I quickly fell in love with Dai cuisine during recent visits to Bao Qin and Jin Kongque, two popular Dai restaurants in the Haidian district. Dai food was a great alternative to all the rich and starchy food that I had been eating during the holiday season.

TDai cuisine is similar to Thai food, where banana leaves, bamboo tubes and pineapples, are used as cooking vessels; while lemon grass and lime juice are also key ingredients in both cuisines. The Dai do not use cornstarch at all, and soy sauce is used sparingly; however, sa, a dipping sauce, accompanies many dishes, and sour vegetables are the hallmark of Dai cuisine.

Tudou qiu, deep-fried potato balls, came with a delectable dipping sauce consisting of finely minced chillis, garlic, ginger, coriander, salt, sugar, white vinegar and sesame seeds—the flavor was amazing-pungent, spicy, sweet, salty, and sour—each distinctive flavor yet harmoniously married.

This dish could be seen on almost every table.

Neither Bao Qin nor Golden Peacock has the chic décor of South Silk Road, but the food at these simple eateries attracts a loyal clientele of old Beijingers and university students. “Some people consider my place as their own kitchen,” says Ma Shoubing, Bao Qin’s proprietor, who used to teach at Minzu Daxue, Minority University.

Liangban sansi is a salad mixture of cabbage, meat sliced as thin as hair and glass noodles, tossed together in an excellent light dressing garnished with sesame seeds, diced tomatoes and crushed peanuts.

Suanbacai is one of the most representative dishes in Dai cuisine. If a restaurant offers suanbacai on the menu, then it's truly Dai, said the manager of Golden Peacock. Suanbacai is a soup with tomatoes, pork and caixin, a leafy green vegetable that serves as a substitute for the native ku caixin. Even though this is a soup, it comes with a sa dipping sauce, and the contents of the soup can be dipped in the sauce, as one does when eating a hot pot. I didn't get a chance to try this dish yet, but I will definitely sample it during my next visit.

Another classic dish is suan mugua dun niurou, beef stew with sour papaya. According to Mr. Ma, few people can take the tartness of sour papaya, a native fruit of Dehong Prefecture, and so his chefs have toned down the sourness to suit local palates.

My only disappointment was the dishes prepared with lemon grass--xiangcao paigu and xiangcao kunyu. The lemon grass flavor was not apparent. Mr. Ma explained that the lack of flavor was because dried lemon grass can't perform as well as fresh lemon grass, which is difficult to find in Beijing.

Youjizong, deep-fried wild mushrooms with anise star, is well prepared and delicious. It tasted like meat, as a matter of fact, better than meat, and abundant of fiber content. The more you chew, the tastier they get. Jizhong mushroom is also prized for soup making because of its distinctive meat flavor.

Glutinous rice are the most common main staples, cooked in either pineapple or bamboo tube which carries a very nice flavor. The Dai people like their rice sweet, an unusual fact to sweetened something as the main staple. But a welcome change from plain white rice.

You can finish your meal with a banana fritter or baba, a sweet sticky rice cake steamed in a banana leave.

A fragrant rice flavored tea is served free of charge, a tradition that is disappearing around town these days. A slightly sweet home-brewed rice wine, called nuomi jiu, served chilled, is also good.

Both restaurants serve authentic Dai cuisine. People tend to prefer one of these restaurants over the other based merely on regional differences. Bao Qin follows the traditional style of Luxi city, while the Golden Peacock features the cooking style of Yingjiang county, northwest of Luxi city. However, both areas are part of Dehong prefecture, the Dai National Autonomous region in southwest Yunnan.

Both restaurants actually stand side-by-side on Weigongcun St., a street formerly informally known by Chinese as Xinjiang Jie, or by foreigners as Uighurville, until the strip of popular outdoor Uighur restaurants made way for the Weibohao Apartment Complex.

Bao Qin Dai Wei Canguan, 4 Minzu Daxue Beilu, Weigongcun, Haidian District (tel 6848 3189)
Open 11am-2pm, 5-9:30pm
宝琴傣味餐馆海淀区魏公村民族大学北路4号(韦伯豪家园对面)

Golden Peacock 16 Minzu Daxue Beilu, Weigongcun, Haidian District (tel 6893 2030)
Open 11am-9:30pm.
金孔雀傣味餐馆海淀区魏公村民族大学北路16号 （韦伯豪家园对面）