Korean

        The Korean ancestors are Koreans migrated into Northeast of China from the peninsula of Korea. The earliest immigrants into China from Korea were more than 300 year ago. Koreans have their own language and characters. Most Koreans are involved in farming production and they are particularly good at paddy rice planting and they are the early vanguards of paddy rice planting in Qiqihar City. Koreans emphasize education, and they run Korean schools nearby villages to impart their own languages and characters. Koreans have the tradition of singing and dancing versatility and they have rich and colorful cultural and art activities; wrestling, swing and jumping board are their traditional sports events. Koreans emphasize etiquettes and have the traditional virtue of respecting the elder and loving the young. They favor to wear white clothes with the name of White Clothes Compatriots; they like to eat rice and favor Korean pudding (made of sticky rice powder by hammering), cold noodle, pepper and dog meat.

        Food and Drink Customs:

        The staple foods of Koreans are focused on cold noodles and rice puddings. Each Korean household eat cold noodle in midsummer, and cold noodles are favored by many people even in winter. This kind of cold noodle is made by buckwheat flour and starch, while some others are made by flours or rice flours. Directly put the noodles into the water to boil after pressing, then put the noodles into cold water to cool down, and then take them out and add in beef, dog meat, egg shreds, pepper, sesame seeds, sesame seed oil, and apple and pear shreds, etc and finally pour into some dog meat soup. It tastes sweet and sour, fragrant and spicy and cool and refreshing.

        There are many varieties of rice puddings, including sticky rice pudding, steamed pudding and flake pudding, etc. The sticky rice pudding is an indispensable food for Koreans to entertain the guests every festivals and on wedding or funeral ceremonies. Sticky rice pudding is made by hand. The detailed method for making sticky rice pudding is, first to steam the stick rice, and hammer the cooked rice into pudding with wood hammer in the wood basin, which could be hammered by two persons or one person and normally the pudding has to be hammered for around half hour, the pudding after hammering is in flakes, finally put sweetened red bean paste into the pudding. It tastes very delicious to eat by dipping the pudding with honey or sugar.

        Rice wine is a drink favored by Koreans. Rice wine is their ideal drink to entertain guests. The host always takes out a bowl of their home-made rice wine for the guests. This wine is slightly whiter than the yellow wine with slight sweet taste. However, one cannot overdrink for this wine tastes sweet but the alcohol effect works afterwards. The juniors should turn their heads askew while drinking together with the elders, it's not allowed to drink the wine while facing the elders in front, otherwise will be deemed as disrespect to the elders.

        Cabbage in chilli is one of the vegetables most favored by Koreans, which is a main food product in winter. The Koreans start to make cabbages in chilli in cabbage season every winter. Every household will make cabbages in chilli regardless of rural areas or urban areas. Some of them will make several hundred kg and some will make above thousand kg, for they have to eat continuously to the spring of the second year. Cabbage in chilli is delicious and refreshing with the effects of alleviating the grease and repelling the alcohol, assisting digestion and strengthening the appetite. It's not only a common household dish but also a banquet dish. Therefore, it's widely favored and has become an indispensable dish among the Korean foods. Opposite from the Manchu habit, Korean is a nationality favors dog meat. They consider eating dog meat could clear heat and detoxify. Cooking dishes with dog meat is a major feature of Korean cuisine.

        The Koreans could cook many elegant and delicious dishes with dog meat, such as dog meat sand pot, dog meat hot pot and various soups and dishes. Among them, the most famous should be dog meat hot pot. The cooking of dog meat hot pot is unique with special features and dense national flavor. The specific cooking method is, to bleed out the dog after killing, then get rid of the hairs and dip it in clean water after toasting on fire, and then fully boil it to get rid of the fishy smell, take out the milk-white soup and put into the hot pot, then tear the meat into shreds and put in the plate, and it could be ready for eat after preparing various seasonings. To eat the dog meat by hot pot, the meat is delicious but not greasy, and it could be eaten in four seasons. Therefore, it's necessary for the Koreans to eat dog meat hot pot. And the dog meat hot pot is rather an indispensable dish for the feast to teat VIP guests. Moreover, the Koreans often have dog meat soup as well. The Soup Rice most favored by the Koreans is to pour the dog meat soup into the rice. It's delicious in taste and one will never be tired of it.

        On the Tomb-sweeping-Day, each Korean household eats Pollack fish. They have many methods to cook Pollack fish, including toast, boiling, air-dry and fillet.

        It's said long long ago, there was a village on the coast of East Sea suffered from a drought, and the area was free from rainfalls in a whole year, there were many crevices on the ground for drought. The village suffered from flood in the second year, and the people never saw the sun for a whole year. The village suffered from insect disaster in the third year, and all the crops were eaten up by insects. The villagers were about to be starved. One day the villagers heard the Bubbling sound sending out from the sea, they thought strange and went over to the sea to have a look, and they saw some more than 33-cm-long fishes. All the villagers were too happy after getting this news and they successively went to sea to catch the fish, however, the fish didn't reduce no matter how much they caught. From then on, this kind of fish stayed there permanently. The villagers named the fish Pollack Fish to express their appreciation. Later Pollack fish became the variety of fish that mostly caught by the Koreans. The surplus fishes were air-dried into dried fish to be preserved for bad years. At the same time, Pollack fish had become a food most favored by the Koreans in their daily lives. Up to now, they are eating Pollack fish on every Tomb-sweeping-Day. It's said that eating Pollack fish on Tomb-sweeping-Day could not only bless the safety throughout the year, but also beneficial to the body.

        Later they called this fish Pollack Fish (Mingtai Fish). It's said that's to commemorate the person who discovered this fish first, because this person's name was Piao Mingtai, the fish was named Mingtai Fish afterwards.