Dongbei Cuisine

[SheenaGreena]

I watched No Reservations this week and the food from the Dongbei area of China looked phenomenal. On it, Bourdain had some kind of pork meatballs and the most amazing braised pork belly dish I have ever seen. I'm looking for these recipes or any good recipes from the area. Unfortunately, google is providing me with little options.

[nakji]

Hum. There are a couple of Dongbei restaurants I've been meaning to try - One in Shanghai, and one here in Suzhou. I'd be interested to know myself, so I'll know what sort of dishes to look for on the menu.

[sunflower]

Guo bao rou 鍋包肉 is probably the most famous Dongbei dish well known outside China. Recipe on my blog if you like to try. http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/2010/01/dongbei-goa-bao-rou.html

東北拉皮 Dongbei La-Pee http://eat.whinfo.net.cn/Files/11%E4%B8%9C%E5%8C%97%E6%8B%89%E7%9A%AE.jpg is a snack or xiao chi 小吃 , main ingredient is 拉皮 La-Pee a springy translucent noodle made with mung (aduki) bean. Not easy to find this ingredient outside China.

地三鲜 Dee San Sian is a vegetable stir fry with aubergine (egg plant), potato and green bell pepper.

糖醋苦瓜 Tang Chu Ku Kwa is sweet & sour bitter melon. Bitter melon stir fry with Chinkiang vinegar, sugar and chilli, a dish with multiple flavours of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty.

Pickled/fermented nappa cabbage 酸菜 suan chai is very common. Nappa cabbages with added salt and water, pressed with a heavy object (like a piece of stone) and left to ferment for about 20 days. Similar to kimchi, this Dongbei pickled cabbage is also sour without the chilli spice. Commonly eaten stewed with pork.

Another popular Dongbei food is blood sausage. I don't know much about this not keen with any blood sausages.

[sunflower]

Moo Shu pork 木須肉 is a common Dongbei but no pancakes and there must be egg, woodears (black fungus) and lilybuds, not the common moo shu pork available in most Chinese restaurants/ take outs in America. Recipe on my blog too.

[Shalmanese]

My family is from Dongbei and I grew up eating traditional Dongbei dishes. It's not a cuisine that receives much publicity. A short summary:

Wheat rather than rice dominates, man tou are Chinese steamed buns and they're pretty popular.

Quite a bit of overlap with Korean cuisine

Chinese saurkraut is popular and many people have their own fermenting vats at home.

Pickling is popular due to the long winters

Pork is the most common meat, beef is reserved for muslims.

Those are some charecteristics I can identify off the top of my head, I haven't been back to that region for about 5 years now.

[SheenaGreena]

Does anyone have a recipe for that braised pork belly dish though? I want to eat huge bowls of that stuff it looks so good.

[kyeblue]

first all, northeast china are only populated in last 150 years ago, and its cuisine is pretty much a simpler, more peasant version of general northern chinese, simply but could be tasty in the winter months. there are a couple of restaurants in Flushing catering to a growing dongbei population of new chinese immigrants. There is one on main street, not too far from the Queens Botanical garden, and you can walk from the subway station in 10-15 minutes. I dined their once three years ago, when my wife was pregnant and was craving for some northern chinese food (she grows up in Beijing). It is authentic and not bad, but quite salty, and is best to eat with steamed bun (but not southern chinese style sweet buns that you find in Chinese grocery stores in US. I remember that we took a chicken with mushrooms stew home and I ate a lot of bread with it for two days.

Most of what Tony had in his latest episode is restaurant food and I am not sure that you want to cook it yourself at home.

Edited March 23, 2010 by kyeblue (log)

[Fat Guy]

I had dinner at a Dongbei place in New York last night and posted a report here.