Alleyway Gourmet: Date Cake Keeps You Waiting

As both a longtime “Wu” resident and a self-professed cake fiend, I estimate that the total time I have spent in line at Zaogao Wang has been no less than two days. Naturally, this time was spread across many a visit, but it must be remarked that this stall is extraordinarily popular. Conversation whilst queuing is restricted solely to discussion of: (a) the obstructive occupation of the sidewalk by both those queuing and passers-by, and irritation derived thereof; and (b) how much longer the wait will be.

As date cake, or zaogao (金丝 枣糕) is sold by the jin, and sold as it’s made, just one overzealous gao-gobbler can extend your wait by another interminable half-hour. Three visits ago, the unassuming girl in front of me bought five jin. This forced me to decide whether it would be more heartbreaking to wait another 20 minutes, or to purchase the cold, lonely corner piece left over. Reader, I bought it; it tasted like cake regret.

Steamed in steel trays, date cake has a texture reminiscent of fine fagao (发糕), a Chinese cornmealbased cake ‘bouncy’ to the touch. It’s damp, hot and spongy. Biting into fresh date cake is a little like eating a cloud. A sweet, steaming, tongue-singeing cloud, dotted with slivers of dried dates. Like fagao, date cake is best just-steamed, but leave it covered overnight and the sweetness matures. However, it never turns cloying; this is one cake you could literally eat half a kilo of.

RMB 8.8 will get you 500g of date cake, more or less. The aforementioned half-kilo is pre-cut into generous palm-sized cubes and weighed. Precision is not their forte; be prepared to pay nine or ten kuai if the blocks don’t add up to an exact jin.

If you’re going on a weekday, aim for 3-4pm, when you’ll dodge fewer jostling elbows on your cake quest. I like to think of date cake more in terms of time cost than monetary cost: a full kilo for half an hour’s trip (add one hour for Chaoyang residents). For the ultimate in unstoppable cake-devouring, it’s not a bad deal.

Zaogao Wang
Daily 9am-10pm. Chengfu Lu (east of Lotus Supermarket), Wudaokou, Haidian District (no tel) 枣糕王，海淀区五道口成府路 易初莲花超市东边