Harbin's cuisine is northeastern Chinese cooking at its most robust: heavy on pork, pickled cabbage (suan cai), dumplings, and freshwater fish from the Songhua. Russian influence shows in the bread — dark rye loaves are sold in bakeries throughout the city — and in dishes like borscht, which local restaurants have adapted into something distinctly Harbinese.
The night market on Shitouren Alley in Daoli is the best street food experience in the city, with dozens of stalls serving skewers, cold beef, pork pancakes, and sweet potato noodles well into the night. For a sit-down meal, the restaurants around Zhongyang Dajie offer good northeastern staples, and the area around Nangang has more modern options.