Restaurant: 老昌春饼 (Lao Chang Spring Pancake)
City: Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

Today, we went around Harbin for some sightseeing. We had lunch after visiting St. Sophia and Hallelujah Church, to fuel up before visiting Tai Yang Dao (Sun Island) and Tiger Park.

Lao Chang Spring Pancake has roast meat with thin pancakes/wraps and smaller dishes. Think roast duck but with a wider variety of meats and side dishes to choose from. There were also different types of pancakes/wraps, ranging from thick to thin!

You might be wondering why I typed “pancakes/wraps”. The Chinese call the thin sheets used to roll the meat in as “pancakes”. I call them “wraps” because they’re too thin, and are actually used to wrap around the meat. Pancakes have a much thicker consistency from the batter and are usually eaten flat.

We had a number of side dishes, with two different types of meat (roast duck and roast pork), and three different types of wraps.

Mung Bean Sprout Salad

Roast Pork

Roast Duck with Onion, Cucumber, and Hoisin Sauce

Our table; can you spot the three different kinds of wrappers?

Pastor Chan and his wrapper; look how thin and translucent the wrapper is!

My plate; roast duck with a thin wrap before rolling.

Pastor Chan’s wrapped meat; the style of wrapping and stuffing is unrestricted!

It was quite an experience eating roast duck/pork with various toppings. I had only eaten roast duck with onion and hoisin sauce in a wrap before. I also had only eaten roast duck with a somewhat thick wrap similar to the one shown in the last photo, but not a very thin and translucent wrap. It was actually easier to bite into the thin and translucent wraps, and its elasticity helped contain the juice from dripping onto the plate! It was tricky unfolding the wrap into a full circle, as it was sticky, but that didn’t stop us from eating!!