At night in Jinzhou City, Liaoning Province when all lights are on and pedestrians are bustling on the road, some return to their cozy homes, while others go to barbecue stalls to eat and drink with their friends. For people from Northeast China, barbecue is the carrier of their sentiment, the taste of home, and a routine all year round.
Jinzhou Barbecue, a household name across the country, has long been a tempting cuisine to foreign friends due to its unique taste. Today, there are more than 1,000 barbecue shops in Jinzhou City with more than 4,000 cooks. Signboard “Jinzhou Barbecue” can be seen outside more than 30,000 restaurants nationwide, including those in cities like Shenyang, Dalian, Beijing, and Harbin.
Jinzhou Barbecue got off the ground in the 1980s, and through several years of development, the whole industry, owned by Jinzhou people, was carried forward. Whether it was in spring, summer, autumn and winter, there were always customers to visit barbecue restaurants and stalls. The whole industry was booming all year round, and Shandong Street, where lots of barbecue shops were located, was even called “Skewer Street” by local people. In 2005, Jinzhou Barbecue shops entered a new stage of development with the establishment of their own association. President Li Zhi of Jinzhou Barbecue Industry Association spent three years seeking for historical data and collating information, to sustain and develop the barbecue skills applied in the Ming and Qing Dynasties when Huangtaiji in Jinzhou gave a dinner to the Manchu, Mongolian and Han soldiers.
In order to cultivate the brand image of Jinzhou Barbecue, barbecue culture festival was held for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. In the second Barbecue Culture Festival in 2019, more than 180 Jinzhou Barbecue cooks took the challenge to “put together a skewer of 123 meters”, which triggered strong reaction across the country.
Jinzhou Barbecue is unique with two different ways of cooking (with raw or cooked ingredients), with as many as a dozen kinds of seasonings or even herbs. With focus on “dipping, brushing, spreading, roasting, turning” and other cooking techniques, the dishes are of high quality with good taste, as well as eye-catching appearance, thus attracting endless stream of customers. In terms of the variety, in addition to meat, Jinzhou Barbecue includes more than 300 kinds of grilled and charcoal-grilled dishes in 9 categories, such as seafood and vegetables, and even a dozen kinds of dishes for chicken alone. The common dishes are almost all served in Jinzhou Barbecue, which can meet different needs and tastes of customers to the greatest extent, costing only around 100 yuan for two to three people to enjoy a delicious meal.
In Liaoning, one can start a meal of barbecue almost with anyone, and the best time is often created with eating and drinking. Jinzhou Barbecue has an irreplaceable position in the food culture of Liaoning. Jinzhou Barbecue is an icon of the city for visitors and something to be proud of for Jinzhou people.
