Alleyway Gourmet: Duo Wei Ju Yunnan Near Beixinqiao
Wherever you live, whatever your culinary preferences, everyone has that one restaurant that they just can’t stay away from. For most of my time in Beijing, that restaurant has been Duo Wei Ju, otherwise known fondly as the "Lime Beef Place,” a small neighborhood Yunnan-style restaurant discovered by chance within the tangle of hutongs south of Beixinqiao. Although the days when I would visit once, or even twice, a week are far behind me, if the walls of Duo Wei Ju’s private room could talk, they would recount birthdays, parties to welcome new arrivals, and my first taste of baijiu.
Through the years of emotional highs and lows, the food, at least, has remained mercifully consistent. Every visit entails at least one order of the stir-fried beef with lime and chili (the inspiration behind our not-so-creative nickname, RMB 42), its zingy flavors a breath of fresh air for taste buds accustomed to heavy northern cuisine. The deep-fried shredded potato pancake (RMB 20) is always crisp, the quick-fried shredded tofu skin (RMB 22) always packs an umami-laden punch.
Viewing the place with a critical eye, one might have to grudgingly point out that the decor is uninspiring, that the service hovers somewhere between “giggling” and “bored” (the waitresses have been known to snap pictures of us with their camera phones), or even that the Yunnan dishes are not as sophisticated or authentic as those from nearby restaurants such as Yun’er Xiaozhen or Dali Renjia. Why then has it remained a favorite for so long? As former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni puts it: “What you have with a restaurant that you visit once or twice is a transaction. What you have with a restaurant that you visit over and over is a relationship.”
In a world where relationships (and restaurants) come and go, that is something to be savored.
Duo Wei Ju
Daily 9am-9pm. 1 Zhongjianzi Xiang, Fuxue Hutong, Dongcheng District (6406 5305)
多味居：东城区府学胡同中剪子巷1号
Photo: Mitchell Pe Masilun
