Eat Exploding Stomach, Chinese Orthodox Baodu

Have you ever heard of Baodu? Baodu can be translated to “exploding stomach” in English. It is cooked in boiling water, and mixed with seasoning. The taste is crisp and delicious.

Today, Menkuang Hutong is a nondescript lane lined with short, shabby bungalows. However, passersby will often counter a long line of people waiting at a restaurant there: Baodu Feng. In Beijing dialect, baodu (a Beijing snack made of lamb and cow tripe) is pronounced as baodu’er.

In the past, the snack was a delicacy popular with Beijing’s poorer residents. Fresh cow or lamb tripe is cleaned and cut into strips and then quick-boiled in hot water. It is eaten with a special sauce and tastes tender, chewy and delicious. At the Start of Autumn (one of the 24 Solar Terms in Chinese calendar), queue up for a bowl of baodu at Baodu Feng Restaurant. Since the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the snack has been known as a delicacy especially suited for autumn.

Copyright: SKETCHES OF CLASSIC BEIJING, China Pictorial Press

Photo/IC