Beijing Chestnuts

A Beijing friend visited us yesterday. She brought two bags of roasted chestnuts. We celebrated.

Traditionally, chestnuts are roasted in a bed of hot sands, coarse, more like fine gravels. Vendors mix sugar and sands into a roasting pan and heat it up lowly. For the whole day, they fold the sands/chestnut with a wooden spatula. The warmth and the aroma, a bit burnt sugar and lots of chestnut fragrance, will draw a crowd. They will wait patiently for the vendor to declare the batch ready. Then the next batch starts.

The arts are in the temperature control, proportion of the sugar, and, of course, the selection of the chestnuts. At a glance, the concoction is similar to coffee roasting: a big bowl of black substance flowing circularly and continuously over heat and radiating irresistible aroma.

QiuLiXiang (秋栗香) has perfected this art. This street corner vendor managed to maintain at least half-an-hour’s queue during its entire business day pretty much everyday. Most people buy several bags, US$1.50 for 500 grams, enough as a meal. Once in a while, someone will take 20 bags, load them into a car, and disappeared into the busy street.

We attacked those two bags with concentration and ferocity. Quickly, fingers get sticky from the sweet lightly coated on the shells, nostrils filled with the roast aroma, and mouths filled to the point that conversation stopped. Hot tea, Chinese, goes well with them.

If you are in Beijing, go to 地安门西大街2号. Remember to bring a company, the wait can be long.

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