Alleyway Gourmet: Niu Jie Muslim Food Palace

In Beijing's Hui Muslim district, the Niu Jie Islamic Supermarket is a stronghold of northwest dining. Everything from dumplings to sticky rice cakes to noodles and baked bread.

Up on the second floor, visitors obtain a purchasing card to pay for dishes at any of about a dozen vendors, all doing a brisk trade in Hui Muslim snacks.

These niu rou guan tang bao (RMB 5), Northwest style soup dumplings, were selling by the steamer load on our visit. Delicious but scaldingly hot.

Our handsome bunched dumplings, niu rou shao mai (RMB 10), were on the salty side, but unquestionably tasty.

Despite the large number of individual vendors crammed into the food court, most are selling the same things. This means it's definitely worth shopping around to find the best examples - or asking other diners.

This clear soup of sheep organs - yang za tang (RMB 7) - came alive with a big spoonful of sesame paste and some aromatic coriander and chilli on top.

And the beef rou bing (RMB 6) here were first class, though difficult to eat - especially with chopsticks. Not to say that a bit of grease on the chin is a bad thing.

For the sweet of tooth, there's an enormous selection of cakes and pastries downstairs. This stall was a bit of a kid magnet, each rice cake colored naturally with ground rice, bean or corn into a range of cute designs.

Centuries ago, it was the bustling beef and mutton stalls that gave Niu Jie its name. Up to just a few years ago you would have found many more of these kinds of vendors at street level. Moving them here ensures a future of sorts, but food courts are not exactly big on atmosphere. But with the wrecking ball ever swinging, us Beijingers better get used to them.

Niu Jie Muslim Supermarket, 1 West Beikou, Niu Jie, Xuanwu District (8355 5734)