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
