Happiness Supermarket: A Canteen Food Alternative At The Beijing Language and Culture University

This is a guest post by Ran Etya, fourth (and last!) year student studying Chinese at the Beijing Language and Culture University and the blogger behind FOODragon.

Okay, I am going to just say it -- I am not a big fan of the cafeteria in BLCU. To be fair, I tried it only a couple of times and it was alright. I mean, it was crowded and noisy but the food was totally decent. I just don’t see the need to go there when you got such great restaurants in and around the campus.

Most people go the shitang (canteen) for three reasons -- it’s convenient, cheap and fast. Well, today I would like to suggest a nice alternative which also meets these three criteria – the food court of Happiness Supermarket.

Happiness Supermarket (幸福超市 – xìng fú chāo shì) is just a couple of minutes walk from the east gate of BLCU. On top of being one of the cheapest supermarkets in Wudaokou, it also has a nice little food court. This means you can combine your grocery shopping with grabbing a quick yet tasty lunch, dinner or even just a midday snack.

The food court offer pretty much any type of Chinese food. You got your rice, noodles, dumplings, jiachangcai and more. Here are a couple of photos for some visual tasting of what I like to get there.

My absolute favorite there is the shuijiao (水饺 -- boiled dumplings). For 12 kuai you get four portions (20 dumplings which is the minimal order) and it doesn’t matter which filling you pick. In fact you can even mix half and half. Fillings are either pork or egg with veggies.

I usually get half and half, ten pork and carrot and ten of egg and zucchini. They also make a great dabao. Another one of my favorites is fried rice, especially when I am in a hurry, because it’s ready within 2 minutes (if there’s no line).

It’s a big portion served in a boat-shaped bowl. It costs 10 yuan and you also get egg and seaweed soup and spicy cabbage salad on the side. I usually get the beef and green peppers (尖椒牛肉) or the larou (cured meat) with garlic scapes. If you’re really in a hurry and can’t wait for something to be made I suggest going back to the basics -- Chinese dishes with a bowl of rice.

The dishes are already made and they come in single servings. In the photos you can see stir-fried eggplants, Chinese cabbage and mushroom stir-fry, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and rice all for 13 yuan. For the rapidly approaching hot summer days I recommend the very cool liangpi noodles (凉皮).

Liangpi is rice or flour noodles which are served cold with shredded cucumber and a secret sauce. It’s very refreshing and just a bit spicy. The price is 7 yuan. Finally, if it’s a snack you looking for, how about roujiamo (肉夹馍) – a small round sandwich with pork, peppers and onion?

This tasty treat costs 5 kuai and it makes an excellent snack between meals. These were my top five but obviously there’s a lot more. There’s also noodles (soup and fried), malantang (麻辣烫) and its distant stir-fried cousin mala xiangguo (麻辣香锅), jianbing and even tanghulu in the winter.

How to get there

It’s very easy to find Happiness Market. Exit BLCU from the east gate and turn left and walk northwards for a couple of minutes. After you pass the Suning Building you’ll see this gate to your left. Enter through the door on the side, go down the escalator and you’re there (see photos below).

Be sure to check out Ran's Chinese food blog FOODragon right now if you enjoyed this post!

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