Zhenbutong, Changchun main store (真不同 百年吉菜老店)

Zhenbutong is a century-old Jilin cuisine restaurant, whose Changchun main store is located in Hall 25, Stall 27 of Yongchun Commercial City, near Sima Road and Yongchun Road in the Nanguan District of Changchun, Jilin Province, northeastern China. The name roughly means 'truly different', and the house presents itself as a keeper of Jicai, the Jilin culinary tradition that grew out of Manchu, Han and Korean cooking and was refined in the city's old banquet houses. The restaurant is known for smoked pork, braised meats and guota doufu, tofu slices sandwiched, battered in egg and pan-fried until crisp and golden. Signature dishes include fengwei xiaodu, a smoked pork-bladder sausage served sliced as a cold plate; wanzi tang, a clear meatball soup; xiangsu ji, a crisp-fried chicken; and guota doufu itself, which is considered a benchmark of the style. Typical spend is about ¥64 (roughly $10) per person, and the restaurant holds a rating of about 4.4 on review platforms. Its location inside a commercial city rather than on a street frontage means that the restaurant can be harder to find than most, so visitors are advised to use the Chinese address and follow hall and stall numbers. The dining room is practical rather than ornate: functional tables, a menu centred on shared plates and a mostly local clientele who come for lunch and early dinner. Dress is casual, the noise level is moderate and service is direct. Beverages are tea, beer and soft drinks. Reservation difficulty is low on weekdays, but holiday periods and weekend lunches may fill, so a short phone enquiry or arriving before noon is advisable. Visitors interested in the history of Changchun's cooking will find the smoked meats and fried tofu a clear window into the cuisine, and the cold-plate sausage is best taken as a starter before the hot dishes.