Northeastern Chinese Food!

I mentioned to our family friend that one of my friends from back home is studying abroad in Harbin, China for a whole year learning Chinese. My friend is crazy by the way because Harbin is one of the coldest places ever! In the winter, they actually have a really famous Ice & Snow Sculpture Festival each year that draws tons of visitors from all over. So last week, our family friend decided to take me to 黑土, a pretty nice restaurant (cheap nonetheless) that serves 東北菜 aka Northeastern Chinese cuisine which is really different from what I usually eat. The place was nicely decorated-but once we sat down we were surprised with this.....

Yes the 2 men at the table next to us decided it was a great time and place to take off their shirts in the middle of dinner and reveal their fire cupping marks. I love the art of fire cupping don't get me wrong-but I really don't wanna see that when I'm eating dinner. I can't believe no one asked them to put their shirts back on. Only in China... only in China.

Yummy cold noodles. The sauce was very different from the typical cold noodles I have. They should open more Northeastern Chinese food places!

Even our veggies were delicious. The sauce was spicy like wasabi!

But the highlight of the night was this monster!!! Look at that bone marrow on the beef! The flavor in this guy put those Disneyland turkey legs to shame!

Everyone had to be given plastic gloves to eat this thing and a straw to suck out and drink the juice and marrow!!! Awesome! This also gave me the great idea that next time I go to Disneyland for the turkey legs, I'm going to bring my own plastic gloves! Thank you Northeastern food!

This was a beef stew dish. The little bread/cookie like things are Northeastern specialities. Not my taste personally since they tasted like flavorless pancakes. The stew was good though. See how everyone is wearing a glove still trying to devour the last beef dish? Yum!!

This was a delicious scallion pancake. It literally melted in your mouth!! So good! Best I've had!

Glutinous rice balls for dessert.

Blueberry pudding cake. This was a little too much for me. Not my favorite.

This place was really good. Beef & Scallion pancake for the win!!!