I'm really happy - blue cherry, 北京酸奶

[Jerome]

I LOVE THIS PLACE.

When i was in beijing back in the stone age it seems, i used to go to Dazhalan/dashrla to walk around - this is the early 80's and I would pick up a crock of yogurt made by the beijing yogurt (sour milk) company ina little blue and white crock. They had sweet and not so sweet yogurt.

This place makes it. For the US market you can pinkberry it up with fruit and frozen etc. Or just eat a serving of the real stuff in a glass cnotainer - made here.

IT"S GREAT.

I think
137 w main st
Alhambra
English name - Blue Cherry
Chinese name - 北京酸奶
(peking yogurt).

enjoy it and support it - it's hard to get non -southern specialty places to stick around. It's not too far from Fosselman's but it's a different taste.

[bonnie107107]

I have a question!!!!
could you help me ask the yogurt place that can people in San Francsico order the peking yogurt online also???????? I have tried to find this kind of yogurt for long long time...
plz!!!!!!!!! let me know more by my email.... [e-mail]

[Jerome]

if you speak chinese call at
[phone]
their website:
www.bluecherryyogurt.com

[ObseleteOscar]

If you happen to live in the Rowland/Hacienda area, the Champion Gourmet (next to the 99 and Earthen Restaurant) sells it as well.

[K K]

So last night we went out to this Chinese restaurant (in Northern California) and the owner upsells this new product, Beijing Suan Nai 北京酸奶. There are two flavors, regular, and one with honey. We got the regular one to try, and it was a small cup. He said he ordered it from Southern California and it tastes exactly like yogurt in Beijing (that's the owner himself where he comes from too). I took a look at the label on the cup, the name of the company and address, did a search, and this post came up!

I have never visited this store, but found it interesting that I got to try something 500 miles south of me. So this must be the only place in the whole state that does something like this (with the froyo side not being an original concept of course).

If you look at the Chinese portion of the website, they talk about it a bit

http://www.nextac.com/BlueCherry/abou...

It is not even mentioned in the English part of the website, other than "yogurt drink" of which they seem to have flavors that cater towards the Americanized froyo crowd. So I don't even know if that is the same thing or not.

Either way, I really enjoyed the Beijing Suan Nai. The taste reminded me of the fresh yogurt drinks I had in Taiwan, particularly a most recent trip to The Nature Farm in Miaoli County, a shade north of western central Taiwan, where it is made fresh on the premise and kept warm. Beijing Suan Nai is lighter and not as strong as those supermarket Whole Foods/Trader Joe type yogurt drinks (usually already flavored with vanilla, so you can't really taste that tartness).
It's an interesting parallel with western style soymilk vs Chinese/Vietnamese/Japanese/Taiwanese versions.

The yogurt jars they use in the website picture is interesting, because I've seen some NorCal artisinal milk, cheese products vendor at the farmers market use a similar kind of jar (maybe not the same material) to sell their organic French style yogurt.

Anyways, good stuff. Wish I could have better and easier access to it!

[ipsedixit]

Does it taste anything like Yakult?

[K K]

Oh absolutely not. Yakult is a completely different kind of beverage. I grew up drinking that stuff myself, but these days find Yakult too sweet.

Beijing Suan Nai actually tastes like natural yogurt, in a drink form. Mine was already chilled, and it was quite refreshing. I do recall seeing sugar listed in the ingredients from the label (actually it was a paper printed label covering the top of the pre-sealed lid), but it seemed just sufficient.

I do wonder though, if the website and store's "yogurt drinks" are a different thing than their Beijing Suan Nai, as the yogurt drinks have these weird fruity flavors. If you or anyone else checks it out, perhaps better to order in Mandarin and find out what you are getting. Hopefully you will like it.

[raytamsgv]

I haven't had it in the US, but the ones I had in Beijing were definitely different from Yakult.

[Jerome]

They have the real Beijing yogurt - kind of.
In beijing, in my day, the stands that sold yogurt had a plain and a sweetened yogurt. The plain was sour - very sour, like a good balkan yogurt. I liked both. They are a little thinner than most yogurts you get here but thicker than a kefir, say.
At Blue-cherry, beijing suan nai, you can get only the sweetened one. i asked TWO YEARS ago if i coudl get the sour one (which is more refreshing, i think) andthey said that they weren't really big enough to package both.

SO when you go to the shop, you can get their packaged suan nai/yogurt to go in plastic containers (101 noodle express also carries it) of various sizes. For the real beijing sensation, ask fi they have any of the ceramic jars. They are covered in paper. You stick the straw through the paper and suck up the yogurt, texture like a thick milkshake.
mildly sweetend.

