Travel Asia: Winter in Beijing, China Part 4 - (Where to eat)

When it comes to food, Beijing surprisingly felt like heaven to me, It's just like eating at Northpark every single day (Northpark is a famous Chinese restaurant in the Philippines) and being the rice lovers that we are, we were not disappointed with the many food viands that are really similar to Filipino dishes so we really felt at home. The price though might be a little expensive than Northpark especially if you're eating at those chinese restaurants or mini "turo-turo" near your hotels so sometimes, it's more practical to just grab a bite at Subway or Mcdonalds or at a food court if you're tight on budget. Or just buy some food from the many convenience stores in the area and stack some food in your hotel room for those midnight cravings like we did.

One restaurant that we recommend for those who want something different apart from rice but is tight on budget is Saizeriya, a widely known Italian restaurant that has a lot of branches in the Dongcheng district. We accidentally bumped into this restaurant when we were exploring the many malls of Beijing (yes, we are mall rats =). It just so happen that they have a branch at the topmost floor of Sunshine Plaza. The food is very reasonable, so reasonable that we have to verify with the waiter again if we have the prices right (we don't want things to get lost in translation). And, yep, it was a very satisfactory meal.

Saizeriya

We also  discovered a restaurant that  is a couple of blocks near our hotel and nearer if you're staying at the Day's inn hotel in Beijing. It's called Niu Ge Chinese Dumpling Restaurant that offers authentic chinese food since the dynasty period. This is where we ate dinner on our last night -- and we ordered a lot (hehehe) surprisingly, our bill costs us around PHP800 pesos only. We ordered a freshly cooked fish in tausi sauce, dumplings, dimsum, beef and veggies, yangchow and drinks. Good for 4 people already. Yum! Yum!

But, if you are like Andrew Zimmern and have the stomach to try something off the beaten path, go for the many street stalls that are numerous in Wangfujing district. Just behind the big malls, there are side streets that can take you to a gastronomical journey.

Here is the entrance to the side streets of Wangfujing

Scorpions, crickets, insects for breakfast

Apart from the stalls of street food vendors, here we found a familiar shopping area -- what we called "the original Divisoria" (Divisoria is a famous shopping area in the Philippines that mostly sells China made products).  

However, be careful when asking the prices of goods at this side street, many Chinese vendors will literally hold you by arm once you decided you're not gonna end up buying anything. These merchants make sure that you buy something from them once you start asking. 

We saw this table outside a restaurant while walking around. I'm not sure about the meaning but most probably, it's all about attracting luck and prosperity for the coming year. It's really quite interesting to see some of the traditions that Chinese people do during New Year. 

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