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So what is Beijing cuisine? Almost every native would say--old Beijing small eats (老北京小吃).  Those can not be called cuisine, just some snacks that can fill one up.

Some snacks were for the emperor or royal family, and some were for the poor. As Marco Polo observed, the meat is eaten by the rich and upper classes. And the others, the lower orders, do not scruple to eat all sorts of unclean flesh.  

Given this,  you can easily tell which one was for the rich and which for the poor in ancient time.



Here is a menu of Old Beijing Small Eats.      


Sweet pease pudding (豌豆黄, Wan-Dough-Hwang)  

Rolling donkey (驴打滚,Lu-Da-Gung)
Ai Wo-Wo (艾窝窝,Ai-Wowo)
Candied hawthorn (冰糖葫芦, Bing-tang-hu-lu) ​
Boiled tripe(爆肚, bao-du)​
Fried sweetpotato starch (炸灌肠,Ja-Guan-Chang) ​
Fried pork liver (炒肝, Chao-gan)​
lǔ zhǔ huǒshāo (卤煮火烧, Lu-Ju-Hwuh-Shao)​
Fried wheaten pancake (褡裢火烧, Da-Lien-Hwuh-Shao)​
Mutton Skewers (羊肉串, Yang-rou-chuan)​

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