Heilongjiang Street Food

5 dishes in China

5 street foods from Heilongjiang, China: Gewasi Kvass, Kao Leng Mian, Harbin Hongchang, Dalieba and Mader Bing. Each one has its own page with the story behind it and what to look for.

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Street foods of Heilongjiang

Gewasi (格瓦斯) Kvass

Russian Railway Legacy · Fermented Drink Gewasi (格瓦斯) Kvass Harbin's best-known kvass comes from Qiulin, a company that grew out of the Russian trading house Churin & Co., which opened in the city in 1900. Gewasi is Harbin's take on Russian kvass, a lightly sour, faintly fizzy fermented drink introduced by Russian railway workers and settlers over a century ago. It's sold from street carts…

Kao Leng Mian (Grilled Cold Noodles)

Snack · Griddled Kao Leng Mian (Grilled Cold Noodles) Despite the name, there's no 'cold noodle' stage left at all — a 1990s invention that grills starch noodle sheets originally made for cold… Thick starch noodle sheets are cut into strips and pan-fried with egg, scallion, cabbage, and sweet-savory sauce, sometimes with sausage, then folded and sliced.

Harbin Hongchang (Red Sausage)

Snack · Smoked Harbin Hongchang (Red Sausage) Its garlicky, smoky flavor and reddish casing come directly from Lithuanian sausage-making traditions, brought by European railway workers over a… A coarse, garlic-forward pork sausage is smoked over wood until the casing takes on a deep reddish-purple color, then sliced and eaten cold or grilled on a stick.

Dalieba (Harbin Russian Bread)

Bread · Sourdough, wood-fired Dalieba (Harbin Russian Bread) A single loaf can weigh around 2 kilograms and measure over 20 centimeters across — locals queue for it the way people elsewhere queue for a whole… A large, round sourdough loaf made with just flour, water, yeast, salt, and hops undergoes three-stage fermentation before baking in a hardwood-fired oven.

Mader Bing (Modern Hotel Ice Cream Bar)

Dessert · Frozen Mader Bing (Modern Hotel Ice Cream Bar) People line up to buy it even at minus 25 degrees Celsius — eating ice cream in the depths of a Harbin winter is a local rite of passage. A simple vanilla ice pop made with fresh milk and egg, dense and creamy, sold from the Modern Hotel's kiosks on Harbin's Central Street and now at outlets across the city.

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Part of World of Street Food — 3441 dishes from 118 countries. Photo credits.