Wedding in Yakeshi

[chefmd]

My son married a lovely young lady from Yakeshi, Inner Mongolia, China.   Mongolian: ᠶᠠᠠᠠᠰᠢ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ (Ягши хот); Chinese: 牙克石; pinyin: Yákèshí

 

We had a wedding in the US but her family also wanted to have a traditional wedding in China.  DH and I have never being to China so this was an exciting opportunity for us!  We spent a few days in Beijing doing touristy stuff and then flew to Hailar.  There is only one flight a day on Air China that we took at 6 in the morning.  Yakeshi is about an hour drive from Hailar on a beautiful toll road with no cars on it.  I wish we took pictures of free roaming sheep and cows along the way.  The original free range meat.

 

The family met us at the airport.  We were greeted with a shot of a traditional Chinese spirit from a traditional leather vessel.  Nothing says welcome like a stiff drink at 9 AM.  We were supposed to have a three shots (may be they were joking) but family took pity on us and limited it to one only.

 

 

Edited May 27, 2016 by chefmd (log)

[chefmd]

We checked into local hotel and took a short walk to in-laws apartment which is only a couple of blocks away.  Both parents work for the local government and have lived in Yakeshi all their life so we got a five star treatment at the hotel and everywhere else in town.

 

In laws building

 

Welcome snacks.  I am from Russia and my son was born there so our hosts provided us with plethora of Chinese and Russian snacks.  Yakeshi is rather close to Russian border so it is easy to get that stuff.  Bride and groom are going to have Russian candies as party favors.  Far left bag contains extremely addictive sunflower seeds coated in some tasty substance.  I had to be physically removed from it to stop eating.  Very delicate green tea was flowing freely.  Fortunately we did not have to do any more shots.

 

[chefmd]

In-laws have two refrigerators and a chest freezer.  Refrigerators are decorated the same way they are in Russia with very thoughtfully chosen beautiful items.

 

 

Freezer is full of home made dumplings some of which will make an appearance at lunch in a local restaurant later that day.

 

 

 

 

 

[chefmd]

Local market is a very happening place.   I was insanely jealous to see the variety of food that is not available to me in the US.

 

Fresh unpasteurized milk.

 

 

Green eggs.  Just add ham.

 

 

Dried food

 

Mushrooms, glorious mushrooms

 

[chefmd]

More market pictures.

 

Fresh noodles.

 

Peppers

 

 

Meat and offal.  People were happy to pose for our pictures.

 

 

Ferns and wild greens

 

[chefmd]

And even more market pictures.

 

Fruits

 

Ginger as big as my hand

 

 

Fish

 

 

Tomatoes

 

 

 

Rice and corn 

 

 

Dried fish

 

[chefmd]

Cooked food sold at the market

 

 

 

[chefmd]

Will keep posting later.  It is 8 AM here and Internet suddenly became very slow.  Here is a picture of the restaurant where we had lunch.

 

 

 

[demiglace]

Wonderful, can't wait for more!

[Smithy]

What beautiful produce and food!  What a lovely welcome!

 

The refrigerator decoration, although far prettier than my assortment of magnets and notes, looks a bit obstructed for opening and closing.  If it had a cloth covering like that in my house, it would discourage people opening and raiding the refrigerator, and we'd claim that it was to encourage our diets.  I suppose they just flip back the part that covers the door?

[ElsieD]

Fascinating, thank you so much!  

[chefmd]

@Smithy

i agree that refrigerator decor is impractical.  It is located in living room though and kinda matches the decor.

[Deryn]

Red is a lucky colour, isn't it?

 

Congratulations to you and your family on your son's marriage. And even more congratulations to the bride and groom. I wish them a long and happy union. What a wonderful occasion for you all - and for us since you have chosen to let us in on it all via your pictorial tour. Thank you.

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, chefmd said:

We were supposed to have a three shots (may be they were joking) but family took pity on us and limited it to one only.

 

They weren't joking! It is customary to have three. I can't bear the stuff myself.

 

Your green eggs are duck eggs. Interesting to see that they are priced by number. Down here in the south they are sold by weight. They come in various shades from white, through green to blue.

 

I enjoying seeing China through your eyes. Looking forward to the next instalment.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Congratulations to you and all of your family, the bride and her family. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to share your experiences in China with us here.

