Anything on a stick

Perhaps the most popular way to spend your evening in Ha'erbin is at the night market. Just off of the pedestrian thoroughfare that leads to the river, there are three outdoor pavilions where diners buy skewers of all sorts, wash it down with the local beer, and socialize. We knew this would be our night in Ha'erbin.

We kicked off the eating with marinated squid skewers. These used different parts of the squid, including the tentacles and the body, chopped into big pieces and placed on a stick. Quickly grilled with a marinade and some sesame seeds, these were delightful. Chewy, full of flavor both from the squid and the sauce, with no fishiness whatsoever.

The first full wave a food brought a bucket of skewers as well as a chicken pita sandwich. The sandwich meat came from a shawarma-like device that was basting the meat and cooking it while it rotated. Finished with red cabbage and a slightly spicy sauce, the sandwich was a great start to the eating, with different textures and lots of strong flavor. The dark skewer in the back was the fungus skewer which was superb. Crunchy like kelp and a little slippery but not slimy, this also had a subtle and right-on marinade. It tasted like a mix between mushrooms and seaweed. Second runner up amongst this batch of skewers was the tofu skewer. These tofu cubes were hot and well marinated, so that each was very juicy. The remainder of the skewers, including hot dog, fishball, and fishball and pork, were just ok.

The second wave turned more heavily towards seafood. The winner in this bunch was the plate of marinated small snails, which came with a handful of toothpicks for picking out the meat. A good workout, and worth it, as these little guys tasted great. The sauce brought soy and vinegar notes to the dish. Best if the hard disk at the end of the snail meat was removed before eating. Also good was the heavily sauced tofu. Deep fried tofu was covered with cilantro, garlic sauce, chilli sauce, and fish sauce. The first half of this was great, awfully spicy and with crunchy tofu. As we got down in the bowl the tofu got soggy and the fish sauce turned everything a not tasty pickled flavor. Finally, we had some deep fried soft shell crabs, seasoned with flavored salt. These were good, especially the main bodies of the crab. They were, however, a bit heavy on the shells.

To wash it all down we had a couple of pitchers of the local Harbin Beer, and at only 25 kwai to the pitcher, we were drinking happy.

After the skewerfest, we continued our exploration of Ha'erbin by heading to the Russian Size Disco Bar, a funny little club in the middle of nowhere. It managed to through a pretty good party, with a full dance floor from 11 until we left about 3am.