Breakfast at Beijing

Staying at a dormitory wasn’t such a big deal after all. Foremost among my concerns was the security of my stuff. The hostel provides lockers to keep valuables, but I didn’t end up using them. I didn’t have any valuables with me, so I would litter my stuff all over my bed for the duration of my stay in Beijing. For some reason, my dorm mates would sleep quite early in the night, they were all asleep at around 10:30pm, which made it a little difficult to move around in the dark. Try climbing up the top bunk of a double decker bed in the dark with a lot of stuff below, not very easy.

My first night was very refreshing since I was very tired from the journey I had, I decided to take it a little slow that morning, waking up at around eight in the morning. By then, most of my dorm mates had already left. I walked back to Ghost street to see if there is anything for breakfast. I spotted this small little shop selling what I would call dumplings. The store specializes in Hangzhou 杭州 style dumplings, I decided to give it a try.

Fortunately, I was very conservative in my ordering since the orders were quite substantial. I ordered a favorite of mine called xiaolongbao which is normally a piece of meat with a thin skin containing a little soup. However, it would seem that the Hangzhou version of xiaolongbao doesn’t contain any soup at all. I was quite disappointed with that. Apparnetly, I only knew the Shanghai version of xiaolongbao. The Hangzhou version is more like small steamed buns with meat inside of them.

I also ordered another dish which is basically dumplings, fried with egg. It was an interesting twist to a familiar dish and it was also good. The staff had a great time looking at me since I was busy taking photos of their food. They had several racks of handmade dumplings ready for steaming. They also have noodles for people who are sick of dumplings. Although this is not really Beijing style food, I still loved it.

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