Best Halal Restaurants in Beijing: 10 Local Muslim Food Spots Worth Trying (Segment 3 of 3)
Summary: This guide to the best halal restaurants in Beijing keeps the original list of local Muslim food spots, Hui Muslim food, and practical halal dining details.



A Tianjin halal shaved ice and steamed pancake (zhengbing) shop called Guxiangzhai has opened at Hufangqiao. Since the weather is getting warmer lately, many people are coming to eat shaved ice. For my first visit, I chose the traditional-style shaved ice. It contains sour hawthorn paste (suanmogao), red hawthorn fruit, dried apricots, strawberries, mulberries, pineapple, orange, fresh apricots, and red beans. It actually has more ingredients than the truly traditional version, and it is mainly sweet and sour to whet your appetite. Sour hawthorn paste (suanmogao) is the soul of Tianjin traditional shaved ice. It is made by grinding dried wild sour jujubes into powder and boiling it with rock sugar. You can buy large blocks of sour hawthorn paste (suanmogao) at the entrance of the archway of the South Mosque (Nandasi) in the Northwest Corner. It also tastes great when mixed directly with water.
Their dinosaur egg three-apricot shaved ice is also a signature item. It contains Kashgar Hami apricots, Yengisar Saimaiti red apricots, Aksu Situan dried apricots, and secret-recipe preserved fruit made from wild hawthorn from Shanxi. It sounds very good.
They also sell various snacks. We bought a steamed pancake (zhengbing) with a red hawthorn filling, which is sweet and sour and perfect for breakfast. It is a pity that the rice cakes (gaogan) were sold out, so I bought a rice cake (migao) with a sour hawthorn paste flavor. It was a bit dry, but the taste was still good. I also bought a snack called "five blacks," which contains black rice, black beans, black mulberries, black goji berries, and black sesame seeds. It sounds very healthy.