One of the first things people comment on when they come to Beijing is the food. There’s no denying that it’s a great place to be a foodie. There are so many different types of cuisine you can find here from every corner of not only this massive country but also around the globe.

After being in Beijing for seven years, I can credit much of my own interest in the culinary arts to three things: First, working with city magazines for the past six years and having the opportunity to try new and different restaurants very frequently. Two: there are so many foreigners working in the food industry here that it’s almost impossible to avoid talking about food and the best places to indulge. Three: finally learning my way around the kitchen when I realized the mulah you can save if you don’t eat out every night.

Cooking for me has become a way to share with my Chinese family, my mother’s recipes that she received from her mom, and her from her mom, and so on. At some point, these dishes that my mother made, like gumbo or red beans and rice, which I casually took for granted growing up began to take on more meaning for me. If I didn’t start learning how to prepare these to perfection, then maybe they would be lost, or my son would miss out on this part of his family’s history.

I know for sure that many families and even professional cooks share this sentiment, which was also likely their motivation to get cooking in the first place. This relationship around families and food was our reason behind doing this issue and also the cover feature “If You Can’t Stand the Heat…” (p46). Here we explored how professionals in the restaurant business balance this stressful career with their parenting responsibilities, and how they teach their kids to understand the importance of what happens in the kitchen.

In this Family Foodie issue we not only share some of our favorite new and old international dining venues that Beijing has to offer (p50) but also round up the top Chinese Provincial Government Restaurants (previously featured in the Beijinger) and explore recent food fads that run the gambit of delicious, vapid, and downright strange (p24).

It’s this and more featured in the pages ahead that will hopefully help you experience Beijing’s foodie scene more comprehensively, and know that if there is anything that you are craving, there’s a good chance that the capital city has you covered.

This article appeared in the beijingkids September 2019 Family Foodies issue

Photos: Ray Town

In a rather puzzling turn of events, the Chinese government has finally addressed an ongoing case of fish-related identity theft – but not in the way you’d expect. For years now, rainbow trout have been sold under the guise of salmon, due to the meat of the two species of fish being indistinguishable to the untrained eye. That similarity has led the practice to go unnoticed by many, but now the government has found a simple solution to the problem: they’ve redefined “salmon” to include rainbow trout.

Fish markets have been getting away with labeling rainbow trout as salmon for years. The only difference now is that it’s legal

This surprising approach has led to a backlash, not only because of the government’s implicit approval of public deception, but also because rainbow trout, although a member of the salmon family, is more susceptible to parasites that can in turn infect humans if eaten raw. Commonly bred and sourced from farms in China’s central Qinghai province, rainbow trout are cheaper to produce than salmon – which spend the majority of their life in salt water – explaining why this fish-fraud is so prevalent.

Rainbow trout flesh looks remarkably like salmon

The introduction of this new law coincides with the rise of salmon consumption in China, but also with the rise of public concern about infection. When the decision was announced, people took to Weibo to post their grievances alongside the hashtag #RainbowTroutBecomesSalmon. Some netizens took a more light-hearted approach to the issue, with one user writing, “The trout must be confused. After so many years its identity has suddenly changed to become salmon.” Others applied this logic to other similar scenarios, such as asking why seas and lakes can’t now be interchangeable, so as to do away with the problem entirely.

Hatsune owner Alan Wong the new non-distinction won’t impact buyers too much

Alan Wong, owner of Hatsune tells the Beijinger that, “Knowing trout is a river fish, and also knowing that Chinese consume river fish all the time (à la Huairou sashimi), I doubt it will make any difference how locals view the product,” though Wong echoes the health-concerns shared by members of the public, adding, “… I highly recommend against eating it [raw rainbow trout], or any river fish completely raw, as it’s got bad stuff in it.” He emphasizes that his business is unaffected by the new ruling, as he imports his salmon from Norway and other EU countries.

Although most of us are likely to have been in the dark about the dangers of eating what we thought were delicious and succulent chunks of pink salmon, this incident comes as a stark reminder that it remains up to us to make sure that the food that we eat really is what we think it is.

 Photos: Chef Steps, Business Inquirer, Onthewater