Tried a Cannon Burger last week at their newly opened Xingfucun store. They get so much of the experience just right. Counter service. Milkshake machine. Simple menu and a great burger. It's in the top three of my favorite burgers in the city. I’m partial to thin patties (my favorite remains the cheeseburger at Great Leap Brewing #12) and Cannon's are right in my wheelhouse.
Their beer tap was broken when I was there but I understand they have it working now. Minor recommendation: Would love it if they played a nice “roadside diner soundtrack” to fit the décor: A little 1950s rock & roll, some 1960s soul, perhaps a bit of old-school country?
Pizza Cup is coming up and so it’s time for my annual plea to the pizza purveyors of Peking: If you really like your pie, please add more sauce. Not a little, a lot. Add some right now – if you think it’s enough, you’re wrong. Please add another spoonful. There, was that so hard?
Speaking of pizza, Pizza Saporita is currently my go-to slice and at least once a month we order either a Margherita Pizza or the Spicy Super Pizza as a base and then load it up with toppings. They still don’t use enough sauce for my taste but it’s still good.
Not as sure though about the delivery. We use Sherpas and probably shouldn’t. First, they don’t know how to deliver a pizza. Half the toppings are invariably decorating the inside cover of the box. Second, Sherpas gives you an automated “Your order is downstairs" phone call when the food arrives, which is nice, but what inevitably happens is that I head down the elevator while the delivery guy, tired of waiting, heads up to my apartment. Then we switch places. Every time.
Last week, Washington Post published one of those “72 hours in Beijing” articles that travel journalists love to write. This one was better than most with shout-outs to a few excellent local businesses (including the good folks at Bespoke Beijing, Beijing Hikers, and Beijing Postcards).
Her description of the Forbidden City, though, was rough:
Skip the Forbidden City. This is one instance where if you’ve seen the pictures, you’ve seen enough. The vast expanse of unshaded pavement means it’s blazing hot in the summer, bitter cold in the winter and perpetually full of shoving, screaming tourists. The buildings are mostly empty.
It’s not an entirely unfair characterization … if you enter the palace and then just march straight down the middle in the wake of all the other tour groups. But of all the sites in Beijing, the Palace Museum has done the most work in recent years to upgrade the visitor experience. Over the past 18 months, several new areas have been opened to the public, allowing visitors to walk along the outer walls of the palace and explore lush, green gardens where the material culture of empresses and princes has been meticulously recreated. If you haven’t been there recently, give it another chance. Note that Beijing Postcards and (shameless plug!) Beijing by Foot both offer public and private walks of the palace.
Of all the sorry ass excuses one hears for bricking up hutong businesses, restoring the historic character of Beijing’s inner city neighborhoods is the most ludicrous. Many of these lanes were once thriving commercial centers with market stalls, street vendors, and stores. Moreover, if the government is serious about preserving the historic character of these spaces why not take the obvious step of making them pedestrian-only, or at the very least ban motorized vehicles? How about simply making them one-way?
Finally, notice this week is approaching peak mosquito season. Lots of slapping and scratching in the hutongs. On a related note, the CCP announced that the 19th Party Congress will begin on October 18th this year (about two weeks earlier than usual). For those who haven’t had the pleasure of living in Beijing during “Party Season,” just know that your VPNs will start to funk up around October 11 and that the middle of October might be a really good time to go visit your college buddy slumming it in Phnom Penh.
Photos: Uni You, Mary Kate White, blog.airpaz.com, hdnux.com