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The special delicacies of the imperial palace are delicious foods,
which are cooked according to the recipe of the imperial kitchen
of the Qing Dynasty. In Beijing, there are two restaurants that
keep the genuine way of cooking from the imperial kitchen:
Tingliguan (the Hall for listening to Orioles) Restaurant and
Fangshan (Imitation Imperial) Restaurant.
¡¡¡¡Tingliguan is on the northern shore of Kunming Lake in the
Summer Palace, with the Long Corridor to the front, and Longevity
Hill to the rear. In front of it there is a theatre. Tingliguan
used to be a place where the emperors and empresses enjoyed operas
and concerts. The beautiful sound of music was likened to the
beautiful sound of the oriole, hence the name Tingliguan. The
restaurant¡¯s famous dishes include living fish from Kunming
Lake, prawn rolls with fried bread, lotus seeds in syrup, etc.
¡¡![[ ]](room6.jpg) ¡¡Fangshan
Restaurant is located in Beihai Park. It is in the Yilantang (the
Hall by the Rippling Lake) building, in a section called
Daoningzhai (an imperial study). When Beihai Park was opened to
the public in 1925, Zhao Renqi, who used to work in the palace,
invited a few chefs who used to cool in the royal kitchen to open
a teahouse on the northern shore of Beihai Park. They imitated and
elaborated prepared all kinds of refreshments, the kinds which
used to be served in the palace. That is why the name Fangshan was
given. It was moved to the present place in 1959.
¡¡¡¡Apart from elaborately-made desserts, such as rolls of
kidney bean flour, mashed peas cake, steamed cakes of chestnut
flour, sesame-seed cakes with meat filling etc., the restaurant
also serves unique dishes cooked from royal recipes, such as sweet
and sour prawn in the shape of a Buddha, stuffed mandarin fish,
¡°brooding chicken¡±etc.
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