Xiguan Hutong is a typical siheyuan (courtyard) restaurant with the decoration and design reflecting a traditional Beijing flavor.

Dining in Beijing offers an incredible variety of cuisines, but the way to get to the heart of the matter is to learn about Chinese cooking in a traditional shady courtyard.

What's the typical dining experience in Beijing? Many would choose sitting at a table under the shadow of an old tree in a private courtyard.

In the past few years, siheyuan, the traditional residences of Beijing, have been popular sites for chefs to run businesses.

These downtown dining spots offer a relaxed environment for a meal to remember. But, for visitors, these restaurants are not so easy to find among the labyrinthine lanes, or hutong.

Nanluogu Lane, or South Gong and Drum Lane, not far from the Forbidden City, is full of such hot new courtyard restaurants.

Zhou Chunyi's is a bit special. At her place, dishes are not served by waiters - you cook them yourself.

Olivier, a French visitor to Beijing, is chatting away with Zhou in her quiet siheyuan under the crown of a luxurious pomegranate tree. On the second day of his Beijing stay, Olivier came early in the morning to the depths of Nanluogu Lane for a cooking lesson on how to make three dishes and one soup.

He called this adventure a real taste of Chinese culture and a great 'team-building' experience with his family and friends.

He came to learn to cook black pepper beef, shredded meat in chili sauce, oyster sauce cabbage and sour and spicy soup, all popular dishes from southwestern Sichuan Province and southern Guangdong, Chef Zhou's home province.

Zhou, in her mid-30s, usually teaches three or four foreign students every day in the courtyard, which lies at the heart of the lane among cutting-edge boutiques, courtyard bars and old celebrity residences.

'People recommended Chef Zhou on the Website. Our friend Lorene once came to Chef Zhou's and she gave a lot of credit to this teaching-and-eating courtyard,' says Olivier, busy chopping onions and red peppers.

Washing the onions in running water to get rid of the smell, Zhou says: "I quit my job at a foreign-funded company in my hometown and came to Beijing two years ago with the idea of opening the first English-speaking restaurant."

The restaurant is a DIY venue for Westerners to learn Chinese cooking in a Chinese hutong setting and help different cultures "simmer" with each other, she says.

Lorene, a French girl who came with her boyfriend to Beijing to study Chinese about six months ago, says she was a big fan of Beijing's hutong and siheyuan areas, especially Houhai (Rear Lake) and Nanluogu Lane.

'I love getting up early and riding a bicycle with my boyfriend along the small hutong. We like local people's food like baozi (steamed bun) and dumplings and will stop for a while to have a drink,' she says, smiling as she prepared to make her second dish following Chef Zhou's recipes.

Nanluogu Lane has much more to offer to hungry people strolling there like Lorene.

They could take a break during a bicycle tour at the Pass By Bar, a courtyard dining house where the decoration is typically Chinese but the food is what they are familiar with. Sometimes, foreigners outnumber local Beijingers in the nine-year-old restaurant and bar.

They can enjoy the highly recommended tuna salad, satay, assorted pizza and sauteed beef filet as well as codfish and bacon roll in mushrooms in the courtyard house surrounded by wooden bookshelves, lying back in a wooden chair watching passers-by in the 800-year-old hutong.

If you don't want to worry about what to order but just want to gorge on tasty Chinese food, Dali Courtyard would be a sweet escape.

Pushing open its green wooden door, you are greeted by a courtyard of crape myrtle, cherry and pomegranate trees.

This two-year-old restaurant features Dali food from southern Yunnan Province, spicy and cooked with local vegetables. Many of the ingredients here were shipped from Yunnan.

If you pick the 100-yuan-per-person (US$14.50) set meal, you might get two starters like sliced celery and kidney beans, four main courses including stir-fried nuts with Yunnan spices, sauteed Chinese broccoli, roasted fish in reed leaves and scrambled egg with jasmine flowers. The servings are big enough for at least two to share.

But, be aware, even if you come here alone, you have to pay at least 200 yuan for a table. So, bring friends. If you choose the set meals at 200 yuan each or 300 yuan, you'll have more dishes.

There is no menu. The chef will change the courses to cater to frequent visitors.

Meet Chef Zhou

Opening hours: 10am-2pm (no class on Mondays or evenings)
Address: Shajing Hutong, Nanluogu Lane, Dongcheng District
Tel: 010-8401-4788 or visit her Website www.hutongcuisine.com
Cost: 180 yuan a person a session

Pass By Bar

Opening hours: 9am-2am
Address: 108 Nanluogu Lane, Dongcheng District
Tel: 010-8403-8004 or visit the Website www.passbybar.com
Cost: 80-90 yuan a person
English menu available and major credit cards accepted

Dali Courtyard

Opening hours: 11am-2pm, 6:30-11:30pm
Address: 67 Xiaojingchang Lane, Gulou Rd E., Dongcheng District
Tel: 010-8404-1430
Cost: Set meals at 100, 200 or 300 yuan a person

(Shanghai Daily August 4, 2008)