Ming Tsai finds some good eating in Beijing

BEIJING - As I was looking from my room at the ultramodern Grand Hyatt across the street to the Beijing Union Medical College Hospital, where both my parents were born in the 1920s, I thought about how much China has changed in the last 30 years (the first time I visited). Yet there is a constant - the obsession with food. There are many more Western/modern restaurants; Legation Quarter (www.legationquarter.com), a luxury district, just opened with three such: Maison Boulud, from the chef of New York's Restaurant Daniel; Ristorante Sadler, with a Milanese chef; and Shiro Matsu, serving Japanese fare. But the traditional eateries are all still around, plentiful and dirt cheap: the Peking duck houses, the incredible street food, the noodle and dumpling shops. Some food for thought when ordering on the street - always ask what something costs before consumption. At a cart at the bottom of the Great Wall, my wife, Polly, Blue Ginger chef de cuisine Jon Taylor, and I ordered these fantastic egg-scallion crepe roll-ups at 5 renminbi, or RMB, each (about 80 cents). As we ate, sitting on plastic stools and complimenting our server on the taste, the lady graciously offered coffee. We consumed all, and at payment, the watery instant coffees were 20 RMB each! With our negotiating position compromised, we acquiesced and paid. Lesson 1 learned.

The first night in Beijing was quite expensive and undeniably memorable. We had a fantastic meal at Din Tai Fung (www.dintaifung.com.cn), eating mini soup dumplings - hot broth-filled explosions in your mouth - with tender, fatty pork; hairy crab roe and tofu; and egg fried rice - lighter-than-air rice with crunchy scallions and fluffy eggs, a childhood favorite of mine. Dinner was $90. (The "quite expensive" part comes later.) We then cabbed it to the hotel, and three blocks away, asked the driver to stop to get a case of water. I jumped out, but then we decided to just walk back. It was a beautiful night, we were full and happy and wanted to extend the festivities. Bought water, paid cab, went on our way. Long story short, I left my bag in the cab: two cameras, two iPods, cash, and passport. The evening was definitely extended, as I didn't sleep all night! Next morning was spent at the embassy. While waiting for a new passport, I went to a local hole in the wall (I can always eat, even under duress) and had live (they go right from tank to pan) spicy crab and live ginger-scallion shrimp. So, dinner $1,500, passport $150, lunch $12. It was a good trend.

That night we went to Xi He Ya Ju (www.xhyj.net), a Sichuan restaurant, where we knew we were in for some serious heat. We started with very good Peking duck - lacquered skin, fragrant meat, and a mini Lazy Susan of condiments. Other highlights: ma la clay pot pork; stir-fried thin slices of pork liver and bell peppers; spicy duck intestines and gizzards, lightly wokked with ginger, garlic, and chilies; bowl of baby eels and garlic; hot mustard duck webs - just what it sounds like, crunchy with nasal-clearing heat; and the best-ever he zi bing - the hockey-puck-shaped dumpling was crispy outside, with bright-green garlic and rich scrambled eggs on the inside.

Next day we had tasty fast food: spicy fried pork in a chili broth with soft egg noodles, served within two minutes and just $2 each. Followed by a stroll to Wang Fu Jing night market. A very clean market, health certificates were hanging up (the Wellesley Health Department would approve), everything served on a stick: candied fruit; crayfish; squid; silkworms; and fried scorpions - I had seconds on these nutty-crunchy nuggets. We then had our best meal in Beijing at Made in China (www.beijing.grand.hyatt.com), in our own Grand Hyatt: fat-free Peking duck - perfect, crisp skin, super-moist meat; ma la lamb in iron pot - spicy lamb slices with yellow chives, perfectly balanced; Chinese long beans tossed with crunchy ground pork; and pot stickers with flour net - we watched them add a flour-water mixture during the cooking process that produced this crunchy dome lattice over the pot stickers - simply amazing. We also had sweet and spicy pine nut crispy fish (I devoured the head for the cheeks and eyes) and a cumin lamb quesadilla called xianbing, super-crunchy with an almost Mexican-tasting filling. Lesson 2: Drink local. One bottle of New Zealand Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc, $120; two best-ever Peking ducks, $70.

Breakfast of champions: We had dumplings for breakfast the next day, made to order, filled with garlic chives and pork. Note: The locals next to us each ate eight to 10 cloves of raw garlic with their dumplings. Lesson 3: If one at the table eats garlic, all must!

For an afternoon snack we had go-bu-li-baozi, which literally means "Not even dogs would eat them." Simply delicious. Handmade tender dumplings with gingered pork, ruff-ruff! That night we had the spiciest Sichuan hot pot, with lots to dip: bright-red congealed duck blood - only a touch of gamey flavor, like eating butter; lamb; pork terrine slices - like Chinese Spam; hand-pulled noodles - the waiter literally did a ribbon dance pulling the noodles, complete with 360s and head fakes; slimy yet crunchy mountain yams; house-made tofu; and enoki mushrooms.

The next day was Olympian: Saw Michael Phelps (the only thing he and I have in common is our 12,000-calorie diet!) get his sixth gold, then ate a room-temp hot dog in a bag while watching the American gymnasts get gold and silver. We had Peking duck again that night at the Peninsula (not quite as good as Made in China) and a very good kung bao ji ding - crunchy, salty peanuts with huge dried chilies and tofu-tender dark chicken; and pork belly and yellow chives. Then, on Sunday, we flew to Shanghai and had our first taste of home, Peking duck pizza. Lesson 4: Stick to the original. Peace and good eating.

Ming Tsai is the chef/owner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley and the host and executive producer of PBS's "Simply Ming."