 Yeah, we're about to eat that in a second. I would've preferred it to even be a little more sour. Oh, crazy! Yeah, I don't want to work. Oh, crazy! Yeah, I don't like dows... Growing up Chinese American, I had never met a person from the northeast of China, AKA Dongbei. And as of 2005, there was only one Dongbei restaurant in America. Today, there's over 70. People from the northeast are known to drink a lot, they're animated, they're low rowdy, and they're also tall. Those don't sound like your standard Hollywood stereotypes. So, we're sitting down with our China expert friend, D-Zao, to have a fancy Dongbei village feast fit for a chief of nomadic herdsmen. Fish stews, sour cabbage, large geese, corn biscuits, candied yams, and jelly noodles. And if that sounds interesting, that's because there's influences from Mongolia, North Korea, and Russia. So, we're gonna show you why you might want to check out Dongbei food next time you have a chance. All right, everybody, we're about to start our crazy Dongbei feast. We have so much food on the table. We got Daniel with us. It feels like we're in the bath house with all the steam going on, all right? I mean, look at the size of this pot. Like, you could bathe in this. But listen, Daniel, just tell us what we're looking at because I'm trying to eat. This is a stewed fish. It's a tiwutun dagu. We got three fish in there. We got tofu, corn, see some dates. I mean, this is quintessential Dongbei because Dongbei people love to stew things. Right, right, in the winters. The cold winters of Dongbei. Serving it up? Let's get it. I don't know if these paper bowls can really hold up with the hot stew. You know, you go to a Dongbei restaurant, you're gonna have a good time because most of the time you're gonna be drinking. Like, Dongbei people love to drink. There's a lot of Baijiu in Dongbei. Drinking culture. I mean, look at this food. It's like Ji Gu Jia, right? Famous for being a drinking food. Yeah, you go to a Dongbei restaurant. Most of the time you go to a big group. You're not gonna take a date to a Dongbei restaurant unless she's really down to eat. Unless she's a Dongbei girl. Unless she's a Dongbei girl. Let's start off with the fish stew. This is like a Chinese dish I've never seen before. Dongbei fish stew, tiwutun hoyu. Wow. I just feel like I'm nomadic herdsman. The fish is fresh. Wow. The fish is fresh. Dude, this food is some earthy, hearty, down-home cooking. Gus actually remind me a little bit of Korean solemn tongue. Tell you this guys, immediately, what you guys will notice about Dongbei food is it doesn't look like much. It looked cool when it was cooking but now that we started eating it, it just looks like pot in the ground. I know it was good though because the chef back there, the main chef, he was taking it really seriously. We have covered Northeastern Chinese food on our channel before but these are definitely things that I've never had. In this other pot, we got a tiwutun da lu which is pot, stew, goose. This is not duck. This is not pork. This is not chicken. This is goose. Look at that. This sort of fits in with the narrative about Dongbei because they eat a lot of like game meat. We got notice on the side of the pot. There's a tiwi. Like yeah, it's like steamed cornbread. It's like the Chinese cornbread. Dongbei cornbread, tiwi. You gotta hit the stew and then dip that into the pot. I'm not gonna lie guys, it's not that fire without the stew. By itself, the cornbread doesn't do that much but I love the texture. In Dongbei, they don't, you know, if you call it bro, you don't call them a glum or a glum, but laotia. Once you get past going to Dongbei, it's a laotia. So you're saying in Dongbei, they got next level broism whereas they're not even using the regular term for bro. They're just, they're using their own term. The more Northeastern China you would go, the more you would fit in with like rock. There's all these potatoes in here. I didn't even give it to you guys. I'm sorry, I'm not being a good laotia. Be a more lao laotia. Pot stew goose. Here, what's in that laotia? Oh, you gotta get a lot of sauce with this. Okay, that flavor is a little bit more similar to other things I've had. The goose is such a large bird that for a second you're confusing it with like, is this pork? That's a good ass point. The meat pieces are huge. Are huge, like. I mean, look at this goose. Has a strong starry-neese flavor but it's actually a tiny bit spicy. I'm the chief of this Dongbei village. I'll do what