How Northeastern Chinese Reinvent Regional Cuisine

What do Northeasterners eat first after returning home and getting off the plane?

Guo Bao Rou? Sauerkraut dumplings? Stewed goose in an iron pot?

No, none of those. It’s authentic Yunnan rice noodles, authentic Chongqing spicy hot pot, authentic Shaanxi cold skin noodles, authentic Sichuan spicy mix, authentic Tianjin jianbing...

Northeastern "Yunnan rice noodles" that have nothing to do with Yunnan.

This stuff is available nationwide, so why eat it? The reason is simple: the Northeastern version is different. The "authentic Yunnan rice noodles" in the Northeast are thick and spicy; "authentic Chongqing spicy hot pot" comes with a big scoop of sesame paste; "authentic Shaanxi cold skin noodles" includes sesame paste, sugar, and even broth; "authentic Tianjin jianbing" has a soft wrapper...

All out-of-town foods undergo a complete makeover when they arrive in the Northeast—either loaded with numbing spice, heat, sugar, or sesame paste, or outright swapping ingredients until they’re unrecognizable. Yet, Northeasterners maintain deep reverence for the origins of these dishes. Even when transformed beyond recognition, they insist on keeping the original names and labeling them "authentic" as a sign of respect.

You’ll find modified versions of snacks from all over the country.

Behind these seemingly chaotic adaptations lies the unique survival wisdom of Northeasterners. They know how to leverage trends—"authentic" is the best hook. They’re also pragmatic: sesame paste balances the heat of spicy flavors, copious sugar reflects the Northeast’s role as a sugar-producing region, and swapping in locally available ingredients is the optimal solution for cost and taste.

These wildly altered dishes also serve as trendsetters for viral foods nationwide. If a dish hasn’t been Northeastern-ized, it simply isn’t popular enough yet.

Fish-fragrant shredded pork, Kung Pao chicken, spicy mix...

Northeasterners love Sichuan cuisine so much that, at one point, "spicy" was synonymous with "Sichuan food" in their world. Streets in the Northeast are lined with restaurants boasting "authentic Sichuan XX" signs. If a homesick Sichuan native walked in and ordered fish-fragrant shredded pork, Kung Pao chicken, and boiled pork slices, they wouldn’t even need to take a bite—just seeing the dishes would plunge them into existential doubt: "How many Sichuans are there in China?"

Sichuan and Northeastern cuisines share similar dishes, like boiled pork,

but the Northeast dips it in garlic sauce, while Sichuan drowns it in chili oil.

Fish-fragrant shredded pork, Kung Pao chicken, and boiled pork slices—the three most beloved Sichuan dishes in the Northeast—are also the most heavily modified. In the 1991 book *Chinese Famous Dishes: Sichuan Flavors* compiled by the Sichuan Vegetable and Catering Service Company, fish-fragrant shredded pork was described as follows:

Only lean pork as the main ingredient, with winter bamboo shoots and wood ear mushrooms as the sole accompaniments. The soul of the dish is pickled red chili peppers. But in the Northeast, fish-fragrant shredded pork is utterly transformed: bamboo shoots are replaced by carrots and green peppers, and the crisp Sichuan wood ears are swapped for chewy Northeastern mini wood ears. The heat comes from Pixian bean paste or chili oil instead of pickled peppers, with more sugar and a thicker gravy.

This adapted version is a Northeastern favorite—meaty, veggie-packed, and sweet, perfect with rice. Building on this, Northeasterners created another dish: fish-fragrant scrambled eggs, replacing pork with eggs. Eggs absorb the sauce better and are cheaper, making them a staple in Northeastern lunchboxes.

Kung Pao chicken’s makeover is equally dramatic. In Sichuan, it strictly contains chicken thigh cubes, peanuts, scallion sections, and dried chilies. In the Northeast, thighs become breast meat, and carrots and cucumbers are added.

Left: Sichuan-style Kung Pao chicken. Right: Northeastern-style Kung Pao chicken.

Photo / Visual China, Tuchong Creativity

These infuriating tweaks to Sichuanese are actually necessities for Northeasterners. One key reason they love these dishes is their affordability and rice-friendly nature. But since bamboo shoots aren’t locally available, carrots—with a similar crunch—are used. With limited vegetable options, adding peppers and cucumbers at least approximates nutritional balance.

What people in Northeast China truly love is actually their imagined version of Sichuan cuisine, and this is perfectly exemplified by their take on the numbing-spicy flavor. Thus, they thicken stir-fried dishes with heavy starch, ladle a generous scoop of sesame paste onto spicy hot pot, and add copious amounts of sugar to spicy mix as a buffer against the heat.

Top: Spicy hot pot drenched in broth and sesame paste.

Bottom: Old-style spicy pot, without sesame paste.

There are countless spicy snacks here, and the current sesame-paste-style spicy hot pot is actually the result of a second reinvention. The first adaptation of Sichuan-style spicy hot pot was the spicy pot, also called old-style spicy hot pot, which omitted sesame paste, retained the numbing-spicy character, but added loads of vermicelli as a staple. The reason for this modification was simple: just eating vegetables wasn’t filling enough.

The third reinvention of spicy hot pot is the now nationally popular Fushun spicy mix, which removes the broth and adds large amounts of aged vinegar and sugar for flavor—bearing no resemblance to anything Sichuanese. Yet, ironically, even today, many shops in Fushun still advertise their product as "Authentic Sichuan Spicy Mix."

