Musings of a Traveling Chef

For the past 10 years, I've called Beijing my home. I've eaten in a lot of restaurants, been to a lot of places and experienced life living like a local. If you plan to visit Beijing, the top 4 places to visit would be Forbidden City, Great Wall (Mutianyu section please!), Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace. However, if you talk about food, I give you fast 5 of Chinese cuisine you must try in Beijing:  1. Beijing roast duck (aka Peking Duck): a must-eat food when you visit Beijing. The duck is roasted with wood in a stone oven rubbed with spices and no oil. Best to order this dish when you reserve a seat as it take quite some time to cook. The duck will be carved right in front of you for Instagram shots!  Notable restaurants are: Quanjude (Hepingmen Branch only, don't bother with the other branches), Da Dong, Duck De Chine, Made In China (Grand Hyatt hotel). 

One of the most loved dishes by foreigners is the Sichuan Spicy Chicken or La Zi Ji.  A typical dish would have either chicken cubes with bones or boneless.  The difference between the two is the flavor as the one with bones will taste much better than pure chicken meat.  However, even though it's flavorful, it's more difficult to appreciate if you have to remove the bones once in awhile while eating it. Every time I travel to a new place, I plan to add learning how to cook their dishes in my agenda.  So, in Beijing, I learned how to cook this dish from Hutong Cuisine.  It was quite a learning experience for a non-chef like me.  The teaching method was perfect for newbies and in the end, I can't believe that I was able to prepare such dish by myself. Sichuan Spicy Chicken "Laziji" Ingredients: 150g Chicken Breast fillet 1 clove garlic Ginger, same amount as garlic 1 strand of Spring Onion (white portion only) A handful of dry chillies 2...