Harbin Series: Russia Coffee & Food ♥

I am a sucker for bests.

Before I travel to a new place, I spend 2 weeks googling the destination’s bests. Best local delicacies, best restaurants, best dessert places, best hole in the wall, best food streets, best street foods, best food items to bring home, best attractions, best hotels. Yes, in that exact order.

When I google for Harbin’s, Russia Coffee & Food (or Russian Cafe or Cafe Russia or Luxiya) comes up almost always at the top of the list.

I am a sucker for bests.

 

 

Our first attempt, the restaurant was packed.

With a long waitlist.

I tried to make reservations for the next day. The owner/manager said they do not take reservations.

“Look how many people coming here. Look how many people waiting outside. ALL THE TIME. No, cannot take reservation.”

 

I tried again, giving him my most charming smile.

Nothing.

“Come before 11:30am. You will get a seat.”

At least he gave me a tip.

  

 

Fast forward 2 days, at 11:15am…

Russian Red Caviar – slightly salty, briny, and tastes of the ocean. Not all eggs have that crisp “pop.” Some are already soft and wrinkly.

 

Beef and Vegetable Red Soup – you know this has been simmered for hours and hours because the broth is very tasty. The dollop of sour cream gives the soup a richer and creamier taste. 

 

Cheese – I order this because the server claims it is one of their specialties. It’s processed cheese!!! As in Kraft singles. WTH! At least they had taken the time to cut the individually wrapped slices into triangular pieces.

 

Imported America Striploin Steak – lifeless, dry, tough. Too bad because they imported this all the way from America.

 

Fried Pork Pie – huge and filling. And no wonder it’s so heavy because it has rice inside, too. Fried pork and rice pie, a complete meal in itself.

 

Russian Cabbage Meat Rolls – if you don’t like fried and battered food, try this low carb version of the fried pork pie. No batter, no deep-frying, the same pork filling wrapped in cabbage leaves.

 

Russian Hamburger – mediocre at best

 

Pot Lamb – messy but good

 

Nelson, Brian, Sherylou, Me

 

Another “been there, done that” on my tourist trap list.

 

Russia Coffee & Food 露西亚西餐厅: 57 Xitoudao Jie, Dao Li District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. 道里区西头道街57号. Tel: +86451-84563207

Harbin Series: Sun Island ♥ ♥

I have seen snow many times before. But I didn’t really take the time to look at it up close.

 

Until a few snowflakes landed by my car window.

Aren’t they the daintiest, prettiest and littlest things?

 

Now imagine that tiny, delicate snowflake mutate into…

A smiling giant Buddha

 

A snow slide with monkey faces 

 

A Chinese gate

 

An half-woman half-dragon

 

An owl wall?

 

Incredible, isn’t it?

There are so many more snow sculptures to see, except my camera battery just won’t agree.

Boo.

 

Sherylou and me

 

Random people we don’t know. Seriously. 

 

The park is huge. Travel in style.

 

 

Sun Island 太阳岛公园: North bank of Songhua River, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. Tel: +86451-88190230

Harbin Series: Orient King of Dumplings Ӫ

Our very first night in Harbin.

We are freezing and starving.

We order enough food to feed a small country.

 

粉腸 & 肝腸 Pork sausage and liver sausage

 

紅油豬耳 Pig ear in chili oil

 

五香牛肉 Five spice beef

 

豬手 Pork kunckle

 

山东拌菜 Shandong beef-vegetable mix

 

韭菜豬肉煎餃 Pork and chives fried dumpling

 

三鮮水餃 Three delicacies dumpling

 

羊肉萝卜湯 Mutton radish soup

 

虾仁菌菇湯 Shrimp and mushroom soup

 

The dishes are bland, the soups are oily.

And there is just too much skin on the fried and boiled dumplings.

Out of nine dishes, they only got one right.

Shandong beef-vegetable mix. That’s the only one I like.

Orient King of Dumplings, you do not deserve the crown.

