Heilongjiang Cuisine

Formation and Characteristics of Heilongjiang Cuisine

Situated at the northeastern end of China, Heilongjiang Province is run through by the Heilongjiang, Songhuajiang and Nengjiang rivers. There are five large mountains around the province, i.e., the Larger Hinggan Mountains, Lesser Hinggan Mountains, Laoye Mountains, Zhangguangcai Mountains, and Wanda Mountains. With a favorable environment and abundant natural resources, Heilongjiang is one of the most important industrial centers and agricultural production centers.

During the early part of the last century, a large number of people from Shandong and Hebei braved risky journeys to Northeast China to seek a better life. Later some of them moved from Liaoning Province to Heilongjiang, thus promoting the local economy and bringing about with them the inland culinary culture. After the 1950s, the exploitation of “Beidahuang (Great Northern Wilderness), a vast expanse of sparsely inhabited land in Heilongjiang, propelled the development of the local catering business. The Heilongjiang people combined the techniques from various schools of Chinese cuisine. And they took advantage of the abundant agricultural resources in their land, which ranges from seafood, wild animals mushrooms and so on. Therefore, Heilongjiang Cuisine, a unique and well-known cuisine was formed.

The Heilongjiang people are good at preparing food with raw materials from local delicacies from mountains, such as wild vegetables and edible funguses. They have adopted the cooking techniques from Shandong Cuisine and absorbed the advantages of the cuisine schools of local ethnic minority groups and Russian Cuisine. Heilongjiang Cuisine features a strong taste, and local dishes have all kinds of flavors, such as sweet, sour, salty, spicy and aromatic.

Famous Dishes and Snacks of Some Cities in Heilongjiang

(1). Harbin

Harbin is a famous city in North China. In the city, one can find the dishes of all local schools of Chinese cuisine, as well as Russian, French, British, American, Japanese and Korean food.

Special Local Dishes

Assorted Chum Salmon Roll—什锦大马哈鱼卷

This dish has chum salmons as the main ingredients, and hams, Xianggu mushrooms, edible mushrooms with lush white umbrellas and winter bamboo shoots as supplementary materials. With many kinds of condiments, it is delicious and juicy.

Fried Pork Shreds, Salted Vegetables and Vermicelli Made from Bean Starch—炒肉渍菜粉

Quick-boiled Pork 汆白肉

Stewed Frozen Tofu—炖冻豆腐

Minced Chicken Meat and Hedgehog Hydnum—鸡茸猴头

Braised Hedgehog Hydnum Without Soy Sauce—白扒猴头

Deer’s Tail in Clear Soup—清汤鹿尾

Deer Meat Shreds and Bamboo Shoots—鹿丝冬笋

Braised Tendons of Deer—烧鹿筋

Cooked Deer Meat with Soy Sauce—红烧鹿肉

Stewed Sturgeon in Earthen Pot—沙锅鳇鱼

Stewed with sturgeon cubes, a large variety of supplementary ingredients and seasonings in an earthen pot, this dish is palatable, and has a strong flavor.

Roast Deer Meat—烤鹿方

Take large pieces of deer meat with bones as the main ingredient, add many kinds of seasonings to the meat, boil the deer meat, preserve the meat with tasty soup and condiments, and roast the deer meat over a charcoal fire until it is well done. Before the deer meat is served, cut it into small pieces and add seasonings to it. The deer meat is very delicious.

Special Local Snacks

Three-delicacy Jiaozi Dumpling—三鲜水饺

Steamed Bun with Juicy Stuffing—灌汤包子

Raw Fish Salad—拌生鱼

Cut pollution-free fresh fish into shreds, and add seasonings to the fish shreds.

Sour and Spicy Sheet Jelly Made from Bean Starch—酸辣粉皮

Roast Meat—烤肉

The Sturgeon Banquet (鳇鱼宴) of Heilongjiang Province is well known in Heilongjiang. Prepared with the sturgeon, “King of All Freshwater Fish,” as the main material, this banquet consists of six cool dishes, eight major dishes, four kinds of snacks and two kinds of famous local wine. All the cool dishes and major dishes are meticulously prepared with different parts of the sturgeon.

(2). Some Dishes and Snacks of Ethnic Minority Groups in Heilongjiang

Each ethnic minority group in Heilongjiang retains its own unique dietetic habits.

For instance, the Hezhen people like to eat:

Raw Fish Salad—拌生鱼

Procedure: Take a live carp as the raw material, cut the carp into shreds, and add vinegar, salt, onions, garlic and coriander to the shreds.

Chum Salmon Roes Salad—生拌大马哈鱼籽

Roast Fish Jerky—烤鱼干

Preserved Fish Roes—腌鱼籽

Steamed Fish Jerky—蒸鱼干

The Daur people are keen on:

Rice Made of Millets—稷子米饭

Rice Soaked in Milky Tea—奶茶泡饭

The Oroqen people are famous for their:

Roast Meat—烤肉

Braised Meat—火烧肉

Stewed Meat in Clear Soup—清炖肉

The Ewenki people are good at preparing:

Meat Porridge—肉粥

Deer Meat Stripes—鹿肉条

Several famous Local Dishes

Stewed Pork in Shallow Water—烀白肉

Stewed Pork in Shallow Water is a Manchu dish, which is served in both urban and rural areas.

Procedure: Cut pork into large pieces, each weighing about one kg, add Chinese prickly ashes aniseeds, onions, and ginger to it and boil the pork.

In a typical Manchu style, the host and guests sit around a table, with a chopping board in front of each person. Everyone slices cooked pork on the chopping board eats it with four small plates of seasonings, such as Chinese chives flowers, and drinks yellow wine with a large bowl.

Salted Vegetable Chafing Dish—渍菜火锅

Salted Vegetable Chafing Dish can be seen in Heilongjiang and other places in Northeast China. The salted vegetable in Northeast China is made of Chinese cabbages. Cooked in a unique method, the dish is sour, delicious, aromatic and thin. Such delicious salted vegetables can only be found in Heilongjiang. The ingredients for the Salted Vegetable Chafing Dish also include crabs, dried shrimps, beef, mutton, boiled port, and frozen bean curd. The way to eat it is identical to eating Instant-boiled Mutton. It is an ideal food in the cold winter.

Mutton Broth and Stir-fried Dumpling—羊汤锅烙

Mutton Broth and Stir-fried Dumpling is a famous Muslims’ snack of Qiqihar. Created by a Hui person by the surname of Liu in 1936, this snack has been well received by customers. The stir-fried dumplings are made of flour, beef, mutton, and fresh vegetables, crisp outside and tender inside; people usually eat it with broth made of mutton and sheep’s tripe and chitterlings. This snack is delicious and nutritious.

Jingpo Lake Raw Carp Shreds—镜泊湖生鲤丝

Jingpo Lake Raw Carp Shreds is a famous local dish. Jingpo Lake in Heilongjiang is an alpine lake, surrounded by dense forests. With limpid water, the lake teems with large carps with golden scales. In the Qing Dynasty, such carps were sent to the imperial palace as tributes every year. It is a pleasure for tourists to taste dishes prepared with fresh carps from Jingpo Lake.

Procedure: Cut the meat of a live carp into one-inch shreds, soak the fish shreds into vinegar until they turn into pinkish-white, cook the fish fresh with the shreds of vegetables, add cucumber juice, coriander juice, sweet garlic juice and ginger juice to it, and mix them thoroughly.

Fried Pork Slices—锅包肉

Fried Pork Slices is a common dish in Northeast China.

Procedure: Dip pork slices in a starch paste, and fry the pork slices until they are brown. This dish is crisp, sour, sweet, and tender.