Top 15 Beijing Snacks You Must Not Miss

(Last Updated On: December 22, 2022)

There are more than 200 kinds of snacks in Beijing. The history of nearly a thousand years, it combines the flavor of the palace and the folk characteristics. Here I introduce the most representative of the 15 traditional Beijing snacks.

1. Fermented Soya-bean Milk(豆汁儿)

It is a traditional snack that is unique in old Beijing. It has a history of 300 years according to written records. The Fermented Soya-bean Milk is produced by mung bean as an ingredient, and the remaining residue after the starch is out to produce food such as vermicelli and has the effects of nourishing the stomach, detoxifying and clearing the fire.

It has a long history. It is said that it was popular in the Beijing area as early as the Liao and Song Dynasties, and it became a court drink during the Qianlong emperor period in the Qing dynasty.

The color of the served bean Soya-bean Milk is dim, and it is also served with spicy pickles and fried rings. But most people will find it hard to swallow because of the odor. Authentic local residents in Beijing will be addicted to bean juice. A bowl of bean juice can test whether a person is a Beijinger or a foreigner.

2.Fried Ring(焦圈儿)

It is a kind of fried pasta, named for its shape like the bracelet.

The fried ring is the food that comes out from the Imperial Diet House of Qing Palace. It is the best partner for Fermented Soya-bean Milk. People often say that drinking Fermented Soya-bean Milk with fried rings is a pleasant thing.

3. Fried enema (灌肠儿)

It is a traditional Beijing-style traditional snack and is also a dish commonly used on the Beijing dinner table. In the past, the enema was fried in the large intestine of the pig, so the authentic fried enema had a special taste of the pig’s large intestine, but now people have rarely used pig’s large intestine oil to fry the intestines for healthy reasons. The fried enema should be eaten with mixed salted garlic sauce.

4.Quick-boiled tripe(爆肚儿)

In addition to the ingredients, the blasting of the belly is all in the word “quick-boiled”. The water should be large and rolled away, and the firepower should be extremely strong. The tripes are in the soup and cooked in three seconds.

The method of eating the belly is also very particular. The ingredients are made with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame paste, sesame oil, bean curd, shrimp oil, etc., and chopped green onion, parsley, garlic juice, and chili oil are added. When you eat it, you usually only have one piece with the seasoning.

5. Stir-Fried liver(炒肝儿)

 It has the characteristics of bright soup sauce, red liver, and liver fat, and it is not greasy, and it is rare and not sloppy, originated in the Song Dynasty. The main ingredient for a fried liver is pig viscera, which is mainly pig gut, and pig liver accounts for only one-third. Cooked with mushroom soup and Served with garlic sauce, chopped green onion, ginger, salted thick, and chopped garlic.

6. Sweetened baked wheaten cake(糖火烧)

It is a common traditional pastry and traditional Manchu snack. It is made into a stove with a cylinder, the biscuit is directly baked in the cylinder wall. One of the breakfast food eaten In Beijing with a history of more than 300 years.

7. Pea puree cake (碗豆黄儿):

It is a traditional spring snack in Beijing.

The peas are usually ground, peeled, washed, boiled, fried in sugar, coagulated, and diced. The taste is sweet, cool, and refreshing. It is often shown in spring temple fairs.

8. Sugar ear(糖耳朵)

Honey twist, also known as the sugar ear,  after the completion of production, the shape is similar to the human ear and named. Put the original shape ingredient into the oil and fry it. When it is golden brown, remove it, and then put it in the warm sugar for one minute. Soak it and put it on the plate to dry it. It becomes a sweet and delicious sugar ear.

9.Bittern flapjack(卤煮火烧)

The boiled small intestine is also known as Bittern flapjack. It is a traditional dish in Beijing. The pure thing native to old Beijing is purer than Beijing Opera. It has been more than a hundred years old. This food originated in the court and was later modified to evolve into a boiled small intestine. When eating, put the cooked tofu and fire into the bowl, and serve it together with garlic juice, chili oil, and parsley.

The boiled small intestine is an uncompromisingly poor people’s food. In the past, poor people could not afford meat regularly, Although the boiled small intestine was launched, it was made with a meat taste. It was mixed with clay oven rolls, there are meat and vegetables, all of them are in the bowl,  people can eat well.

10. Glutinous Rice Rolls with Sweet Bean Flour (驴打滚儿)

It is the bean lour cake, which is an ancient snack in Beijing. Because the final production process needs to be wrapped in soy noodles, just like the wild loess that was stirred up by the wild scorpion,  the name is rolling donkey too.

11. Millet flour sesame paste porridge(面茶)

It is sold in the afternoon. Drinking it is very particular. When eating, you don’t need chopsticks, spoons, and other tableware. Instead, you can drink along the side of the bowl. The local Beijing people may have this way. The porridge is not a tea soup, but a paste made from millet flour. The surface is topped with sesame sauce. 

12. Steamed rice cakes with sweet stuffing(艾窝窝)

It is one of Beijing’s traditional snacks. It is sold before the Spring festival and is sold until late summer and early autumn. It has a long history and is recorded in the Ming Dynasty. The outer skin of it is steamed Steamed glutinous rice. The filling is also fried with peach kernel, melon kernel, sesame kernel, and white sugar, so it can be eaten after it is done.

13. Toad spits honey(Bean filling biscuit蛤蟆吐蜜)

It is also known as bean filling biscuit. It is a common variety of Beijing snacks. It is named after the stuffing of bean paste. In the baking process, because there is a natural opening on the side of the biscuit, the bean stuffing is spitting out and hung on the side of the biscuit, so people call this image Toad spat honey.

14. Fried butter cake(奶油炸糕)

Its main ingredients are flour, sugar, and butter which are fried.

It is round, tender with a crispy crust, rich in flavor, nutritious, and easy to digest.

15. Ginger wire fork(姜丝排叉)

As you can know from its name, it has fresh ginger in its ingredients, so it has a distinct fresh ginger flavor when it is eaten.

The ginger silk fork of “Nan Lai Shun” was awarded “Beijing Famous Snack” in 1997, and in the same year it was awarded the title of “Chinese Famous Snack”.

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