 

I have never seen so many fiddleheads together in one place as those portrayed in the bag you photographed. Perhaps the most covet-worthy thing of many in your post.

 

8 hours ago, chefmd said:

The family met us at the airport.  We were greeted with a shot of a traditional Chinese spirit from a traditional leather vessel.  Nothing says welcome like a stiff drink at 9 AM.  We were supposed to have a three shots (may be they were joking) but family took pity on us and limited it to one only.

 

 

The Greeks also use pitch coated leather wine skins, and I have partaken from them. Hard to keep sanitary, IMO, but my first (Greek descent) husband was insistent about using his. Very nice depiction of a horse on the one you showed. The Chinese have a very distinctive way of portraying horses in their art. @chefmd, What is that bent metallic-looking bar that runs across the horse's face? The Greek version has nothing like that.

 

Three shots at 9:00 AM?  Yikes!

[liuzhou]

6 hours ago, Smithy said:

The refrigerator decoration, although far prettier than my assortment of magnets and notes, looks a bit obstructed for opening and closing.  If it had a cloth covering like that in my house, it would discourage people opening and raiding the refrigerator, and we'd claim that it was to encourage our diets.  I suppose they just flip back the part that covers the door?

 

The thing is Chinese people seldom actually use their fridges in the way we do in the west, so any inconvenience is minimised. At best there may be a few leftovers from last night. Often the fridge is empty.

 

Freezing dumplings is more common. Go into a Chinese supermarket. There is very little frozen food on sale (mostly dumplings) and even when people do buy say frozen meat or fish, they eat it that day so it is immediately left to defrost without ever visiting their own freezer compartments.

 

Fridge/freezers are still very much status symbols and are usually parked in the sitting room (often opposite the front door) so that visitors can't miss them. I don't think I've ever seen a fridge in the kitchen of a Chinese home.

Edited May 28, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[Tere]

Congratulations to the bride and groom! Look forward to seeing more pictures

[chefmd]

@Thanks for the Crepes I do not know what the metal bar is for.  Possibly for holding the vessel.  I did not get a good look at it.  

 

@liuzhou  Will try to take a look inside the refrigerator if we will go to the apartment again.  Now I am curious if there is food in it.  In Russia refrigerators are usually packed chock full.  It is dangerous to open the door cause the food may start falling out.

[chefmd]

OK, back at the computer.

 

This was yesterday's lunch. 

Local beer is very light and goes real well with salty foods.  And it flows freely during the meal.

 

Tofu noodles.  Probably my favorite dish.  I did not know that you could make noodles from tofu.

 

 

Seaweed salad

 

 

Some pickled root.  Tasted like parsnip.

 

[chefmd]

More lunch dishes

 

Whole fish

 

Deep fried eggplant stuffed with pork

 

Nice salad that is hiding glass noodles on the bottom

 

 

 

Deep fried pork and peppers.  This one was not sweet.

 

 

Sweet and sour pork.  Because you can never eat enough pork

 

 

[rotuts]

thank you for sharing your trip.

 

very interesting.

 

 

[chefmd]

"Lettuce wraps" made with shiso leafs.  At least I think those were shiso.  Way better than lettuce.  And easier to fold.

 

Potato dish.  Potatoes were somewhat al denter to my surprise but that is how it is supposed to be cooked.

 

Home made dumplings that were boiled at the restaurant.  Did I mention that my in-laws know everyone in town?

 

 

And dessert was fried dough covered in melted sugar.  Our hosts dipped it in beer.  I tried dipping it and it was not bad at all.

 

 

 

[chefmd]

There were only eight people at lunch.  I really hope that left overs were taken home.  We left a little early to go back to the hotel since family had to plan the wedding.  The amount of food served was beyond generous.

[Smithy]

It does look like a great spread and far more food than 8 people could eat!  The last photo of your first post in the set has food labeled as "Some pickled root. Tasted like parsnip.". It looks like it has a coating, as though it was also fried.  Do you remember whether it was?

[chefmd]

Yesterday's dinner was at the restaurant where we cooked part of the meal on the grill.  The other part came pre-cooked.

 

There were few plates on the table when we arrived.

 

 

A very bad picture of a robot that delivered a couple of plates.  It was mostly for show since waiters delivered majority of the food.

 

 

 

Different spices and sauces for dipping