By Ye Jun (Beijing Weekend)
Updated: 2007-11-29 10:45

At Mao's table At Golden Yan'an, you can have a taste of what Chairman Mao Zedong and the other first generation leaders of the People's Republic of China had for dinner. Yan'an, in northern Shaanxi, was the revolutionary base of the Communist Party of China before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It is also the destination of the Long March. It was basically where CPC grew strong enough to win the Liberation War. Therefore Yan'an is considered a revolutionary mecca, although it has been a financially lacking area. Many Chinese customers are attracted to the eatery because of curiosity about its origin.

Golden Yan'an's new Fengtai branch joins its first outlet at Dongsi Nandajie. The dcor and food are Northwestern China countryside style. Waitresses wear shirt coats decorated with small white flowers on a blue background, and waiters wear sheepskin waistcoats and a towel knotted on their heads.

Most of the rooms are small and built according to what was called a "cave house", once popular in the region. There is a low table on a paved bed built with grey brick. Window frames are dotted with typical golden and bright red colors.

The food is very much countryside style, with vegetable based dishes such as dry bean curd slices with green beans, mountain wild vegetables platter, and mashed potatoes with pieces of cabbages.

Mutton, potato and millet are some of the most important ingredients in Yan'an cuisine. There is the omnipresent mutton soup with soaked pieces of steamed cake. Tasty and warming, the dish is served with chili sauce, coriander and preserved garlic. Fried potato slices wrapped in flour with pork is an award-winning dish at the restaurant, served in a miniature winnow made of bean stalk.

The restaurant's millet cake basket is a must-try. It has steamed millet buns, deep-fried millet cake, and millet donut in it. The millet cakes are soft and glutinous, deep-fried and wonderful tasting. Also try their millet wine, a yellow liquid that is sweet, fragrant, and a bit thick.

Other dishes we recommend are braised pork ribs capped with steamed millet  (it is a bit oily, but the millet absorbs the grease) and fried free-range eggs with dried beans. The cave house rooms are divided into two smaller rooms. We found the outer room warmer because it has heating on one of the walls. Two Yan'an singers, one male one female, sing local songs and ballads for 20 yuan per song. One of their best is a duet between the shepherd and his lover. The place is a bit difficult to find. The menu is presently all in Chinese, and waiting staff are all from Shaanxi. Average spending is 40 yuan per person.

Location: East of the road, 300m south of The 3rd Military Police Hospital, Xiaotun Lu, Zhengchangzhuan, Fengtai District
Tel: 010-6869-7898