Snack Attack: Do These Meat Pies Bring Good Luck?

Snack Attack is your weekly guide to the sometimes flavorful, sometimes smelly, sometimes odd munchies to be had in the capital.

A roubing is a good snack indeed. And while they come in a variety of sizes – from flat as a pancake to puffed and tall – Beijing is known for one roubing in particular, the Mending Roubing.

Named mending – doornail in English – for its similarity to the large ornamental doornails that decorate imperial buildings in Beijing, the pie can be traced to the Qing Dynasty. Legend has it that it was created for the Dowager Cixi herself (although it seems like she was too preoccupied with court intrigue to comment on whether she liked them or not).

The thing is, since the pies resemble imperial doornails in shape and color – they’ve usually got a golden tinge to them – and since rubbing these doornails can allegedly give one good luck, by extension eating a mending roubing can give one a bit of luck as well.

Be they lucky or not, mending roubing up the ante on meaty goodness. They’re small in stature, characterized by a thin exterior which, when bitten into, reveals an interior of ground beef and onions. It’s savory throughout, and in many ways it’s a bit like a larger version of Shanghai’s shengjian – albeit with a little less juice.

These can be found pretty much everywhere around the capital, but below is a list of three spots where you can get your mending roubing fix – and perhaps a bit of good luck as well.

Baorui Mending Roubing Shop 宝瑞门钉肉饼店
59-2 Chaoyangmen Bei Xiaojie, Dongcheng District
东城区潮阳门北小街59-2号

Baikui Old Restaurant (Jiaodaokou Branch) 白魁老号饭庄(交道口店)
158 Jiadaokou Nan Dajie, Dongcheng District
东城区交道口南大街158号

Yinji Mending Roubing (Jinsong Branch) 尹记门钉肉饼(劲松店)
210 Jinsong Second District, Jinsong Road, Chaoyang District
潮阳区劲松路二区210号

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Images: Vincent R. Vinci