 

Orient King of Dumpling 东方饺子王: 39 Zhongyang Dajie, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China. 黑龙江省哈尔滨市中央大街39号 Tel: +86451-84855111

Harbin Series: Shangri-la Hotel Ice Palace and Ice Bar ♥ ♥

And Shangri-la does it, too.

Every year, during the Ice and Snow Festival, Shangri-la Hotel Harbin builds its own ice restaurant where diners can enjoy shabu-shabu meals in the comfort of –18 degrees. 

Entrance to Ice Palace

 

Dumplings and meatballs line the hallway

 

One of the more elegant private dining rooms

 

For people who prefer the “in the wild” feel

 

In this godforsaken weather, hotpot meal is the only way to go

 

Sadly, the food is just average shabu-shabu fare, we do not even get prime cuts of meat. Except for the ice structure and the minus eighteen degrees, there really is nothing extraordinary about this meal.

 

BRRRRRRian, Sherylou, Me, Nelson 

 

After dinner, we have a few drinks.

For warmth.

It is absolutely necessary.

 

We head to Ice Bar just next door

 

Ice Bar. As in literally.

 

Ice table and stools

 

Ice entertainment

  

Check out the iced snowflake design on my wine glass. Totally stellar.

 

Fun (and very drunk!) Singaporean tourists having a merry-crazy time with Siberian tiger stuffed animal “tails”

 

With the cute and nice bartender we harassed all night

 

Shangri-la Hotel Harbin: 555 You Yi Road, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. 中国哈尔滨道里区友谊路555号. Tel: +86451-84858888

Harbin Series: Lao Yu Tou 老于头 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

 

Everything happens for a reason.

Like for instance, Brian and Nelson’s slowmo-ness.

Because it takes them forever to get ready, by the time we step out of the hotel to hail a cab, Mrs. Zhang’s taxi is just pulling over to let someone off.

It is all timing.

Mrs. Zhang, a bubbly and motherly middle-aged woman, becomes our driver/tour guide/nanny/butler/entertainer/photographer for the duration of our trip.

But I believe the real reason why our paths have crossed is this:

 

Lao Yu Tou Fish Restaurant

Rather than going to the tourist trap restaurants on my list, Mrs. Zhang suggests we try something genuinely local and brings us to this restaurant about 1000 meters from the Siberian Tiger Park. According to her, Lao Yu Tou is the best place to experience local Harbin cuisine.

These are what greet us when we enter the restaurant:

 

The traditional open kitchen

 

Stacks and stacks of dirty dishes

 

90% of Harbin’s population waiting to get a seat. (I swear it feels like it!)

 

Sterilized eating tools. Thank God!

 

Right away I know this is going to be an awesome meal.

 

First, we pick a good-sized fish

 

Then we pour the secret broth into the built-in cast iron wok

 

Carefully put in the cleaned and gutted fish

 

Then wait for it to boil, a bit like shabu-shabu

 

We don’t like to waste time, so we keep ourselves busy while we wait.

With these:

Pickled vegetables

 

Native chicken with soy sauce and ginger. Flavorful but bony.

 

Pickled and smoked pechay. Yum.

 

Some fish intestine (liver?) cooked with fish roe. Now this is REALLY good!

 

Spongy bread. They don’t do rice here. But this is way better than rice.

 

Ooops! This is the only picture I have of the fish. Sorry. When I get carried away, I forget. But this is the best fish pot I have ever had. Because the fish is fresh, its meat is so soft and sweet. It’s like eating baby meat. And with the addition of vegetables, mushrooms and tofu, the soup has become a milky color and is so flavorful that if you use it to cook rice, you will have the best congee in the world. And yes, that is my plate. I am a fish head and breast fin person.

 

And for dessert, frogs in Chinese sweet syrup

 

We wash down the amphibians with this ice-cold Harbin Beer

 

To date, this is one of the greatest meals of my life.

 

Brian, Mrs. Zhang, Sherylou, Nelson, Me

 

I am just kidding about the frogs, silly!

 

Lao Yu Tou 江北老于头渔馆: Longjiang No. 1 Village, Songbei District, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. 松北区龙江第一村村口 (距东北虎林园1000米处) Tel: +86451-87162555, +86451-88107660