Beijing Food Walks #2: Sihuan Market

This giant market, one of the city's best for fruit, veg, meat, and local color, lies well and truly hidden amongst hutongs just off Deshengmen Nei, to the west of Houhai Lake. Folks who shops here call it Sihuan Market after the hutong that encircles it, even though the signs says Rundeli Cai Shichang (润得立菜市场).

Entering Sihuan Hutong from Deshengmen Nei, walk past several small butchers (keep a look out for a guy barbecuing big hunks of seasoned lamb), under the main market arch and into the market proper. To the right is a separate covered section for rices and grains, and straight ahead, more fruit and vegetables than in your wildest, fruitiest dreams. Super fresh, cheap and with lots of marked prices too, making haggling fairly unnecessary. Some market basics: almost everything is bought by the jin - 500grams, apart from stuff like spices which might be sold by the liang - 50grams.

Once you're taken your fill of the fresh produce, you'll get to the spices, nuts, dried fungus etc. You'll also notice tea on the more prominent stalls, with signs in English. This presents a bit of a problem for waiguoren - increasingly, tour groups pass through the market so prices quoted for "gift" type things like tea and Sichuan peppercorns can be downright insulting. Your best bet is to seek out the stallholders at the far back end. Shop around, and if prices seem OK, log that person in your memory and come back every time. Build a rapport, innit.

At the south side of the market, a 50 meter long, east-west run of little glassed-in stalls sells all sorts of ready-to-eat snacks like these excellent youtiao, fried pork buns, every variety of Chinese bread, fresh noodles, tofu and more.

There's lots of sweet things too. Mmmm. Where's my cup of tea?

It's also a choice spot to pick up home-made sesame oil and sesame paste. You can see the stallholders grinding the seeds in the back. It makes a nice foodie gift for someone back home.

Hungry? Worth stopping by at little jianbing stall for a snack. They have several types of batter - I'm a fan of the zimi - purple rice.

Note the non-standard crispy wafer thing in the middle. It seems to make the finished bing crunchier, lighter and and less oily.

When you reach the end of the run of snack stalls, you'll come to a small entrance that leads you into the meat and fish market with about 50 lots selling lamb, beef, pork, chicken and seafood.

You can pick up chicken carcasses (RMB 3-6) for your stock pot, and all manner of porky off-cuts too. Leaving by the other door, you can exit the market at its west end which takes you onto the north-south running Luoer Hutong, itself a thriving food street with lots of delicious discoveries to make, like fresh-baked Xinjiang bread and Peking duck to name a couple. Xinjiekou Subway Station (Line 4) is a 5 minute walk due west, or you can head north on to Xinjiekou Dong Jie.