Beijing food for foreign students

[keith]

What's the food like for those foreign students living in Beijing?

Do most of you eat in canteens or do you prefer to cook for yourself at home?

Are supermarkets in Beijing plentiful? And are they very different from the ones in the West/Europe?

[Lu]

In the time I spent in China I have only cooked for myself once. I don't like cooking, and am not very good at it, and apart from the fact that Chinese, even cantina food, tastes great, it costs the same as when you cook yourself.

[Jo-Ann]

OK if I bring this old thread up? I'm recently registered and am still looking at old posts.

This topic interested me as I (as an adult) studied Chinese a couple of times (6-week intensive courses) in Beijing. The first time I lived on campus( Beijing Language Institute) and ate in the cafeteria. The food was not bad and sometimes even fantastic. I've kept food logs in all my travels to China, so I can see what I ate day-to-day. There were always choices, and if you didn't want Chinese food, there were Western selections. Breakfast eggs were GREASY, and the coffee was awful, but that was back in '85, so things may have changed.

The 2nd time ('93) I stayed in a Chinese Hotel and the classes were at the Beijing Int, Business and Econ Univ. I ate in local mom/pop places mostly and lots of both good and bad street food. Both street food and all the small restaurants were very inexpensive, and no matter where or what I ate, I never got sick.

Because this was a while ago, the supermarket may be better than they were then.

[madizi]

Yes, that's what I like in China. No matter what kind of (street) restaurant it is, you always eat very, very tasteful food. Yummy!!!!

[geek_frappa]

how about mexican food in beijing? is that popular?

[xuechengfeng]

Anybody have a figure of how much American money you would spend per day on food there?

[roddy]

Mexican food - I wouldn't say it's popular. There are a few Mexican restaurants scattered around, though I've only been once or twice and wasn't massively impressed.

As for how much eating would cost in $US - it's really up to you, how much do you want to spend?

I can spend 2Y on breakfast baozi, 5Y on a lunch of beef noodles and 12Y on a sit-down restaurant meal for dinner - so that's under $3, and you wouldn't need to feel hungry.

Alternatively, you can have a Subway-type breakfast (35Y), a fast food lunch (20Y) and pizza for dinner (say 50Y) and get through $12 pretty easily.

And if you REALLY want to get through your cash, let me know when you get here and I'll 'help' you spend it all . . .

Roddy

[Billyboy]

Yes, there IS good Mexican food in Beijing and it's very close to Beijing University and BLCU and Qinghua. The name is Nina, it's on the main road between Beijing University and the Wudaokou subway station. Lots of us foreign students and teachers go there. I have eaten there many times, and I usually spend about 50 yuan, so it's much cheaper than the over-priced restaurants downtown with fake Mexican food. The owner is an American.