Street Eats: Get Stuffed on These Meat-Filled and Doughy RMB 15 'Lazy Dragons'

Our foray into Beijing's street food scene has its ups and downs, as evidenced in our tastings of jianbing, puffy egg torches, street burgers, cloudy cotton candy ice-cream, and banh mi, as well as our passion for street food tours. This time, we set our eyes on Beijing-style bāozi or 花卷 (huājuǎn) also known as 懒龙 (lǎnlóng), translatable as 'lazy dragon.'

For traditional Beijing folk, it's customary to eat lǎnlóng (lazy dragon) on the sixth day of the first month of the lunar calendar (February 2 this year), to get rid of any laziness before spring sets in. This tradition transports me back to kindergarten, greedily stuffing my face when I probably should have been working hard instead.

We stopped by the newly opened chain restaurant 大懒龙 (dà lǎnlóng), or as they like to be called in English, the Big Sarcosaurus. The Chinese name literally means “big lazy dragon,” and it's easy to see why, with its porky shape owing long steamed twisted rolls of dough stuffed with a meaty (pork or beef) but slightly sweet inside.

To get your hands on the doughy goods, place your order at the counter first, then grab your food, and then find a seat at the bar-like area. There are about eight seats and the menu is short and simple: two options for lǎnlóng – beef (RMB 15) and pork (RMB 12) – as well as bāozi (RMB 3), cold noodles (RMB 12) and several small cold dishes (RMB 6-12), four meat dishes (RMB 18-38), two types of congee, and soy milk to tackle the heartburn.

We opted for both types lǎnlóng, which were served in a swift three minutes, wrapped in a pastic bag, and dished up between the non-stop delivery men dashing in and out to pick up hungry but lazy patrons' orders. These seven-inch-long lǎnlóng are almost as long as my forearm, and will go a long way to filling you up, easily conserved for dinner or even breakfast the next day. We especially enjoyed the beef variety, which was more “meaty” than the pork, and seasoned with shallots.

We also tried the mǐfěnròu (米粉肉, RMB 28); made from steamed pork and rice, the dish was a little on the fatty side, but well-seasoned with sugar, oil, vinegar, and soy sauce paste.

As a fan of cold noodles no matter the season, I was let down by these slightly dubious looking plasticine-like noodles, which were lacking in bite and covered in a much-too-sweet sesame sauce. In fact, except for the lǎnlóng, everything here was a little too sweet for our liking.

Be warned that big ol' Sarcosaurus here gets quite busy during breakfast, lunch, and dinner times, so you might want to be lazy too, and get stuffed in the comfort of your own home/office via Baidu Waimai or Eleme.

Big Sarcosaurus
Daily 6.30am-8.30pm. 16 Gongti Donglu, Chaoyang District (6591 5966)
大懒龙: 朝阳区工人体育场东路16号

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Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
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Photos: Tracy Wang