Apart from enjoying flowers and hiking, one of the happiest things in spring is to taste the seasonal delicacies. From spring bamboo shoots and broad beans to saury and shad, chefs in Beijing are looking for all kinds of seasonal ingredients, giving full play to their cooking creativity and selecting exquisite utensils to bring a fresh taste of spring.
The female chef brings the taste of spring and experiences the natural and simple oriental beauty.
Taste Spring Location: Qulang Courtyard
Features: Oriental flavor, quiet space
Recommended dishes: Spring menu
Address: No.25 Dongsishitiao Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing
A winding and secluded space.
The Qulang Courtyard is hidden in the old quadrangle in the depths of East 41 Hutong. The streets and lanes outside are full of fireworks, and it is very comfortable to come in with a winding path. In spring, the flowers in the courtyard are blooming, and the peach blossoms in the pottery bottle are swaying. The chef of the restaurant is a post-1995 girl. Although she is young and has rich cooking experience, she graduated from Paul Bogus College in France, majoring in culinary arts and catering management, and has worked in several Michelin restaurants in France. She has unique ingenuity and aesthetics for ingredients, cooking skills and plate setting, which makes you feel the natural and simple oriental beauty.
The smell of spring.
Go to Qulang Courtyard in April, and you can taste the latest spring menu. For example, Toona sinensis is an indispensable ingredient in this season. Red Devil Shrimp with Bread and Toona sinensis sauce is refreshing. Another dish, "Sea Cucumber, Jellyfish and Seaweed", is also very interesting. It is all the flavor of the sea. With mixed wild mushroom sauce, layers of delicious food pour out, decorated with litsea nut oil, which brings comfort and warmth when it is warm and cold. The "side dish cake" here is also worth tasting. The chef wipes the dish and rolls it into a dough, and then makes the dish with spring vegetables such as mussels and white asparagus into fillings, seasoning it with Dahongpao pepper and cumin, and embellishing the 8-year-old sturgeon caviar in Kaluga. The whole taste of spring is very enjoyable.
A refreshing dessert.
The presentation of the main course and the staple food is surprising. The throat snakehead, which has been cooked for 24 hours, is fried first and then roasted. It is rich in fat and fragrant, and the meat is tender. There is sticky rice hidden in the belly of the fish, and the aroma is overflowing after biting it.
Two desserts are worth recommending, one is to make green eggplant into crisp chips, with kiwi fruits and green apples of the same color; The other one uses homemade raisins and macadamia fruit ice cream with honeydew melon, which brings the coolness and lightness of spring.
Shepherd’s purse and spring bamboo shoots restore the classic taste of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and "swallow" spring in one gulp.
Changchun location: Jichu Jitang
Features: Shanghai private cuisine, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine.
Recommended dishes: baked Taizhou bean noodles with cream crab and swordfish wonton.
Address: Floor 1, Block B, Netcom Building, No.28 Xiaoyun Road, Deshang
Shepherd’s purse is springing up.
In spring, if you want to taste the taste of the south of the Yangtze River in Beijing, I recommend going to the kitchen Jitang. In this small classical and modern restaurant, you can not only eat the thick oil red sauce of Shanghai private cuisine, but also taste the upgraded private cuisine of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Grandma’s signature dish is braised pork.
Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine is the most seasonal, and a shepherd’s purse spring bamboo shoot is very representative. Young bamboo shoots and shepherd’s purse are fried together quickly, as if swallowing the whole spring in one gulp. There is also a baked broad bean with garlic, which is also very delicious. The broad bean is soft, waxy and sweet. If you bake it with fresh garlic, you can give full play to the sweetness of the broad bean and chew it slowly, just like walking in the spring breeze. Now is the most delicious season for swordfish. A bowl of swordfish wonton makes up for the spiny regret of swordfish-the picked fish is chopped into minced meat and seasoned with a little shepherd’s purse. The dough is flexible, the stuffing is delicious and full of deep happiness.
Xiaoqinglong sea cucumber mapo tofu.
Grandma’s signature dish, braised pork, can’t be missed Pork belly is fat and thin, and after the entrance, the rich oily fragrance permeates the mouth instantly, which makes people can’t help but match a big bowl of rice. You can also choose abalone, dried bamboo shoots, eggs and other different ingredients to add according to your personal preferences. Another dish of baked bean noodles with cream crab in Taizhou should not be missed, which is an improved method of baked bean noodles with garlic in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. For northerners, it may not be suitable for the slight fishy smell of sand garlic after cooling, so the chef changed to cream crab to keep the original delicious taste, which is more in line with northerners’ preferences. There is also a small Qinglong sea cucumber Mapo tofu, which is very popular. Chop the meat from the small Qinglong together with the sea cucumber and burn it with tofu, which is more salty than ordinary Mapo tofu.
Try a cold sesame spinach to find childhood memories of spring.
Changchun Location: Chang ‘an No.1
Features: hometown flavor
Recommended dishes: sesame spinach, kung pao chicken.
Address: lobby floor of Beijing Oriental Grand Hyatt Hotel, No.1 East Chang ‘an Avenue.
