Best of summer flopping at your door

It may not be obvious through all the smog, but summer is here. No better time to celebrate the three “S’s”: sun, sand and seafood. Okay, the sun is a no-show and we’re three hours from the nearest beach, but at least there are plenty of places serving up fish so fresh they're still flopping. Why bus to Tianjin, train to Qingdao or plane to Hainan when there's a mouthful of summer right outside your door?

Although walking down Gui Jie can be a hazardous affair what with the touts, tubs of ocean oddities and getting stabbed by wooden skewers－it's worth it for the spicy crayfish (xiaolongxia). Plastic gloves may not be the sexiest accessory, but they will spare you some pain while cracking into Huajia Yiyuan’s mala xia. Scared already? Fear not, there are also mussels, crabs and all sorts weird and wonderful creatures from the deep, prepared to taste. The razor clams cooked in the vinegary house sauce are nearly as good as the ones I had in Qingdao.

The East Ocean Seafood Restaurant attracts throngs of well-dressed Hong Kongers who come for the freshest shrimp dumplings (xia jiao) in town. Here, children goggle at fish in ponds, while grown-ups plow through endless steamers of dumplings and the Hong Kong chefs serve up platters of scallops stir-fried with shallots and prawns braised in two flavors. Hong Konger Susan Guo, a regular here, says, “This is where I come for a taste of home. It has just the same kind of noisy family-oriented atmosphere that you get in Hong Kong.”

If you want a view with your fish, grab an outside table at the Hakka restaurant Han Cang. Their foil-wrapped perch served on an iron plate is a touch sweet, but the sticky sauce and juicy fish are so good I can’t help but flip out my superstitious Chinese friends by flipping over the fish to get each and every tasty morsel. I know it’s unlucky, but even if my boat capsized, I would die happy. If the heat is getting to you, then do as the ancients did: sweat it out. What better way to get your glands going than the heaping mounds of peppers found in Feiteng Yu Xiang’s water-boiled fish (shuizhuyu). You'll not only forget about the beach, but you’ll also save on A.C. this summer.

There may be no waves lapping at our feet in Beijing, but this city is fabulous and has everything our hearts desire. So why waste time and money chasing blue skies and summer breezes, when the best of summer is already at our fingertips.