I want. Man, imagine if we're about to go to the Harbin Ice Festival after this. That'd be sick. We have this corn juice. I've never had this. It's warm in my hand right now. Daniel, explain what corn juice is. It's called a juice, but it's far from a juice. In the Western world, we know corn syrup. A lot of things are made out of corn but that's like the sugary thing, but yeah. All right, you guys, for me between the first two Dongbei stews that we had, I'm actually going with the fish. I thought the fish was like more advanced tasting. I think it's the southern happy in you, Steve. I'm gonna roll with that fish as well. No, that was definitely one of the best stews I've had. Damn, I feel like I'm in the village for real. So, Andrew, what you rolling with? I gotta go roll with the stew fish, man. I think the tabbing is a must though. Yo, guys, I know that this is a start to a good Dongbei meal because I've already done something very wild and unkempt. Five color noodle. Man, I love it because this is kind of like a noodle salad and it has like the strong sesame flavor. It's a little bit spicy. Like I could see why Dongbei people are so big because they're eating so much food. Well, let's just say this. You guys know Pongtai. A lot of Dongbei guys actually look like Pongtai. Hey, Pongtai is not Dongbei though. It's Dongbei. I feel like Dongbei people respect Pongtai, Dongbei people. They see them as one of their own. I would say for the meals that I know of in terms of Dongbei food, this is a must get. Because it balances out with everything else. It's like cold, kind of spicy, but smooth dish. And I think it's so different than everything else here. So you gotta have that to balance out the meal. This is probably the most underrated dish in the entire Chinese cuisine. It's like a big statement. Like on the streets, a lot of people just eat this as a meal. You just get a Lapi and that's lunch. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Hayashi Chuka was based off Wutai Lapi. Just to rate the three dishes that we've had so far for the fish pot, I'm gonna give it a four out of five. The goose I'm gonna give a 3.5 out of five and the Wutai Lapi a five. This is a five out of five dish to me. Three veggies, desunption. They are not playing around without oily. I always felt like eggplant was an underrated vegetable. Eggplant has a very unique flavor. Heavily used emoji though. Yo, the goose pot is burning. Frank, help us out. As the liquid has all evaporated, you know, they have to pour in more soup to kind of replenish it, just like a hot pot. Reminds me of watching Trevor James and Food Ranger. Don't make pork ribs. Jiang Da Gu, are we doing the hands? Yes. This is true, I always ask for this. I don't care if nobody else wants it. I'm getting this. This is my sleeper pick out of these five. This is my number one pick. Okay. Authentic sweet and sour pork, Guobao Ro. This is the classic. My favorite don't-bake dish, the Guobao Ro. All right, for me, I like that. And I know that that's Liaoning style, but for me, I actually like the Harbin style the most. Sauce on the Harbin style is more clear. Some people think, Andrew, that Guobao Ro is the authentic root of actually sweet and sour pork. I gotta say, if this is a traditional recipe, it does look like it. This is my number one pick. I gotta go on to the Jigu job. Did I say the right? I know some of the dishes. Human Chicken Rock. Jigu job. Yo, this one's really good. This might have been one of the best versions I had in America. This one tastes like it's like the less out of drinking spot and more like a fancy restaurant. You know what I love is that the meat doesn't look juicy at all, but when you bite into it, it still has some of that moisture. All right, last but not least, guys. Oh, do you guys see something in your eye? I got some cumin in my eye. Oh, oh, it's crazy. Don't rub your eyes when you're eating Jigu job. Pandas yams. Pasta jiga. Oh my gosh. Would you agree with me? I would say this is very much unlike anything else in any other part of China. It's almost like a crazy street food that's a restaurant food. That's the best one I've had, man. That's the best pasta jiga I've ever had. It's super sweet and it's cooked so soft and the outside is crispy. Oh my gosh. I'm surprised to see this crispy. That is the best pasta jiga I've ever had personally. Wow, I wanna eat more. Oh, man. Put it away, put it away. Up that round, I think the pasta jiga was definitely the best compared to the versions