In my country, China, there are a number of cities that could be called culinary deserts, the most prominent of which is a city I know well - Harbin. Harbin is a large city in northern China with a rich history and cultural heritage, but the culinary culture has never been well developed.
First of all, the level of dining in Harbin is low, and some so-called high-class restaurants only offer some ordinary and uninteresting dishes, with a single flavor and a lack of innovation and breakthrough. Although Harbin is a cold city, it has not developed seasonally appropriate cuisine, such as offering hot hot pots or lamb kebabs in winter. Instead, its food and beverage industry relies on the crowds brought in by events such as the Ice Sculpture Festival, which utilizes quirky decorations and services to attract tourists rather than offering tasty food.
Second, Harbin's restaurants are very homogenous, focusing mainly on Northeast cuisine and lacking in specialties from other places. Although Northeastern cuisine has acquired its own status and style, it cannot meet the diversified needs of modern people. In other cities, specialty cuisines such as Sichuan, Cantonese, Hunan, etc. can be found in many excellent restaurants, but in Harbin can rarely find such restaurants.
Finally, Harbin's culinary culture has not been well inherited and carried forward, and some traditional cuisines are disappearing. For example, Harbin's cut sausage (a snack made of pig intestines filled with glutinous rice and bean flour) used to be a very famous delicacy, but now it can only be found in a few places. Some local young people are also less aware of these traditional dishes, preferring to go to fast food and Western-style restaurants.
Overall, Harbin can be called a culinary desert because of its low standard of food and drink, the variety of restaurants, the lack of innovation and breakthroughs, and the lack of good inheritance and development. This is a place that needs to be improved and developed, and we hope that more innovative restaurants and food culture will emerge in the future, so that Harbin can become a real food capital.