This was our 2nd food tour with Lost Plate Food Tours. Our first tour with Lost Plate was in Xi’an. Food tours are a great way to try foods that are unique to certain areas of a country, and to learn some history about the country. Now put food, history, friends, and a fun tuk tuk ride together and you have Lost Plate Food Tours! We met our tour guide, Ernestina, and 11 other people for our tour group at a subway entrance in one of the hutong areas of Beijing. We walked a short distance and jumped into our tuk tuks. Our first stop was a small noodle shop.
Our group of 11 squeezed around a table and as soon as we sat down they started bringing us food. First we were given a tray with sauce and some vegetables.
Next we were given a bowl of noodles. We added the sauce and vegetables to the noodles, mixed it together and ate them. Wow, they were very fresh and delicious!
They called these Beijing Mixed Sauce Noodles.
Back to our tuk tuks and off for Mongolian Barbeque.
First our guide barbequed the beef with vegetables, and then she barbequed some lamb. After the meat was cooked we placed it on our plates and we added some seasonings. Yum, it was good!
Ready for another tuk tuk ride and we were off to our next stop. The next stop was so busy we could not even get inside. They had our food waiting outside for us. Here we tried MenDing RouBing or Door Knob Meat Buns.
The name comes from the buns looking like the door nails on the red doors in the Forbidden City. We thought the best way to describe them was that they are similar to a meat pie.
The Door Knob Meat Bun is filled with a mixture of tasty meat and a hot broth. It was kind of hard to eat with chopsticks, but it was well worth the effort.
We stood outside, enjoyed our Door Knobs, and washed them down with a wine called Baijou.
Our last food stop was for Spring Pancakes. Ernestina informed us that in China, they eat Spring Pancakes all year long, but they do especially like to eat them to welcome Spring. Ernestina ordered 3 dishes, Kung Pow Chicken, reunion dish, and some sort of grated potatoes. Ernestina carefully picked up a pancake and pulled it apart to make 2 pancakes.
Next we placed the 3 different dishes in the middle of the pancake and rolled it up like a burrito. They were very good!
Their last stop was at a brewery. We informed Ernestina that we were going to end the tour after the Spring Pancakes, because the next day we wanted to get up early and go the the Great Wall of China. Just like our first Lost Plate Food Tour in Xi’an, we enjoyed it immensely. We look forward to taking their food tours in other cities in the future.