i bet you were all thinking i was going to talk about beijing duck… et non! i introduce you the donghuamen night market!
i believe we were lost or looking for something else when we stumbled on the donghuamen street market… but we were instantly converted, and came back every day at dinner. food is one of the (main) reasons we travel, and so it was impossible to resist the temptation!
here’s how the tested snacks ranked, according to the “yummy or meh” classification:
crunchy dry yellow thing: meh. quite tasteless, and hard to eat with the mini-sticks they gave us!
stewed meat on bread bun: yummy! this was excellent! perfectly spiced & stewed, with lots of fresh herbs, and lots of sauce from the stew.
squid: meh, not that good. the sauce they covered it on was a bit too sweet for our liking…
fried “banana” balls: yummy! but banana? these things tasted nothing like banana! a fluffy favourite nonetheless :)
meat on wrap: meh. not good.
strawberry/pineapple stick: yummy yummy yummy! those strawberries were gigantic and thus a little lacking in flavor, but the pineapple is sooo tasty… it more than makes up for the rest. you can also have these in other combos (just strawberries, strawberry/melon, strawberry/kiwi…).
meat kebab: yummy! although we didn’t quite get which kind of meat it was, but probably lamb. very tender.
there were also lots of strange things, like snakes, starfish, sea horses or crickets… they must be popular among foreigners, since all the vendors waved them at us… but i’m not that much of a fan.
donghuamen night market, beijing from ana campos on Vimeo.
that’s it! i would highly recommend this place if you want to taste a bit of everything, and i have to say my belly had absolutely no complaints (this being street food and all).
a little advice though: more than 20rmb is probably too much for anything here, so raise an eyebrow and be ready to speak out if they ask you for more than that. don’t be dumb.