My new breakfast place! No matter what time of the day i is, I greet the girl with the special voice, who always notices me with “Good morning!”. If it is past 10, she laughs, but still always passes it back.
Steamed Buns
On the plate there, are the steamed buns. In Chinese they are called, Bao Zi, which basically mean “Package”. As a verb it means “to wrap”, so to hold or hug someone, is also to “bao”. There is only one proper way to eat bao zi, and that is to have a bowl of a vinegar, soy, chili and garlic mix to dip it in before each bite. Why? Because it is genius. Even for breakfast!
Sidenote: Same goes for dumplings btw, but there you wanna add ginger.
Steamed buns are served fresh as hell and hot as hell, but they are good cold too. Because of how available and cheap they are, these are regularly consumed for breakfast, lunch and midday snacks. And, believe it or not, but a cold bun works nicely with hot tea. So bringing a bag when going on full day excursions, is quite wise.
You can find steamed buns on almost every street in Beijing. Everyone makes them in their own way, so you will find your favorite restaurant or hole-in-the-wall for them.
Bao Zi are made for vegetarians and carnivores. The veggie one always run out after lunch, everywhere. At chains like Qing Feng, some kinds are only seasonal. Like their best one, carrot. They are gone when spring comes. Luckily their mushroom are pretty good too.
1 plate of 3 bao zi cost about 4.5 RMB.
Purple rice porridge
At Qing Feng they have a few different kinds of soups and porridge, but purple rice porridge is the best. It has no taste, is very starchy, cheap as hell and gets you addicted the third bowl in. True story.
A bowl of porridge, 4 RMB.