Snack Attack: For Savory Sesame & Millet Goodness, Try Miancha

Snack Attack is your weekly guide to the sometimes smelly, sometimes flavorful, sometimes odd munchies to be had in the capital.

I have a love-hate with Chinese breakfasts, perhaps due to my familiarity with rich American breakfasts. In comparison, Chinese breakfast always throws me for a loop. The first bite will have me questioning my life choices, but the third or fourth has me saying: "hey, this is pretty damn tasty."

Case in point: 面茶Miancha, aka Flour Tea. Miancha has nothing to do with flour, nor does it have anything to do with tea – which is a good thing, as flour mixed with tea sounds pretty rancid. Instead, miancha is just millet porridge with flour mixed in (which makes it extra thicc), topped with a layer of sesame paste and seeds.

This is one of those Beijing snacks that has a bit of a cult following. A following so legendary, in fact, that it's earned its own t-shirt courtesy of Plastered 8.

Cult following and cool t-shirt aside, miancha one of those capital culinary traditions that calls for an acquired taste.

I ordered a bowl of the stuff sent to the office early in the morning. It arrived looking like a dessert more than a breakfast. Through the clear plastic bowl, I glimpsed a creamy white underside – the millet porridge – topped with a layer of brownish goo – the sesame paste blanket. Mix these two together and you get something that looks a lot like brown baby food.

Baby food color notwithstanding, the sesame paste layer gives off a lovely, lightly sweet, nutty aroma that, albeit one which doesn't carry over to the first bite. Not one bit. The first bite is a hit of salt, slightly bland millet. It’s the kind of mouthful that’ll make you scrunch up your nose in disgust – as I did. But I willed myself to keep going, for science!

Much like the other Chinese breakfasts I've tried, this one grew on me. The blandness of the millet was offput by hints of salt. Plus, when mixed with a spoonful of sesame paste, there's a nice nutty sweetness added in.

The verdict? Definitely give miancha a try. I still don’t prefer it to douzhi’er, but I wouldn’t say no if it was the only thing available. Then again, per my experience with the former Beijing breakfast, perhaps a second or third try is warranted.

Get it here, one of the few remaining dedicated miancha joints in the city:

Daxing Hutong Miancha 大兴胡同面茶
7 Daxing Hutong, Dongcheng District
东城区大兴胡同7号

READ: Down with Douzhi'er: My Experience with Beijing's Strangest Breakfast

Images: Wikimedia Commons, Vincent R. Vinci, The Beijingers, gorestrepeat.com