Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine May 2019 | Page 92

Travel / Beijing
1. A stallholder carefully
sets out fresh strawberries
at a market.
2. A street vendor on
Nanluoguxiang makes
sugar animals by blowing
into a hollow ball of pliable
sugar paste and shaping
the sugar. As the girl blows,
the hawker moulds the
ballooning ball into an
animal shape.
3. Entrance to Wangfujing
Snack Street.
4. Sichuan-style fried
chicken with plenty of chilli
at the Grand Hyatt’s Made
in China restaurant.
1
5
senses:
taste
2
Street Snacks
E/Want to sample
Beijing street food
that’s sweet or savoury
or even sometimes
a little bit scary?
Swing by Wangfujing
Snack Street, a
convenient (and often
bustling) collection of
stalls and eateries
(Wangfujing
subway station).
I/ Ingin mencicipi
jajanan khas Beijing
yang manis atau
gurih. atau sedikit
menakutkan? Jelajahi
Wangfujing Snack
Street yang dihuni
kios-kios dan tempat
makan nyaman (dekat
stasiun kereta bawah
tanah Wangfujing).
90
a hutong that has been revitalised with
boutiques, cafés and street-food stands.
It’s the kind of place where you can find
handicrafts and fashion next to ice-cream
makers and laid-back coffee shops.
A short amble from the northern end of
Nanluoguxiang leads to the Drum Tower
(Shichahai subway station), which has
marked time since 1272 – easily spotted,
and possibly heard. At intervals throughout
the day, energetic percussionists beat
its array of oversized drums.
probably kept imperial drummers warm in
the depths of a Beijing winter. It’s famed for
chaogan’r, a gummy liver soup, but is also a
good spot to slurp up zha jiang mian, thick
noodles topped with mince in a salty-smoky
fermented soybean sauce. It’s hugely satisfying.
It’s a pulse-thumping hike to the top of the
tower. The stone steps are shiny, steep and
irregular. But the drum performance, and view
of the hutongs around, is a breathtaking reward. Across town, Huguosi Snacks (93 Huguosi
Dajie; Ping’anli subway station) serves dishes
that have an equally long history in the city,
brought by Hui Muslims from lands far along
the epic Silk Road. Signature plates include
chaogeda (dumplings fried with pickled
vegetables) and baodu (quick-fried stomach).
They have cakes to take out too: tang’erduo
(deep-fried sugary knots) and a glutinous
rice and red-bean roll known as lüdagun
(or ‘rolling donkey’) are two classic examples.
Adjacent to the tower, Yaoji (311 Gulou
Dongdajie) makes the kind of local food that To burn off such hearty fare, head over to the
Summer Palace (Xiyuan subway station)