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Wedding in Yakeshi


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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.

 

150527 034 InLaws Mongolian Flask.JPG150527 046 Lunch Booze.JPG

 

Edited by chefmd (log)
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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

150527 032 InLaws Building.JPG

 

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.

150527 037 InLaws Snacks.JPG

 

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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.

 

150527 039 InLaws Refrigerator 1.JPG

 

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

 

150527 038 InLaws Dumpling Freezer.JPG

 

 

 

 

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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.

150527 011 Yakeshi Market Milk Truck.JPG

 

 

Green eggs.  Just add ham.

 

150527 012 Yakeshi Market Green Eggs.JPG

 

Dried food

150527 013 Yakeshi Market Store Dmitri.JPG

 

Mushrooms, glorious mushrooms

 

150527 014 Yakeshi Market Store Mushrooms.JPG

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More market pictures.

 

Fresh noodles.

150527 016 Yakeshi Market Noodles.JPG

 

Peppers

 

150527 017 Yakeshi Market Peppers.JPG

 

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

150527 018 Yakeshi Market Butcher Meat.JPG

 

150527 019 Yakeshi Market Butcher Parts.JPG

 

Ferns and wild greens

 

150527 020 Yakeshi Market .JPG

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And even more market pictures.

 

Fruits

150527 023 Yakeshi Market Fruit.JPG

 

Ginger as big as my hand

 

150527 025 Yakeshi Market Ginger Garlic.JPG

 

Fish

 

150527 024 Yakeshi Market Fish.JPG

 

Tomatoes

 

150527 026 Yakeshi Market Tomatoes.JPG

 

 

Rice and corn 

 

150527 027 Yakeshi Market Cornmeal Rice.JPG

 

Dried fish

 

150527 031 Yakeshi Market Dried Fish.JPG

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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.

 

150527 041 Lunch Entrance.JPG

 

 

150527 042 Lunch Veg.JPG

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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?

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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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.

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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.

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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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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.

 

150527 034 InLaws Mongolian Flask.JPG

 

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? :wacko: Yikes!

> ^ . . ^ <

 

 

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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 by liuzhou (log)
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...your dancing child with his Chinese suit.

 

The Kitchen Scale Manifesto

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@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.

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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.

160527 045 Lunch Beer Mama.JPG

 

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

 

160527 043 Lunch Tofu Noodles.JPG

 

Seaweed salad

 

160527 044 Lunch Seaweed.JPG

 

Some pickled root.  Tasted like parsnip.

 

160527 047 Lunch Pickled Root.JPG

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More lunch dishes

 

Whole fish

160527 048 Lunch Fish.JPG

 

Deep fried eggplant stuffed with pork

160527 049 Lunch Fried Eggplant Pork.JPG

 

Nice salad that is hiding glass noodles on the bottom

 

160527 050 Lunch Glass Noodle Salad.JPG

 

 

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

 

160527 051 Lunch Savory Pork.JPG

 

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

 

160527 053 Lunch Sweet and Sour Pork.JPG

 

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

160527 052 Lunch Lettuce Wrap Pork.JPG

 

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

160527 056 Lunch Potato.JPG

 

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

 

160527 054 Lunch Dumplings Lamb.JPG

 

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.

 

160527 057 Lunch Chinese Donuts.JPG

 

 

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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.

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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?

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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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.

 

160527 059 Dinner Appetizers.JPG

 

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.

 

160527 060 Dinner Robot.JPG

 

 

Different spices and sauces for dipping

 

160527 061 Dinner Sauces.JPG

 

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