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Alluring Additive-free Dishes at Tai Pan

Few of Beijing's Chinese restaurants can match Tai Pan for its simple home-from-home coziness and "pure" food. If any restaurant could be de-scribed as environmentally "green", this is it. Its chefs use little oil and salt, and are dedicated to producing dishes whose ingredients retain their original fresh, earthy flavor.

Along with its main eating area, Tai Pan offers numerous private rooms of different size and whose decoration is a throwback to the reddish-brown style of old. The main restaurant's atmosphere is enhanced by a small bridge over a stocked fish pool, and more calligraphy just to remind diners where they are--in what at least passes as home-from-home.

The Shark's Fin and Abalone are strictly sans additives, likewise the cholesterol-free "Magic Mushrooms" which are claimed to be extremely nutritious. Also not to be missed is the Abalone Juice (baozhilingzhigu). Other delicacies include Taro and Fat Pork (xiangyukourou) in which strips of both ingredients are surprisingly grease-free. The Chicken Soup, further flavored by cabbage heart (jinzhenguyinxueyu), is sweet but extra-nutritious. Another popular signature dish is Cod and Straw Mushroom Soup (jinzhenguyinxueyu), said to be a great tonic. Tai Pan also offers an excellent choice of home-made pastries.