The Real Harbin Part 1: Dinner

In Ghana, taxis operated more like buses; as long as the taxi wasn’t full, the driver would stop and pick up other people going the same general direction. Harbin has a similar system. On our way to dinner the first night, a random guy hopped in the front seat next to the driver. From what I observed, it sounded like the random guy and the driver were arguing forcefully with each other and with Laura over where we were supposed to be going for dinner. I guess the Chinese language and tone of voice comes off sounding harsher than it sometimes is, because Laura was actually making friends with the driver and asking him for local cuisine recommendations. While we ate alone that night, he gave us his card and offered to take us to a local restaurant the following night.

We called him as we left the ice festival and picked him up in our cab on the way back to town. He took us about 20 minutes outside of the tourist district where we were staying and more into the heart of Harbin. I might not be as adventurous of an eater as Laura, but I do have a rule that I will try anything once. Ordering at the restaurant involved looking at samples of all the uncooked food and pointing to what we wanted before being escorted upstairs to a private room while the food was prepared. I left the ordering up to them, and they ordered a sample of local Northeastern cuisine: pickled cabbage with congealed pigs blood (similar consistency as tofu), a variety of mushrooms with quail egg, whole local freshwater fish cooked in some type of brown sauce, scallion pancakes and noodles and broth. I actually liked the fish; the rest was edible-–although I wasn’t a fan of the pigs blood.

Laura was an expert translator throughout the dinner. The topics of conversation ranged from politics to education, health care, economic development, and real estate. She gave me the evil eye when I asked her to translate adjustable rate mortgages but I was very impressed when she did. We learned a lot about the Northeast Chinese mentality--too much to ever put in the blog, so if you’re really interested, ask me sometime. One fun fact to include: Harbin has the largest beer consumption in all of China. No real surprise there since it’s too cold to do anything else for half the year. Hmm… Kinda like Wisconsin, just without the cheese :).