Gorge Yourself on Contemporary Japanese Cuisine Like a Drunken Tiger at Suikoden

It's a mere 30 days before the Year of the Tiger is upon us, and it got me thinking: What's a fitting place to ring in this big cat-focused year?

After doing some searching on Dianping, I stumbled across a few interesting bites that are generating heat among the app's foodie influencers, served up at a place that's not quite new but not too old called Suikoden (醉虎传 Zuì Hǔ Zhuàn), which can roughly be translated to Legend of the Drunken Tiger.

To be completely honest, I found the appearance of their signature dish, 鸡提灯 jī tí dēng, which resembles a chicken carrying a lantern, to be a little unsettling. The dish is made from chicken liver paired with runny eggs, plus a black pepper and soy sauce seasoning.

I always like to get a bit of everything in each bite, so I wasn't sure how to approach this dish at first. Many users on Dianping said they leave the eggs intact or poke them to let the juice run down the pieces of the liver. However, the server told me the right way to eat it is to carefully put the liver with the egg directly into your mouth, and then bite through the eggs.

I was a little nervous to dive into the dish for fear that the runny eggs would overwhelm the other flavors, but I was greeted with quite a surprise – as the delicious taste of gold yolk suddenly burst through my mouth the second I bit into it, the texture felt similar to that of a savory chocolate lava cake.

Moving onto their mains, the 幸福满满烧肉饭 xìngfú mǎn mǎn shāo ròu fàn  is packed with all of the seasonings you would want in a meaty concotion such as this – black pepper, sesame oil, teriyaki sauce. I've often found that some beef teriyaki lacks any kind of flavors or the meat simply tastes like it's been frozen overnight. This certainly wasn't the case here: The beef is slightly on the sweeter side, and the poached egg atop it lends a nice texture to the meat.

Rounding things off with a dessert is always a must, for me at least. If you're still looking to go the hearty route, I'd recommend trying the housemade almond jelly. It's soft, has a nice nutty bite, and even a hint of lemonade that adds some sour notes.

Overall, this is definitely a place to try as we head into the Year of the Tiger. So why not celebrate CNY at Legend of the Drunken Tiger, perhaps while trying to work your way around gnawing on some ji ti deng?

Suikoden (Yangmeizi Byway Branch) 醉虎传(杨梅竹店
6 Yangmeizhu Byway, Dazhalan, Dongcheng District
东城区大栅栏杨梅竹斜街6号

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Images: Irene Li, Dianping