Going with the grain
By admin on 2015-02-03

Xi Bei now has 10 outlets in Beijing, and a total of 35 restaurants throughout China. It has established itself as a healthy choice of eating, especially when it comes to coarse grain foods.

"Ninety percent of the ingredients at Xi Bei come from the fields of Northwest China, where produce is relatively safe and healthy," says restaurant owner Jia Guolong, a 23-year veteran in the business.

At a recent new dish tasting, Jia Guolong admits that healthy ingredients are the "core competitive capacity" of the restaurant chain.

Apart from oat flour, the restaurant offers black bean steamed buns, lamb soup with potato vermicelli, and a high plateau free-range chicken. Moreover, the restaurant uses mainly traditional cooking methods such as roasting, brewing, braising, and stewing. The restaurant has designed more than 100 new dishes, which will be available in its outlets from July 1.

"At first we investigated and chose new dishes from the dining tables (of other restaurants). But now I take chefs to local markets to find new ingredients, and invent new dishes," he says.

Jia recalls Chinese hot pot restaurants used to put in large quantities of MSG for seasoning. MSG has been used in China for 30 years. Now, people complain they have a dry mouth and feeling of nausea after eating it and Xi Bei has responded by banning MSG or "chicken essence" and promoting healthy, natural eating.

Coarse grain generally refers to cereal grains other than wheat and rice. Examples are corn, millet, purple rice, broomcorn, oat, buckwheat, soybean and red beans. These cereals were consumed, when people lacked refined rice and wheat. But nowadays, to counter indigestion and high blood sugar issues, they are considered healthy foods.

Chinese cuisine has a tradition of consuming coarse grain. Millet congee, for example, has long been regarded as a nutritious food, even as a hangover cure. Ba bao zhou, eight-treasure congee, is traditionally consumed on Dec 8 of the lunar calendar, to mark the day when Buddha is thought to have attained enlightenment. With glutinous rice, millet, sorghum, and chestnut, it is a regular Chinese dish.

Chinese traditionally relate coarse grains to health functions. Millet is considered to be good for the stomach and spleen. Black beans boost energy in the kidneys and can boost the teeth and hair. Green beans are boiled into congee in summer to dispel extra heat in the body.