About Harbin
A Brief Introduction to the Delicacies in Harbin
Features of the Delicacies
Influenced by the eating habits of the Russians and ethnic minorities, Harbin cuisine embraces two main features:
The first one: you can taste very traditional Northeastern dishes. Stewing is the most popular way of cooking when it comes to the Northeastern dishes. They are large in quantity and strong in flavor. For travelers from the south, they might find the Northeastern dishes way too salty. Moreover, the dishes are not cooked delicately, with most of the food in big pieces. But they are all bright in colors and rich in taste. If you come to Harbin, especially in winter, you have to taste such traditional and scrumptious Northeastern dishes as "the three fresh delicacies", stewed chickens with mushrooms, stewed pork with vermicelli, braised streaky pork and Modeli braised fish.
Recommended restaurants: Futai Restaurant, Beilaishun, Jiangnanchun, Dongfang Dumplings Restaurant and Wuji Jianggutou Restaurant for Stewing Dishes The second one: you can taste very traditional Russian food in Harbin. Taking a look at the history of Harbin, you will find it somehow connected to Russia, especially its food and eating habits. Many Northeastern dishes we see today are actually Russian dishes, braised beef with potatoes, for example. Today, there're many traditional Russian restaurants gathering around the Central Street in Harbin. And the Russian loaves have become the delicacies that you have to taste when you visit Harbin.
Recommended restaurants: Huameixi Western-style Restaurant, Xigema Restaurant and Luxiya Coffee House.
The Land of Delicacies
There are two places for you to taste the local delicacies: the Central Street and the Yellow River Road in the Development Zone.
The Central Street is the most unique street featuring special style in Harbin. There are altogether 71 European-style buildings along the street, with various architecture styles of the Renaissance, baroque, eclecticism and modernism. It's thus the precious architecture gallery in China and also the longest pedestrian street in Asia. In the Central Street, the local delicacies and shopping activities are in a perfect combination. You can taste both the traditional Northeastern dishes and the delicacies from other countries, especially the Russian cuisine. Therefore, it's a must-visit place if you come to Harbin.
You can take the No.1, No.2, No.8, No.12, No.13, No.15, No.16, No.20, No.20, No.23, No.64, No.85, No.101, No.102, No.103, No.113 or the No.114 bus to get there. You can get off the bus either in the Central Street or in the Youyi Road.
Tips for ordering food:
1. The food is large in quantity and most of them are stewed. If you order too much, it's not convenient for you to take out. You'd better order the food in accordance with the number of people. For instance, three people order three dishes and four people order four dishes.
2. It's colder in the north. So the dishes are saltier than any other city in China. If you tend to favor something insipid or something sweet, you can ask the waiters to put less salt in the dishes before you order the food. Russian Cuisine.
As its geographic location and culture exert an influence on Harbin, Russian cuisine has been popular here for hundreds of years. On June 9, 1898, the first railway cafeteria owned by Russians was run in Tianjia Shaoguo Yard in Harbin. The cook ingeniously blended potatoes with beef, giving rise to the wide-spread famous Russian delicacy—braised beef with potatoes. It remains quite popular today. Later, as Harbin developed more Russian, Polish and Jewish merchants came flooding into Harbin, bringing on the boom of the local catering business.
37 western restaurants scatter along both sides of the Central Street in Harbin with their cranky names. For instance, Miniang Jiu'er (today's Harbin Photographing Studio) mainly offers Moscow loaves, local flavor fruits and coffee; Zhazhu Aowei (today's Central Street Barbershop) mainly offer western food and tea, amongst which the buns are quite famous in Harbin; Ta Tousi (today's corner of the Central Street and the Hongxia Street) mainly offers Caucasian chickens, sauces, roasted muttons and smoked salmon; Yi Rili mainly offers Caucasian mutton kebabs, fish kebabs and roasted meat; Yadao Gulubu (today's Tiejiang Shang Club) mainly offers such famous dish as the char-grilled suckling pigs, along with various cold dishes; Mar Sixi (today's Huameixi Restaurant) offers such famous dishes as paper-wrapped beef, paper-wrapped prawns and braised oxtail in casserole.
Of course, no restaurant can be famous than Modern Restaurant. In addition to English and French meals as well as western food, it also offers such traditional Russian dishes as mandarin fish in milk, shredded meat in milk, creamed chicken breasts, char-grilled muttons, char-grilled fillet, apple pie and borsch. They are all excellent in taste and reasonable in price. -- Today, you taste the Russian dishes in Harbin not only to satisfy your stomach; but more importantly, to fully experience the exotic flavor that the Russian dishes have to offer.