I've had before. But for me, like I said, my personal sweeper pick, and a lot of people don't pick this one, is the jajang jajudo. A lot of people go against me when I say that. Daniel's against the blue collar, simple braise. For me, it's the basa diva because I didn't expect it to taste good after we left it out for a little while. No, because a lot of places, it's not good. But I guess that speaks to the quality that they cook things here at Happy Village. You get a cumin chicken rack and you get those candy games. You're sacked. Round two. Cucumbers with bean paste. Huanghua dan da jiao. Nice little nut cleanser. It tastes slightly different than the Korean version. Like maybe like 25% different. This one. What is this appetizer? I've never had this before. It's a gelatin mixed with pork skin, like pork rinds. And you get this dip with it, right? Yeah, it's super soft, really soft. I've never had this before. I think I've always seen this on the menu and not got it. Pork skin gelatin, pi doh. Let me just tell you this, dog. It probably wouldn't be my go-to regardless. It kind of tastes like, you know, that Sichuan pork belly bairou dish. Yeah. I don't know, it's interesting. I would actually say that that was, to be honest, better than I thought, but I probably still would not order it on my own. It's like not my favorite dish, but I'll eat it sometimes. Dude, I can't believe you would say that and then diss the Zhang Gu Tou. The Zhang Gu Tou is the same thing as that, but just 700% better. All right, moving on. You guys, we got the mahua, of course. This is freshly fried. It's like twirled twice. Oh my gosh. It almost looks like an auntie Ann's pretzel. All right guys, let's get it. Mahua. Oh. It does really feel like a pretzel kind of. Yeah. That's one of my favorite mahua that I've ever had. This is pretty. This is like a pretty mahua. David, the other ones will pop up a picture of the other mahua's we had with Richie and they will almost look more like donuts. Xiao Ji Duan Mo Gu. Woo! Hi, girl. This, it looks kind of like a huangmenji. This is probably better than huangmenji. I think it's better. Oh no. Wow. Daniel's always dissing on the huangmenji. Chicken wild mushroom stew. Xiao Ji Duan Mo Gu. Man, I'm about to eat the chicken. Now check out the vermicellas. It's not better than huangmenji. It's good, it is not better than huangmenji. No way. It's not as good as huangmenji, even though I don't like huangmenji. You know what it is? This tastes very homemade, probably the most homemade out of all the dishes that we had, maybe this tied with the fish pot. I would say that this stew tastes a little bit more medicinal. It doesn't hit you almost like a restaurant dish. This by far took me most to like a Dongbei village. The more I eat it, the more I like it. I almost want to say it's the most addictive of any stew that we've had. Yeah, cause we're like, yeah, yeah, wasn't that good, it's not as good as huangmenji. And then just, oh, I just keep eating this. Might have to revise my feelings, my initial feelings on this. There's a reason why these things are classic. Overall, 4.5 out of 5. Hold up, hold up. Please, attention to this stew. I have the sour cabbage stew right here. And we have pork rib, we have pork belly slices. Wow! Flip it over, flip it over. Sour cabbage with pork. Suncaidongmairo, does not disappoint. Man, I don't know. Swan, the swan is strong. You know why you like the sour cabbage so much? And I'll tell you, because when we went to your house and we had chowsas one time, you had a whole big stack of dumplings and then we just ate it with black vinegar. Just black vinegar. So your tolerance for it is probably much higher than even ours. I would say this is reaching the limits for me personally. I would like not want it anymore. So I would have preferred it to even be a little more sour. Oh, crazy! Yeah, I, oh, crazy! Yeah. The only downside- This is like some sour cabbage soup. Geez, I would have said- Yeah, this is like you poured a bunch of exorbitant acid in here. My comment was like, I wish this would have been a little more sour. Dude, that's why you don't like wangmenji because wangmenji don't got enough vinegar in it. But you know what? Every individual's taste buds is not the same. Aren't you guys, before we get into some deep cut Dongbei culture talk, let's talk just about the food that we had. Man, the biggest surprise for me is probably the bossa di gua. I wish I had that piece earlier before it got cold. But even cold, it