By MA Yue

 

Note by translator: 

Jianghu, (literally a river and a lake) a term often used in Chinese martial fictions, for a marginalized part of society that follows its own code of conduct and reveres the power of martial arts. 

Dongbei: North-East China 

 

With more than a dozen years of arduous experience in the BBQ business, ZHAO Long admires Lao Yang most. 

Never met him though, Zhao Long heard only of stories of Lao Yang. This old man had nothing more than a stove and a rack along Hongxia Street in Harbin City, let alone a decent restaurant. Yet one had to make a reservation at least 3 days before he would have a bite of Lao Yang’s barbeque skewers. Visitors were drawn to his booth, eating skewers and drinking beers standing, as there were no proper seats. When it was extremely cold in winter, people just drove by, parked nearby and ate in their cars. 

One year after Lao Yang’s death, people started to lament the loss of the legendary grill-master. “Though no one remembers where exactly he runs the booth on Hongxia Street, no one.” said Zhao Long, who runs a 50-square-meter barbeque joint of his own. 

“Lao Yang” lives though, in each northeasterner’s mind. 

Skewers and Beers, a China’s late-night meal, satisfy a northeasterner’s stomach for a mouthful of meat and mouthful of alcohol more than anything else. Sidewalk barbeque booths, not exquisite dishes, are worldly soul satisfier for boisterous and sociable northeasterners.  

All catchy lines about Dongbei is barbeque related.

 "A thick golden necklace and a cute watch he wears, and three meals of barbeques are all he cares” quite portrays the daily life of northeasterners.

"Beijing Shanghai and Guangdong don’t trust tears, while Dongbei people never have too much of beers " is also a saying along barbeque booths.

"The heavy industry that supports Northeastern economy is barbeque, while the light is live video streaming" vividly reveals the status of barbeque in Dongbei.

"Nothing in the world is unsolvable with one meal of barbeque, or two, at most" is the philosophy of northeasterners.  

It is said that the northeasterners can cook barbeque by nature, with a stove, they can barbeque the heck out of the world. 

The prodigal returns and barbeque begins

"Many households would erect a stove and barbeque in the yard or downstairs, just like all Sichuanese can make double cooked pork slices." Zhao Long responded when asked if all northeasterners cook barbeque. There are 8 tables in his shop, which is always filled with guests around mealtime. A small table serves at least five rounds of guests every day. "There is no secret recipe." Zhao said. 

Though a homemade barbeque meal is easy for northeasterners, for one depending on the business to earn a living, it’s always the flavor that he would focus on to grab loyal stomachs.

11 years ago, Zhao Long moved to the city of Dalian, working and learning in larger barbeque restaurants after a hard time operating self-owned barbeque shops with his relatives, a common route for many barbeque shop owners.

As of the schools of Dongbei Barbeque, the three provinces in this region all have their distinct characters. Heilongjiang, bordering Russia, is prevalent with large marinated beef and lamb skewers. Jilin, deeply influenced by Korean way of eating, is good at using garlics and chili sauce. While “grill all” Liaoning encompasses broader choices of ingredients and features seafood.

Of course, there is no strict separation of different styles of barbeque, as regional culinary culture continues to develop and integrate. For instance, when in Dalian, Zhao Long discovered that locals preferred “original barbeque”. Meat skewers are not marinated before they are grilled, with only salt, MSG, cumin, chili powder and sugar being added to enhance the original flavors of beef and lamb.

After moving back to Harbin, Zhao Long makes use of his rich experience in cooking with different flavors. He seeks a more stable strategy by offering mainly two flavors of skewers. "One is traditional spicy, with sophisticated use of chilies, that brings back taste of the yore," he told Jiemian, "while another, the new tastes, such as sweet honey skewers, are what young fellows would be willing to try."

While skewers of big meat chunks appear satisfying, thin skewers pierced with small 1-centimeter-wide-or-so meat dices are more attractive to foodies. "Small dices heat evenly and cook fast, therefore they are tastier when cooked in the original style." Zhao Long explained.

In late 1990s and early 2000s, when price level was low, one skewer sold at between 15 and 30 cents only at booths in residential areas in Harbin. "In the beginning, small skewers were most popular. People really ate a lot in those days. Some could eat more than 100 skewers." He recalled.

For "grill all" northeasterners, anything that in some sense fits to be roasted would worth being barbequed.

Last year Zhao Long got drawn to an online culinary documentary Life along a Skewer, especially a footage showing people roasting pig aorta. "In Harbin, pig aorta is sliced or diced before being grilled. It’s seldom grilled as a whole. I’d really wanted to try grilling it as whole after watching the video." He did. He followed the documentary and experimented quite a while to cook it right, before he recommended his new dish to customers.

