Beijing D6 - 清真, Beijing's Halal Food

After much procrastination, we are having Beijing's Halal food for breakfast today (even for lunch, in an unplanned scenario). Albeit our uneasiness to try these unfamiliar looking food, i coaxed Ric, "We have to, because Halal food culture is very much part of Beijing."

In fact, Muslim eateries are so easily found along Beijing's streets; it forms an important core of Beijing's culinary culture.

Developed over hundreds of years since the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing had formed its unique Muslim culinary (that's very different from our part of Asian Muslim), some of which had been introduced to become part of the Imperial cuisines in the Forbidden City.

And it was an exciting experience at the ordering counter!

There were so much choices - the counter table was packed with food WITHOUT labels! And am not familiar with their names! The morning crowd knew their stuffs, came in swiftly and placed their order while i try mimicking :P

面茶 (¥2.50, S$0.50), 油饼, 焦圈 (¥1, S$0.20 each), 驴打滚 (¥1.50, S$0.30 each)

Finally managed to have my food without troubling the serving lady too much :)

面茶 at 12 o'clock was a tasteless yet aromatic 'warm glue' that goes very well with the fried sourdough fritters and round crackers. Contrary to Singapore's sweet Soybean curb, their 豆腐脑 was salted. 驴打滚 is a famous rolled floury pancake dessert with red beans stuffing.

And we 'survives' the meal ;)

豆腐脑 (¥2.50, S$0.50)

Such Halal eateries are easily recognized by the Chinese characters "清真" and their iconic Green White colors, the other Chinese characters are simply the brands or names of the shop location.

糖耳朵 (¥1, S$0.20), 酸梅汤 (¥4, S$0.80), 韭菜馅饼 (¥1.50, S$0.30)

For lunch, we came into another similar shop.

Ultra cloying 糖耳朵, thirst-quenching sour plum drink and my favourite Chive pancake! Not too bad for now; until we got adventurous...

牛肉炒河粉 (¥12, S$2.40)

Super oily fried Hor Fun noodles, with nice pickles though...

牛羊肉泡馍 (¥15, S$3)

And the ultimate of having this really authentic cuisine, the 泡馍, it simply means to 'soak' your buns in a broth of mutton or beef. The dish is to be eaten with the pickled garlic - it's an acquired taste but not too bad, i think; the garlic actually improves the flavor.

Enough for now... and Yes, i would venture into the stall again, for there are so many interesting looking Halal cakes and buns around to try ;)