My Chinese appetite: Liaoning Cuisine

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Liaoning is one of the three provinces located in northeast China, the other two being Jilin and Heilongjiang.

Weather in the northeast is cold all year round, influencing the living and cooking styles of the residents. If the drizzling east and south of China is characterized as exquisite and mild, then the northeast is the reverse. Therefore, when it comes to cooking, meat is constantly used to battle the coldness, and very rarely do people prolong their cooking time to dice up the meat.

Pickled vegetables are often used in Liaoning, or the northeastern cuisines, as they are preserved for a long time once they are pickled. Stewing the ingredients in a large pot is a traditional way of cooking in the province.

Pickled vegetable and pork belly. /VCG Photo

The chops for stewing is large. Usually, 2 to 3 chops can weigh 500 grams. The northeast part of China produces almost half of the soybeans in China, so it's no mystery that soybean paste is widely used in many of the local dishes.

Chops stewed with soybean paste. /VCG Photo