Harbin has the advantage of being a Chinese city with a close location and history with Russia, giving you a wide-range of dining experiences. You can find several restaurants that serve filling Russian-style soups and meals, and visitors to Harbin should never miss a Russian style dinner!Harbin red sausage is red colored, the meat is good and tastes smoky. It is usually eaten with big bread (da lieba) and beer. You can buy this at the sales stands of Harbin Meat-packing Joint Plant (Harbin Roulianchang). These chains can be found along the streets of Harbin. If you prefer to stick with Chinese food, there are many dishes to keep you warm in this very cold region of China. You will find lanterns hanging outside the Chinese restaurants indicating their food characteristics. Red lanterns denote typical Chinese food, whilst blue lanterns denote Muslim food (no pork). It is also said that the more lanterns a restaurant has, the higher the standard of cooking it has to offer. Local dishes you may wish to try are: Chicken stewed with mushrooms.This is a famous Dongbei dish where fresh chicken meat and mushrooms are stewed with ginger and shallots. It is delicious and will warm you up if you visit in winter.Pickled Chinese cabbage stewed with chops/ mutton hot potPickled Chinese cabbage is very common with families of northeast China. It is a good way to preserve vegetables when it gets too cold for the open-air markets.

As winter approaches every year, local people fill a big clay pot (about one meter tall and 0.7 meters wide) with cabbages, and then water and salt to pickle them. They place a large stone on these cabbages in the jar to press the vegetables.  After about a month, the cabbages will become fermented and sour, and so not decay, and can be eaten throughout the whole winter. These pickled cabbages make delicious meals when cooked with meat.You may also enjoy the seafood dog salmon and sturgeon.A highly recommended restaurant is Huamei Restaurant. The food is very Russian, containing more than 40 kinds of Russian dishes. Address: No. 112 Central Street, Daoli District, Harbin.