AS WELL< they have a frozen yogurt machine that provides a frozen version, plain (which is sweetend), and the other flavors differ - always two others, including mango, blueberry and others which i forget. they have the mix-ins that folks like (folks other than I like). And they will blend the yogurt into a drinik

BUT i suggest getting the original which is all i get - get it in the ceramic if possible, put down the spoon and use the straw. You'll thank me.

And if you dont' - well, you don't.

[kevin]

hey jerome, were you the one that rec'd pomodoro in westwood for great thin crust italian style? sorry for highjacking the thread.

[Jerome]

the one on the corner just south of wilshire on westwood blvd? yes.

did you like it or did you hate it and are out to get me?

[kevin]

just tried the tiramisu, which was really good, i'll have to try the pizza too now. was looking for some decent pizza in the west la/westwood area.

[Jerome]

we probably should start a new trend in case someone's looking for this.
I like the pizza. it's very milanese (to me) - not neapolitan but darn good.
My fave meal there - split a pizza - split a salad, split a main dish. the servings are large and I prefer a smaller helping and more variety.

[K K]

My cup was mildly sweetened for sure, but mild enough that you can still taste the natural flavors of the yogurt. Thick enough like a milkshake. That was a blue top label. The orange one, I believe is the one with honey and is probably a lot sweeter. Man I still get the good shivers thinking about drinking that last night, even though it was shipped in from the store. Hope to try the ceramic container solid yogurt someday.

[notmartha]

Is it cow's milk?

[Jerome]

yes.

[notmartha]

Found them at No. 1 Noodle at Rowland Heights also. $2 a cup. Got one but didn't try yet.

[jenn]

Thanks for the report. We saw signs for this place on our last running trip to LA at the end of July but couldn't figure out exactly where it was.

FYI, they still sell that stuff in Beijing--at least they were selling it in the spring-- and its quite the family favorite. The crocks are stoneware with blue/white paper lids. You pay a deposit when you buy so you can buy to take away and then leave the crock somewhere for someone to find or you can stand and drink and get your deposit back. The fun thing was that we never knew about the deposit until about the 100th time we bought the stuff and we only found out then because I was determined to haul home some little crocks as souvenirs because I was positive that some day, the crocks would be gone. So we bought them from the vendor.

Its such a Beijing thing. I suppose some day some horrid person will stop recycling the little crocks and the whole thing will go away. That will be such a sad day!

[wilafur]

got back from beijing a month ago and they definitely still sell the drink. =)

[Jerome]

had it today.

it's drinkable too - and they mix it with other juices for the american market.

[jeanniebeannie]

Oh yay! Thanks for this report. I drive this place all the time and roll my eyes, thinking it's just another one of those iterations of Pinkberry. Memories of China await!

[Jerome]

At Dazhalan/dashirla - you could get the drink as well as eating yogurt. This solidy yogurt is served with a straw.
They soft-freeze some as well in the store - at 101 noodle they only have the plastic-jarred one, at the store they have a glass-jarred one for store eating.

For those who go by the myth of no dairy for the chinese - southern china traditionally doesn't have much dairy. NOt much grazing land for animals, not many herds of sheep, goats, cows, horses. In the north, marginal land is used for pasturing - there are grasslands, moslem minority in beijing used to have (they still might, but i haven't been in years) bakeries specialing in (cow) butter cookies and cakes. Yogurt aplenty. Mongol and other nomadic minorities have cheeses and drinks from cows milk, sheeps milk and mare's milk.

In the southern port ciites and inland where there were foreign concessions - there are dishes with milk - cantonese cabbage with milk sauce... shanghai still had small glass milk bottles filled with unhomogenized milk - the cream would stick to the tin (?) lid just like you heard much older people describe in this country.

[Chowpatty]

Thanks Jerome, I had no idea they even eat yogurt in China! Just to be clear, does this place offer both frozen yogurt and regular yogurt?

[justagthing]

Hey CP...you know that Yokalt (not sure on that spelling) drink that has been advertised on tv that seems so 'new'? Well, it's been in the Chinese markets forever. I like it in the summer just slightly frozen.

[J.L.]

北京酸奶 is definitely NOT Yakult. It is NOT FroYo.

Northern and Western China have a rich historical tradition of enjoying yogurt & yogurt-related drinks.

Attached photo is from a public Google-able site (http://picasaweb.google.com/zihona/Be...)

[justagthing]

wasn't saying that it is the same, but that we do eat yogurt as well, since CP was surprised by it.

[J.L.]

They also sell this stuff (Beijing sswan-nai) at 101 Noodle Express in Alhambra.

1408 E. Valley Bl.
Alhambra, CA 91801

[keai615]

Question...is this suan nai the 'drink' version that is sold in China, or is this some type of frozen yogurt?