What's New Restaurants: Soup Kitchen
Comfort food is, by necessity, a very personal thing. More often than not, it has everything to do with past experiences and nothing to do with food. However, some dishes have the ability to go beyond cultural and personal boundaries. A soup brewed long and slow; a tender meat braise; dishes with plain, fresh flavors.
Comfort food is where petite Wudaoying restaurant Soup Kitchen excels. The regularly changing, handwritten menu focuses on dishes that wouldn’t look out of place on a Chinese grandmother’s dining table. On the night we visited we swooned over a dish of tomato braised pork ribs (RMB 68), cooked for so long that the meat fell from the bone at the merest glance of a chopstick. A flash-fried dish of corn, pine kernels and green beans (RMB 36) made us long for the patience to chop such uniform chunks of bean.
One thing that doesn’t change – the organic purple rice (RMB 8), whose nutty flavor is a welcome change from the usual rice cooker spoils. Like the food, the dining room is homely without the chintz that crowds so many hutong restaurants. For those of us living away from our own creature comforts, Soup Kitchen brings an unexpected slice of contentment.
Also try: Drum and Gong Fusion Restaurant, Xiao Wang Fu
Wed-Mon noon-10pm. 29 Wudaoying Hutong, Dongcheng District (8402 8729)
汤厨: 东城区五道营胡同29号
200m southwest of Yonghegong Station (Lines 2 and 5)
Photo: Ken