For most northeasterners in the business, barbeque is a way to earn a living. There indeed isn’t too much sentiment or craftsmanship in it. Nevertheless, it will not stop a humorous shop owner from having fun when cooking barbeque and touting business.

"Oh the sizzling tendon", "the everyday tantalizing series of lamb chop with garlic sprout, the perfect match", "oh man, the No. 1 sizzling barbeque on the internet"... it’s 10 pm, Zhao Long took a few short videos with his phone of the skewers oozing grease, pressed "send" with satisfaction, and shared them on his Wechat of 5,000 friends and Douyin, China’s version of Tiktok, of more than 30,000 followers. 

Jianghu beside a barbeque booth

35 year-old JIN Wei lives in Anshan City, Liaoning Province. He met his good fellows at barbeque booths.

Having barbeque meals together is a form of relationship. Sitting around a table, eating skewers and drinking beers represent recognition and closeness. Among Jin Wei and his fellows, one is a civil servant, one is a policeman, while Jin Wei helps supervise a construction project for his family business.

It’s definitely lively the way southerners having barbeques, yet each table has a boundary. For northeasterners all table surrounding a booth becomes one family with the right amount of alcohol. Jin Wei heard of the troubles of this next-table civil servant who was seeking divorce over trivia. He also witnessed the distress of this police friend who got drunk after his girlfriend broke up with him. 

Once familiar with each other, they would occasionally gather at a barbeque booth. There are times when they hang around late and the shop is closed, they would ask for some charcoal and grill on their own.

Thanks to the mixed effect of smoke and alcohol, people let their guards down and indulge themselves in meat and beers. After a few rounds of good drinking, they open up themselves and show their feelings and sentiment without otherwise concerns. Jin Wei once invited his fellows to a proper dinner at home, which ended quickly for the mood was not as relaxing as at a barbeque booth.

A barbeque booth epitomizes Jianghu in Northeast China. A much followed answer on Zhihu, China’s largest online Q&A platform, even speaks of barbeque eating manners as something that reflects one’s social status. 

At the same time, regardless of your social status, all men are brothers once sit around a barbeque stand. This no-more-than 10 feet long smoking grill along with many other such ones tell stories and specialties of Dongbei Barbeque.

Barbeque, live streamed

“What’s up bro… two skewers of kidney! Thanks for your patronage, bro and sis!” A round-faced northeastern woman smiled and greeted her guests, while busy turning skewers, brushing oil and sprinkling spices.

The restaurant has a bright and spacious half-open kitchen equipped with smoke-free barbeque cart that vents out most fumes, allowing her to work and interact with guests who circle around the cart and lift cameras to videotape her. Patrons are all drawn to this “Kidney Lady Griller of Heihe” who has gone viral on Douyin, a social media video app. 

The catchphrase that “Barbeque the heavy industry and online live show plus short videos the light industry” is more than merely an expression.

Of the TOP 10 video bloggers voted by Weibo users during the Super Celebrities Festival in 2016, 6 were from the Northeast. According to the 2017 Report on Video Bloggers by Momo, an online dating platform, 63.3% male vloggers were from the three Northeastern provinces, who broadcast live over 8 hours a day on average.

Kidney Lady Griller of Heihe is a successful late starter. 

Apart from the delicious roasted lamb kidney sizzling with grease, hearing a yell of “What’s up bro” really fulfills the purpose of a foodie’s trip. This long and high-pitched yell with heavy northeastern accent went viral on Douyin in 2018. It was used as a voice style and background music for all kinds of funny videos. It made the Kidney Lady Griller an internet celebrity with over 1.48 million followers on Douyin.

Yet just a year prior to that, Kidney Lady Griller was the furthest away one can be from fancy gatherings of internet celebrities and live broadcasting shows. She then worked at a night market, a flourishing commercial block that bustles with all kinds of mobile food stands of barbeque, hot-pot, stir-fried cold lasagna, fruit, etc.

Before revered as Kidney Lady Griller, she was nicknamed Little Chubby Sister by stands owners and guests. She and her husband started selling fried smelly tofu with a food cart in 2012. Later on, they moved on to barbeque. 

Compared with a restaurant’s backhouse, sidewalk kitchens and food stands allow the owners to interact with their guests. A lasting barbeque business depends on a backbone host, or a friendly and sociable hostess. The Kidney Lady Griller’s nature of warm greetings has been put into full play.

"Repeated visits are most important. I’d serve more than they order or just round down the bills." She also initiates chats with customers. "They ask about my business. I’d say not bad. Then we chat about their business and life."

Casual conversations draw them closer and kill time faster. Hehei is a city nearing the China-Russia border. The temperature drops below minus 20 Celsius degrees in winter. “Chats kill time and they wouldn’t rush me too often.” She said.

The turning point for her fame was a result of her northeastern way of hospitality.

