Guozijian

Beijing Cai may not considered the most refined of Chinese cuisines, but it does have its highlights of down-home goodness. Essentially an amalgam of many regional styles (especially Shandong), the capital's cuisine ranges from fabulously luxuriant imperial dishes made from exotic ingredients (bear paw, anyone?) to wheat-based staples (noodles, pancakes, steamed buns and the like) as well as Hui-style (China's ethnic Muslim minority) street foods, sweets and snacks.

In this series, we present the first part of a list of some of the capital's better known dishes along with places to try them out. If you have any additional suggestions for places to try these dishes, or other Beijing eats, please feel free to leave them in the comments below:

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We’ve made it an annual New Year’s tradition to wander the grounds of Yonghegong and burn incense at the altars of the many Buddhas therein. Neither my wife (who is technically a Hui Muslim) nor I (of the “wait-and-see” camp) can claim to be Buddhists, but we very much consider visiting temples “a Chinese Thing” and go all out burning incense, buying amulets, bowing reverently – the whole nine yards.

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