Chang’ an no.1
At the beginning of April, the newly reopened Grand Hyatt Beijing Changan No.1 is like a modern teahouse. The teahouse is warm and quiet, and the open kitchen is full of fireworks. Chef Jin Qiang is an authentic Beijinger, who pays the most attention to seasonal ingredients and hometown flavor. This spring, he can taste familiar and surprising flavors here.
Sesame spinach.
In spring, we should eat sesame spinach, the specialty here. It is said that this dish was inspired by Jin Qiang’s childhood memories. In that year, my mother mixed celery leaves with old Beijing sesame sauce, vinegar and sesame oil, which became a dinner that the whole family expected. Twenty years ago, when Chang ‘an No.1 was preparing to open a menu, Jin Qiang changed the celery leaves used by his mother into spinach, covered it with a thick layer of secret sesame sauce, and specially added mustard oil, which had a strong taste and a long aftertaste. There is also an ice bowl with crispy and sweet meat, which is a creative new dish and full of surprises. Different from ordinary sweet and sour meat, the highlight of this dish lies in its crispy skin, which is very crisp. It is packed in an "ice bowl", crystal clear, hot, cold and hot, and it surprises the taste buds.
Old-fashioned fruit and wood roast duck.
Old-fashioned fruit-wood roast duck is the gold-lettered signboard of Chang ‘an No.1, which follows the traditional hanging oven roasting, and the fruit-wood adds sauce and fruit flavor. You can watch the whole roasting process of the duck through the glass curtain wall. Each roast duck is roasted continuously for about 75 minutes, and the subcutaneous fat just melts completely and penetrates into the duck meat to ensure that the duck meat is fat, delicious and tender. In addition to the traditional collocation such as shredded onion, mashed garlic, sugar, sweet noodle sauce and cucumber strips, you can also try caviar. The duck skin should be thick and served with cold caviar while it is hot. Kung pao chicken can’t be missed. The chef mixed four kinds of peppers, such as Gansu pepper and Sichuan pepper, and combined them with the original traditional cooking methods in kung pao chicken a hundred years ago. In addition to peanuts, he also added macadamia nuts, which was more subtle.
China is added to the dessert.
China elements are added to the dessert at the end, which is unique to the romance of old Beijing, including Dahongpao custard and sea buckthorn cheese spring rolls. Three flavors of ice cream, hawthorn, Wuliangye and jasmine tea, are refreshing. Self-made tea-flavored chocolate must be tasted, with Gan Mei jasmine, Jinsi Huang Ju and Pu ‘er tea flavors, which are full of creativity.
From broad beans and grass heads to shad and yellow croaker, let spring vegetables "meet" Jiang Xian.
Venue: Haojiangxuan Jiangnan Cuisine Chinese Restaurant
Features: Jiangnan Spring Cuisine
Recommended dishes: steamed shad in red soup, catfish maw in soup sauce, fresh bean paste, spring bamboo shoots and yellow fish fillets.
Address: Beijing Lijun Hotel, No.90-92 Jinbao Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Steamed shad in red soup.
In early spring, everything is born again, and Jiang Xian and Chun Cai can best reflect the charm of seasonal flavor. Beijing Lijun Hotel Haojiangxuan Jiangnan Cuisine Chinese Restaurant opened the spring menu, and mixed fresh Jiang Xian, such as shad, white fish and snakehead belly, with fresh Jiang Nan Chuncai, such as Toona sinensis, broad beans, spring bamboo shoots and grass heads, to show the delicacy endowed by nature through simple cooking techniques.
The spring menu includes Toona sinensis mixed with fresh walnuts, steamed shad in red soup, fresh bean sprouts and yellow fish fillets. Among them, shad is the highlight of delicious food in spring, which is as famous as puffer fish and swordfish. It is known as the "Three Freshness of the Yangtze River", with rich meat and fresh taste, which is the heart of many diners. The traditional cooking techniques of shad are mainly steaming or braising, and steaming in red soup is a popular cooking method in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The secret red soup with Huadiao wine has different recipes in the hands of different chefs, but all of them highlight the word "fresh". Against the background of red soup, the fish is fresh and salty, with a little bit of sweetness, and the delicious cream diffuses in the mouth, which is worth remembering all spring.
Fresh watercress, spring bamboo shoots and yellow fish fillets.
Fresh watercress, spring bamboo shoots and yellow fish fillets are also a seasonal dish. Yellow croaker is a popular ingredient in recent two years. The chef changed the yellow croaker into fillets and cooked them with fresh watercress and spring bamboo shoots. The watercress was soft and waxy, and the spring bamboo shoots were crisp and cool, which highlighted the delicacy of the yellow croaker to the extreme and filled it with spring flavor.
Braised catfish belly in soup sauce.
Braised catfish belly in soup sauce is a classic Jiangnan dish. Grass head is another name of southern alfalfa, also known as cauliflower. Every spring, grass head becomes a delicious food that cannot be missed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, because its fresh and tender days are very short, and it is only this season in a year. Although it is a wild vegetable, it is particularly precious. The cooked catfish belly, together with the tender part of the grass head cooked with hot oil, blends one meat and one vegetable in the broth, step by step, and has a unique taste.
Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter Qu Xiaoyi
Editor Jake proofreads Lin Zhao.
Photo courtesy of respondents
