... and salt, and MSG. Cantonese Da Pai Dang (大排档) is supposed to stick-to-your-ribs greasy satisfaction, but the Chaoyang Park west gate branch takes oily saltiness to a whole new extreme. The rice casserole we had was essentially a pot of dried out rice smothered in super salty soy sauce with some tepid animal parts thrown in, while the bi feng tang fried beef (deep fried in a bed of fried garlic mash) and fried yellow croaker were so salty, my tongue feels like it's been coated in varnish.
To top it all off, we found a plastic brad ("oh it must have been from the frozen fish packaging," explained the manager non-chalantly) in our fish.
The wait staff are a morose, catatonic bunch dressed in drab blue prison uniforms with the attitudes to match.
This place is popular from what I can tell, but more likely because of the rarity of this type of Cantonese cuisine in Beijing than the actual quality of the food. My Guangdong ancestors are rolling their eyes in their graves.
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