My Chinese appetite: Heilongjiang Cuisine

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Located in the northeast of China, Heilongjiang Province has developed a cuisine style of eating meat to battle the cold weather.

"Guo bao rou", for example, is one dish that has been popular in the region for more than a century.

The key Chinese characters in the name are "bao", which means fry, "guo" is a pot or a pan, and "rou" means meat. Therefore, the other way of calling it is "fried tenderloin."

A chef frying tenderloin. /VCG Photo

The cooking process is not complicated. The main ingredients needed are meat, and potato starch.

Marinate the sliced meat in cooking wine with salt for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, stir water with starch till the liquid becomes sticky.

Coat the meat with liquid starch, then fry in hot oil. It is ideal to fry the meat slices twice. First each slice separately, for about a minute per piece and then all slices together for about 20 seconds.

Guo bao rou. /VCG Photo

The sauce can be created depending on what flavor you like. Heilongjiang style sauce involves sugar, soy sauce, and salt. The three ingredients are mixed, and shallow fried with sliced carrot and onion.