Dalieba (Russian-style Bread)

Dalieba is the large Russian-style loaf common to Manzhouli and north-east China, its name a transliteration of the Russian word for bread (khleb). Often bigger than a household steamer, it is dark with bran, dense and firm to the bite, with a faint salty-sour tang and a hint of yeast, prized for keeping well and filling the stomach.

It descends from Russian dark-rye bread, brought to Manzhouli and Harbin by Russian settlers along the Chinese Eastern Railway, then locally reworked with wheat flour into an edible memory of the Sino-Russian frontier.

Sliced and warmed, then spread with butter, jam or caviar, or layered with cheese and ham; it is also torn into borscht or milk to soften, the better to bring out its wheaty aroma and chew.

Its sheer size, dark bran crust, dense chewy crumb and the way it keeps for weeks mark dalieba apart from ordinary bread.