An illustrated guide to pastries from Old Beijing

This week, Five Things I Ate is breaking form and sending you pictures, not text. If you’re new, check out past posts here, and please follow my Instagram @fivethingsiate.

Hello, reader!

This week’s edition of Five Things I Ate is a little different, if you haven’t already noticed. Instead of frantically writing at my desk on Friday at midnight, I’m frantically painting (nothing like a self-imposed deadline!).

Every year, my dad goes to Beijing to visit my grandma (who will be turning 100 next year!) for Lunar New Year. Each time, he brings home a red box packed to the brim with old-school Beijing pastries from 稻香村 (Dàoxiāngcūn), which is reputedly Beijing’s oldest traditional pastry shop. A lot has changed since my parents grew up in Beijing, where there were orchards and chickens and no televisions. But these cookies, my mom says, are mostly the same. Nestled in the bright red box, these cookies are as festive and symbolic as Christmas ornaments to me, and I’ve always thought they’d be fun to draw.

If you want to learn more about Dàoxiāngcūn, you can read this article, or visit the official website, which has pictures of all the pastries (that I based my drawings on). Enjoy!

Until next week,

Soph