It was an August day last year, a Douyin vlogger was hanging around searching for someone to shoot with. No one was interested in his request for shooting as they were busy with their businesses. He then stopped before the Kidney Lady Griller's cart.

"It felt good shooting a video. I don’t lose nothing." She recalled. The signature "What’s up bro" was her everyday greeting to customers. "He then came back and told me that I was a hit. The clip was viewed over 5 million times."

More and more visitors who saw the video on Douyin came for her. Some even travelled hundreds or thousands of miles to Heihe, just for a greeting "What’s up bro" by her and a video featuring her. "In many cases, they just crowded around me the moment I parked my cart, shouting how long they had waited for me."

Now she also uses social media, like Douyin, to tout for customers.

Northeasterners are born friendly and forthright. The Kidney Lady Griller sees no difference greeting those in the screen than those around her cart. Professional digital marketers from Hangzhou reached out to her for cooperation. She has frequently appeared in Harbin, Yantai, Xi’an and other cities for the past several months to live-broadcast how she barbeques.

Although already an internet celebrity, the Kidney Lady Griller does not wish to quit barbeque, her old line of business. When the night market began to forbid food stands, she partnered with her brother to open a brick and mortar joint. "Some people say I became complacent with the fame," she told Jimian News, "I did not. I am still who I was. I want to make more money, so that I will eventually have a 200-square-meter barbeque shop of my own."

Jinzhou barbeque goes nationwide

“Here is my thought, people recognize such a selling point.” Sounds richly northeastern, DUAN Minghui is actually from Yunnan Province. After over 10 years working with a business partner from Heilongjiang, his accent has been assimilated.

Duan, together with his partner, run a sea food barbeque shop outside the fifth ring road of Beijing. The eye-catching shop sign reads “The Sixth Generation of Authentic Jinzhou Barbeque”. (note: Jinzhou is a city in the southwest of Liaoning Province)

Behind the translucent glass is the kitchen where chef Lao Zhang is busy turning pig trotters on a grill and sprinkling spices. Being the specialty of this shop, it is printed on the back of waiters’ uniforms as “Signature Dongbei Pig Feet Barbeque.”

Lao Zhang’s title sounds like he is from a barbeque family of long history. The truth is, as Duan admits, Lao Zhang is indeed from Jinzhou, yet he as the sixth generation chef does not necessarily mean that his great-great-great-grandfather also barbequed. Lao Zhang was a descendant apprentice of some Jinzhou barbeque chef. 

Dongbei barbeque has become its own signature. In Beijing, it’s not difficult to find barbeque shops using names of northeastern cities, for example, Jinzhou Barbeque, Yanji Barbeque, Qiqihar Roast Meat, Ice City Skewers, Hegang Tripe and Barbeque etc. 

Jinzhou, being especially popular these years, is the leading example of Dongbei barbeque extending its influence outside of Northeast China.

Sitting at southeast of Liaoning Province, Jinzhou looks up mountains in the north and faces the sea to the south. Its special geographic location and abundant produce contributes to its inclusive flavors from salty northeastern taste to many other choices. Jinzhou barbeque is also famous for its “grill all” that uses raw materials of beef, mutton, chicken, vegetables, fruit, or even insect (pupa). 

Be it beef and mutton skewers, streaky pork, or Japanese yakitori of grilled chicken skin, soft bone and liver, or eggplant, potato and kidney beans that are supposed to be stewed, Jinzhou people grill them without discrimination. Some menu goes on and on with more than 100 items. 

The credit also goes to the local government. Decent barbeque shops in Jinzhou erect in front of their doors stones inscribed with “Jinzhou Barbeque, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Jinzhou, By Jinzhou Municipal People’s Government”. In 2011, Jinzhou government included Jinzhou Barbeque in its third List of Local Intangible Cultural Heritage.

As someone from Yunnan, Duan finds it difficult to distinguish Jinzhou Barbeque from other northeastern barbeques, Harbin barbeque for instance, just based on their flavors. But just as the nationwide Lanzhou Ramen is run by people from Qinghai and Hangzhou Small Steamed Dumpling is not that all authentic, Duan wants to use some kind of branding to attract customers.

"I figured since the title of Intangible Cultural Heritage has been approved, Jinzhou barbeque is already taking a lead, like a business with a patent." He rationalizes that as barbeque restaurants flourish in Jinzhou, there must be thorough research and practices that led to the industry cluster, and for the culinary culture to spread. 

"In Jinzhou, barbeque shops with stones erected at their doorsteps are recognized for their authenticity. In Beijing, with our barbeque shop named a Jinzhou Barbeque, we’ve got people come in specifically and ask 'bro, you authentic Dongbei Barbeque?'"

 

(Zhao Long, Jin Wei and Duan Minghui are all alias)