During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Loong, Golden Palace Gourmet, a “Liaoning restaurant” located in Flushing of New York, is packed with guests. The waiters wearing China’s northeastern flowery aprons are busy serving customers, and the restaurant is full of laughter.

During this year’s Spring Festival, the 71-year-old Gao Meiling and her family reunite there. It has been over 30 years since she immigrated to the US from China’s Jilin Province, but her local accent and dietary favor have never changed. For decades, the northeastern Chinese cuisine has been a must for Spring Festival feasts. Juliet, her daughter-in-law-to-be from the UK, integrated into the family seamlessly. Not only has she fallen in love with the northeastern Chinese cuisine, but she has also had a crush on baijiu (a strong colorless Chinese liquor).

Guan Jing, the owner of the “Liaoning restaurant”, said that the popularity of “Erbin (a nickname for China’s Harbin City)” attracts many new young customers to the northeastern Chinese food restaurant that has been open for nearly 20 years. Due to the enthusiasm, her newly opened agritainment restaurant in upstate New York is also bustling.

The “Liaoning Villa” was once a typical American farm. After being bought by Guan Jing, various vegetables and fruits, such as corn, green beans and oriental melons, are planted in it, and cage-free chickens and geese are also raised here. Equipped with kangs (heatable brick beds in Northern China) and recreational vehicles, and offering feasts of home-brewed northeastern Chinese liquor and tender roasted whole lamb with a crispy crust, a large northeastern Chinese villa is then formed at full blast in New York. 

Now, the “Liaoning Villa” is in a lively outburst of joy. Red lanterns hang high at the front door. Strings of yellow corn, red dried chili peppers and cape gooseberries are on the walls. As hot dishes prepared with pork are served and steam enshrouds the room, the villa is filled with the Spring Festival atmosphere of Northeast China. Guan Jing said that there has already been a steady flow of customers, although the “Liaoning Villa” is still in a soft opening. Before the Spring Festival, the eve dinners have been booked very early, with many customers asking to make dumplings at the villa that day.