was really good. Yeah, even cold was really good. Just the sweet potato was like perfectly ripe, perfectly fried. Yeah, you're right. There was something about the bossa di gua that it was more bossa di gua than the other bossa di gua I've had prior. That was the most bossa di gua of the bossa di gua. For me, it was the tilapia fish pot and then the chicken pot. I think for the fish pot, I kept wanting to drink the broth. And then for this, I wanted to eat everything. Those two dishes tasted the most homemade to me. Of the four pots, what was your favorite pot? I'm gonna go with this one, chicken mushroom. Or it's either tied between this and the fish. Because I was just thinking of wangmenji. Yeah, that's true. Any type of wangmenji, sign me up. I'm really wavering between the fish pot earlier and the goose pot. But just because I hadn't had that much goose before, I think I gotta roll with the goose pot. That was my first time cleaning off like an entire goose leg. Aren't you guys, we have an entire section dedicated to some just Dongbei talk. Well, you know what they call talking in Dongbei? Blau Ke. Blau Ke means literally sit around, shoot the shit. I know you were saying a lot of people that are popular live streamers right now in mainland China are from Dongbei. I mean the entertainment industry in China is populated by Dongbei talent. But Chinese YouTuber will most likely be somebody from Dongbei. Why are Dongbei people generally so expressive in such like good entertainers? So I heard this theory and I think it's probably true is because they're going back to the temperature in the region, right? Dongbei has like seven months of the years like the dead of winter. You're not gonna go outside, you're not gonna do any farm work, you're gonna be at home with your family, chillin', what are you gonna do? You're sitting around the fireplace and you're just like talking. So they are so used to just roasting each other, cracking jokes, cause that's the form of entertainment you have of your home. Whatever you think of as like J-Chao and like Rongli Home, like Dongbei people are very much more like Huanhua Hui. Dongbei people are like least shy about meeting new people going to new places. They just feel so different than any other Chinese in America. And the reason why we're even talking about Dongbei people is because there's enough Dongbei people in the big cities where you're just like, yo, these Chinese people are a little different. Yeah, I guess for me, the reason that it's so important to talk about Daniel is because like a lot of people who are only familiar I guess with like one type of Chinese. You know, if you just stay in like the Chinese American world, you're gonna meet like just maybe the bottom half, which is cool, but I think it's also good to know that there are other attitudes. There are like big guys that just like sit outside in each war. When people think about Chinese Americans, I would like for them to consider Dongbei people and Sichuan people as part of the conversation. For many years, it was just like Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan. But now when you meet these young Chinese men, a lot of them are from Dongbei. Please make sure you give us a thumbs up, a like, subscribe, huge shout out to D Zhao. In the comments down below, let us know what your favorite region of China is. And big shout out to Happy Valley Village Restaurant in Hacienda Heights. Man, they took care of us. They gave us such an amazing experience. And until next time. Hey, real quick, Daniel, is it crazy to see Beijing tier experiences start to really pop up in America? Yeah, we gotta go get tries next time. Oh, it's right at the end of this plaza. All right, everybody. Thanks for watching that video. And until next time, we out. Peace. Yo, John. What a hook. Mongol John. I'm just eating away, man. I'm just... John, you did find out you're part Mongolian. John, you gotta eat all those dishes at once. Come on. Move them in, come on. I got you. Yeah, I got you. Ten, nine, eight. Oh yeah, that's it. Five, six, four, three, two... I feel like he needs just like a glass of wine. Now you gotta light your cigarette with your finger. And just like pour all the liquor in a one glass. They tried, did you try this corn juice? Do the tornado beer. I don't think I'll say a word, just gotta... Yo, Frank, say something to the camera. Peace. Hi. Thank you, Frank. How's that corn juice? Hits my soul. John is definitely from the Eastern part of Inner Mongolia.