Alleyway Gourmet: Kylin Private Kitchen

Recently, I stumbled upon an article from April 1990 in the Los Angeles Times titled “How to Buy and Use Ginger Root.” It very endearingly begins: “Formerly available only in Asian markets, this rhizome (a creeping stem that lies under the surface of the soil) today may be purchased in most supermarket produce sections.” Would you believe that there was a time when we were so innocent?

The author would have done well in her research to snake her way up the first hutong just east of the Jiaodaokou and Di’anmen intersection to study Kylin Private Kitchen’s “Baby Ginger Food Series” – a name nearly as a remarkable as the dish. Age does transformative things, and the ginger – thick-skinned, gnarled and brown – with which we are most familiar has felt its touch. But here, the purple-tipped and cream-colored rhizome has been harvested young and imparts a gentler taste and texture.

What could Baby Ginger Food Series ever teach the LA Times? That the best way to instruct your readers on how to use ginger is this: julienne that new, naked subterranean stem and submerge it in stock. Toss in bundles of vermicelli, pockmarked bars of chewy tofu, ribbons of cabbage, chopped red bird’s eye chilies, wood ears and rounds of small green pickled peppers. The outstanding broth is everything at once. Chilies give it heat, Sichuan peppercorns a subtle tingle, pickled peppers a sour pucker, cabbage the depth that every successful soup needs and finally, ginger that extra dimension of zing.

It should arrive on the table in a huge tureen in an amount enough for four to six. Give seven choices of protein – three fish (RMB 108-168), chicken (RMB 98), beef (RMB 128), bull frog (RMB 138) or soft-shelled turtle (RMB 288) – and three levels of spiciness. What did Los Angeles really need to know in 1990? This is the best undiscovered soup in China.

Kylin Private Kitchen
Daily 10.30am-2pm, 5.30-11pm. 6 Qilinbei Hutong, Dongcheng District (6407 3516)
麒麟阁私房菜: 东城区麒麟碑胡同6号
550m east of Nanluogu Xiang station (Lines 6 and 8)

Photo: Sui