About Royal and Imperial Cuisine

Just like the capital’s culture, Beijing cuisine has absorbed and been influenced by many of the flavours of China’s regions.

Chinese cuisine in general has the four distinct regional cooking styles of Sichuan (Chuan) to the West, Canton (Cantonese) to the South, Shangdong (Lu) to the East  and Jiangsu (Huaiyang) to the North and the cuisine of Beijing brings together these contrasting styles.

In Beijing you can find menus from around the world including Spanish, French and Italian restaurants that are well-established, and Japanese, Indian and Thai outlets, that are also very popular with local Beijingers.

About Royal Cuisine (Gong Ting Cai)

As the name suggests, Royal Cuisine is composed of the recipes and dishes of the imperial kitchens, from the time of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

This cuisine originates from the regional cooking of the Manchu and Han people and pays as much attention to the quality of its ingredients as to design. Dishes that have survived retain much of the culinary art of the royal kitchens and the best known are Tanjia and Honglou dishes, both lightly-flavored and exquisite.

The Man-Han Quan Xi, a feast of complete Manchu-Han courses, was originally designed as a court banquet for the Manchu and Han people. It included at least 108 dishes that had to be eaten over three days.

About Imperial Cuisine (Guan Fu)

Old Beijing had many high-ranking officials who made demands for regional homemade cooking to be served in the imperial courts. The result was to bring the flavours of the regions to the capital, and much of it has still survived. The cuisine favours natural ingredients, exquisite condiments, long cooking times and very intricate cooking utensils.

Tanjia Restaurant is the best example of Beijing’s Imperial Cuisine and also provides a combination of Cantonese and Beijing dishes that feature seafood. After the founding of the Republic, Premier Zhou Enlai asked that the restaurant move to the Beijing Hotel, the best hotel in China at that time. Imperial Cuisine is still available today on the seventh floor of Building C of the hotel.

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Tips

• Restaurants in Beijing usually do not require tips or a service charge. Some expensive restaurants will charge 15% service.
• Opening times usually 11am-2pm and 5pm-10pm
• Menus written in Chinese, so be warned: bring a friendly translator!!
• Do not worry about getting the chopsticks right first time: practice not perfection!!
• Do observe some of the taboos associated with eating in China.