi?
The beef pho features a beef bone broth slowly simmered for more than
four hours, topped with sliced braised beef brisket and homemade beef
balls. We may be more accustomed to eating pho in Vietnam’s steamy
temperatures, but it makes for a delightfully warming treat on a cold
winter’s day in the capital.
To win RMB 200 for YueLi (more than enough for a very filling feast):
At the bottom of this post, comment with an answer to the question: “What foodie traditions do you and your family enjoy at Christmas?”
Get as many of your friends to like your comment as possible.
We will choose the most creative and interesting comment from the top 10 most-liked posts 24 hours from the time this post is published.
YueLi Vietnamese Cuisine 越历∙越南餐 (Chongwenmen branch)
G08, LG/F, West Tower, Hademen Plaza, Chongwenmen Waidajie, Dongcheng District (6711 5898/185 1815 5025)
东城区崇文门外大街哈德门广场西塔底下一层G08
YueLi Vietnamese Cuisine 越历∙越南餐 (KALCITY branch)
L210, B1/F, KALCITY, 69 Banjin Lu, Haidian District (131 2108 0730)
海淀区板进路69号KALCITY能量城市世纪金源大饭店B1-L210
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