(That's Beijing)
Updated: 2007-12-10 11:45

If you aren’t taking advantage of 2 kuai subway trips like everybody else, then you’re missing out. Filled with incredible natural heating produced by human bodies, there’s no better way to escape Beijing’s cold than the cheap-as-chuan’r subway.

The subway is the sole efficient transportation for getting to “The West Side,” where some of the best southern Chinese food can be found.

The tiny Fujianese eateries sprouts next to the tea shops and looked out for the nondescript front door to Madam Jiang’s Wuyishan Nongjiacai in Maliandao, the tea street. You need to take off at Changchunjie if you go by subway. This unruly hole-in-the-wall serves up platters of typical home cooking from Wuyishan, a region in Fujian famed for tea and breathtaking natural scenery.

Madam Jiang has adapted the recipe for Wuyishan-style smoked goose to suit Beijing’s ducks, and prepares it in the restaurant’s modest kitchen. After rubbing the duck thoroughly in her mix of spices, she heats glutinous rice granules in a wok and smokes the duck over the roasting rice. The result is lean meat with a distinctly sweet and aromatic smokiness that is fruitier than regular wood smoking.

Other humble ingredients are transformed into delicacies, such as taro and Chinese yam (shanyao). Baby taro is first steamed then stir-fried with meat to bring out its natural gooiness. The result is tender, moist taro that is a bit slippery, like ochre. The shanyao is made into a viscous porridge-like soup, but its appearance belies how light it is on the stomach. Flavored with plenty of mushrooms and pork, it is addictively pungent.

The black preserved bamboo is a must-try. Sliced thin and stir fried with little more than garlic and ginger, the bamboo is crisp and slightly sweet, reminiscent of apples.

After the meal, you'd head back to the tea shops to sample Wuyishan’s best oolong teas to aid our digestion.

Wuyishan Nongjiacai

Location: Maliandao Hutong (enter from Maliandao Lu and walk about 300m), Xuanwu District Tel: 131 2669 6251