Rise of the Beijing Breakfast Wagon

What did you eat on the way to work this morning? Was it an egg, mystery meat and lettuce sandwich from one of these taxi-coloured wagons? Don't lie. They're everywhere now. The rise of Beijing’s mobile breakfast booths has been meteoric. Well, as state-sanctioned snack wagon expansion projects go. Dongcheng, Chaoyang, Xuanwu ... no district is safe.

The wagons, with flip-top front windows and a couple of grill tops, are called Beijing Breakfast (北京早餐), selling egg 'n meat sarnies, fried baozi, porridge, hot soy milk, milk and other soft drinks. (No cappuccino or croissant, unfortunately). The food, largely pre-prepared, is sent out to the stands each morning from a central location. Probably looking much like a giant hospital kitchen, I'd imagine. They seem to be run or at least sponsored by Yili Group (伊利), one of China’s largest dairy companies, based in Inner Mongolia. Its brand of milk and milk-based drinks are also for sale at the booths.

Yili’s website points to some bizarre-sounding good Samaritan work undertaken by the company: “Yili Group has sponsored many public welfare campaigns, such as Sunshine Love Campaign in Tibet, Love Lighting Way Home Campaign, Healthy China-Sunshine Community, etc.” Isn’t Love Lighting Way Home a Dylan song?

The point of Beijing Breakfast is to cut down on unlicensed vendors and the nasty things they get up to, like using recycled oil, and making sausages from old sofas (OK, second one not true … or is it?? It’s not.) So we can assume that these booths will have regular hygiene inspections. Or will they? They will, according to this article in the Global Times. It mentions 20 state snack wagons that have started operations in the Jianwai area of Chaoyang, after many of the local unlicensed places have been closed down over the last three months.

The disadvantages of these state-run snack stalls are that flavors tend to be homogenized, with a reduction in the variety of foods on offer. And of course it means local governments can set up lucrative contracts with a single provider or providers. But is that a price worth paying for clean(er) cooking oil?