German/South American BBQ

After reading the title of this post, you might be wondering what German cuisine and South American cooking have in common. I'm here to tell you that in Harbin, China, they have found the answer. It is called Hans and it is an incredibly popular restaurant near the center of the city.

Hans is a big multi-story restaurant, just like all the good ones here. In America the better a restaurant is the more likely it is to be small and exclusive, but in China the better a restaurant is the more floors it has. Even with 4 big floors we had to wait to get a table at 6:00 on Tuesday night. We ordered our beers, which is the first time I've found dark beer in China, and they definitely tasted at least a bit German. The waiter was also dressed in something that was supposed to resemble laiderhosen and the posters on the walls all depicted German beer or holidays. But the waiter also wore a cowboy hat, which took me a few glances to realize how out of place it was with the german theme.

It was then explained to me that this is actually South American food. At least in Harbin, South American food means a huge BBQ with long, double pronged skewers that look like a Dr. Suess drawing. The skewers are then brought around by the waiters who place one end of the skewer on your plate (they're about 24 inches long) and then use a very long and sharp knife, inches from your face, to cut off pieces of whatever meat it happens to be. Since they don't give you very much every time, opting instead for variety, this happened at least a dozen times over the hour that we ate. Needless to say I felt bloated from all the meat although it was all very tasty. So if this makes you interested in German/South American food, come to Harbin because its the only place in the world you're going to find it.