It’s not just Sichuan cuisine that has been creatively altered by Northeasterners. During Northeast China’s economic boom, people from all over the country flocked there seeking fortune, bringing with them regional snacks. After the economic decline, Northeasterners turned to entrepreneurship, applying their "creative hands" to these well-known dishes. However, due to differences in dietary habits and ingredient limitations, they didn’t replicate them faithfully but instead boldly and unrestrictedly reinvented them.

The full name of Northeast Yunnan rice noodles is "Northeast Yunnan Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles." Among the many types of Yunnan rice noodles, why was it the cross-bridge version that took hold? The reason is simple: cross-bridge rice noodles come with a heartwarming love story—a virtuous wife delivering rice noodles to her hardworking scholar husband, who later succeeds in imperial exams, leading to a happy family reunion. This is the life Northeasterners yearn for. Larger rice noodle shops often display this story as posters or hand-painted murals on their walls, allowing diners in the Northeast to eat rice noodles while their hearts wander to the distant Southwest, moved to tears by this faraway romance.

The diverse and intricate world of Yunnan rice noodles.

In an era of underdeveloped transportation, distant Yunnan held a mysterious allure for Northeasterners, sparking curiosity in their taste buds. That same distance also gave them free rein to reinterpret the dish. Northeast China produces excellent rice, but it’s all japonica rice, making it impossible to replicate the texture of Yunnan’s indica-based rice noodles. So, Northeasterners innovated, developing a new type of rice noodle—thicker, chewier, and semi-transparent when overcooked, yet never mushy. This led to rumors among mothers: "These noodles are made from plastic bags."

Left: Northeast-style Yunnan rice noodles. Right: Yunnan cross-bridge rice noodles.

Photo/VCG, Tuchong Creativity.

Authentic Yunnan cross-bridge rice noodles consist of a bowl of chicken broth noodles, the surface dotted with golden chicken oil, exuding rich aroma. But in the Northeast, taste buds already conditioned by Sichuan’s numbing-spicy flavors couldn’t adapt to such mild delicacy. Thus, Northeast-style rice noodles adopted a spicy-hot pot base flavor—a testament to Northeasterners’ culinary synthesis.

Another "spicified" dish is Jixi Shanxi knife-cut noodles. Here, the noodles swim in a bowl of red broth, topped with beef stir-fried in chili sauce and paired with an array of Jixi-style spicy side dishes. However, Jixi’s spiciness doesn’t come from Sichuan but from the neighboring Korean community in Jidong County—delivering a straightforward, sweat-inducing heat.

Jixi knife-cut noodles can also be dipped in spicy broth. Photo/Pang-fearing Cc (Harbin food exploration).

Then there are the two snacks dominating school gates across Northeast China: Shaanxi cold skin and Tianjin jianbing guozi. Northeast-style Shaanxi cold skin blends elements from three regions—Shaanxi’s cold skin, Sichuan’s dan dan noodles, and Northeast seasonings—all harmonized in a broth of sesame paste, garlic sauce, and sugar.

Northeast-style cold skin loaded with sugar and sesame paste. Photo/Xiao W Explores Hohhot.

The Northeastern take on Tianjin jianbing guozi is even more divergent. The pancake becomes a wheat-flour egg crepe; the "guozi" (crispy fried dough) is reduced to just small fritters, while additions like sausages and spicy strips are free-for-all. In Yanbian, kimchi or baby octopus might be stuffed inside, and in Mudanjiang, even grilled cold noodles make an appearance—embracing hybridity and fusion.

Northeast jianbing guozi, entirely unlike Tianjin’s version.

Even native Northeastern snacks spawn countless variations. Take cold noodles: based on Yanbian Korean-style cold noodles, they branch into Jixi mixed cold noodles, Suihua sesame-broth cold noodles, Shenyang Sujiatun meat-sauce cold noodles, and even Dalian’s fried-grilled cold noodle rolls stuffed with Hunan stinky tofu. If you can imagine it, Northeasterners can make it.

Why are Northeasterners so adept at creative reinvention?

With Shanhaiguan as the boundary, Chinese local snacks can be divided into two types: those from Northeast China and the rest. If you visit Shenyang’s most famous attraction, Zhongjie Street, walking from west to east, you’ll find Taiwanese pure meat sausages, Chongqing sour and spicy noodles, Jiangxi’s Wumingyuan rice noodles, and Shanghai-style fried chicken strips. These foods might not be available in their hometowns, but you can definitely find them in Northeast China. Why are Northeasterners so good at reinventing food?

This might be related to its geographical location. Northeast China borders Russia to the north, is close to Inner Mongolia to the west, and is home to ethnic Koreans, making it a melting pot of cultures with a high acceptance of new things. For example, Harbin locals grow up eating various breads like dalieba and saike, as well as sausages like red sausage. Their broad culinary horizons mean they wouldn’t feel out of place even in Europe.

Northeast delis offer a variety of Russian-style cooked foods.

It might also be tied to the migrants who came during the "Chuang Guandong" era. During prosperous times, people from all over China brought their cuisines to Northeast China. Harbin has many Quanzhou-style steak restaurants, Lian’gui smoked meat pancakes originated from Hebei, and Goubangzi braised chicken came from Anhui... As long as it’s delicious, Northeasterners embrace it all.

Northeast smoked meat pancakes actually originated from Hebei.

But most importantly, throughout history, Northeasterners have demonstrated remarkable survival wisdom—open-minded in prosperity and adaptable in hardship. Their relentless vitality allows them to quickly absorb foreign influences, deconstruct them, and rapidly integrate them with local culture, then promote them with their innate marketing flair.

Next time you visit Northeast China, don’t just eat guobaorou. A more fantastical culinary world awaits your exploration.

Cover image | Tuchong Creativity