The Mei Zhou Dong Po

Supreme braised Dong Po pork

MANILA, Philippines -- It had been a rather long and bumpy ride having to brave an incoming typhoon as we crossed the China Sea and arrived past midnight in Beijing. We were at the Marco Polo Parkside hotel for a Philippine Food promotion and this rather new and modern area called Yayuncun had a visible strip of restaurants that was fully lighted and was teeming with parked cars.

We checked out every resto braving the language barrier but the moment we got to the front of this place that displayed an array of plaques and citations (even in Chinese), we knew that this would be our Beijing welcome and the immediate need to satisfy the hungry cravings of four weary traveling chefs was at hand.

The place is named after Zhou Dong Po, one of the China’s most revered poets and gourmands. Methods and dishes especially for pork are dedicated to this connoisseur and we later found out that this place had branches all over the city and was serving Sichuan cuisine.

We were lucky enough to have come into one of their biggest and most well rated branches, but astonishingly enough, the food was well presented on their menu with English descriptions, and vividly luscious photos even if the staff could hardly speak English. But this was a place, that we wanted. No tourist! Just the locals who want to have a good time drinking and eating after midnight.

Though the place had a great selection of seafood and fresh water fish in the various acquaria, we decided to stick to the Sichuan and specialty selections. It was difficult to choose from a vast menu that read like a novel, but our past midnight feast started with what they called Beef lungs in chili sauce which was actually a mix of delicate and thinly sliced ox tongue, tripe tendon, scalp and heart in a spicy infused oil-based sauce. The texture of this cold dish contrasted with the light delicious burn from the sauce and the freshness of slivered leeks and chives.

This arrived with a dish Gino had spotted that tickled our curiosity which was a smoked duck that had cured, hammy, rich, fermented flavors being preserved in salt but also hinted of its fragrant smoking medium. It was reminiscent of camphorwood and tea leaves. The duck had very crisp skin and was tasty enough, needing no sauce. Of course, we had been pairing this off with gulps of Yan Jing fresh beer, a domestic brand that has several variants. This particular one had a light fresh clean taste much like a lager with hints of fruit acid that worked with the fatty or oily dishes and also the house offerings that had some high spice.

The next plate to arrive was of fried duck intestines in spicy sauce that had two kinds of crunches coming also from a topping of quick sautéed soy bean sprouts. A Braised Dong Po sliced Pork, which is a traditional Sichuan dish had a bed of fresh and preserved vegetables, and melted in the mouth from very careful and slow braising absorbing all the spices, wine, and aromatics.

We ordered another round this time of a Yan Jing draft that had a richer, fruitier, and yeastier appeal. This rounded out a savoury dish of steamed organic egg that was flan like and smooth on the palate topped with fermented dark bean paste and garlic. We tried three kinds of cold noodle dishes popular in Beijing, a hot sour rice noodle made of tasty shrimp base with clear soft noodles; Buckwheat with minced pork done in hot  Sichuan style in a mushroom base, and cold noodles with sesame sauce that was smokey, woody and had a dark sesame sauce that was almost coffee like.

Having been only the first night and being totally happy of the dishes we ordered, we made a pact that we had to come back to this place to try the rest of the Sichuan specialties.

It didn’t take us long because we did come back two nights after and a couple of nights before we left, bringing our new found Pinoy friends who were residents from other districts and did not know this chain existed. Our great favorites on those nights were the Yashiang shredded pork, another famous Sichuan dish with  pork sliced into noodle-like shreds and coated with a sweet, spicy vinegary glaze stir fried with young ginger pickled pepper and garlic.

This contrasted with dried country style tofu where little tiles of dark soy, marinated tofu with their fine meaty texture and flavor are stir fried with large slices of garlic and vegetable stalks.

Another contrasting dish to the Sichuan heat was steamed lotus root cake with sweet sticky rice that’s hot and savoury, like rice fitting in a sweet reddish syrup stuffed on crunchy segments of lotus root. As the dishes came in, our Yan Jing “fresh beer” started to flow as we toasted to the next volley of spiced duck tongues, an excellent supreme braised Dong Po pork, using the technique of the gourmet pact preserving the sweetness of the fat with the crunchy Pakchoy in its spicy steamy sauce that was screaming for a steamed bun or the same meat that enveloped glutinous rice cooked in meat juices.

The shredded duck with bean curd sticks was actually thin, noodle-like strips of duck intestines tossed with noodle-shaped tofu that had delicious al dente texture in a smoky, roasted complex, and aromatic chili oil dressing with shredded bamboo shoots.

Their shredded pork style dish Yashiang was such a delight that we ordered another variant, this time coated in a savoury bean sauce. The last two dishes arrived as our final orders as we were to consume our final pouring of the Beijing tipple. A pristine cold chicken steeped in rice wine and served with very cold cucumber was absolutely refreshing as was a stir fried vegetable dish with geoduck that had the delicious briny sea flavors with its crunchy textures on its muscular foot muscles.

Overall, this particular large outlet of this group of restaurants was truly a gem during our stay in Beijing. It truly is a place worth dreaming about, even recommending to friends, and coming back to because of the wonderful range and choices it provides the diner even in the wee hours of the morning…