My Favourite Street Food in China – Tianjin Chestnut

The biggest satisfactions I got from my travel always came from local street foods that I managed to try. I’ve tried gelato in Italy, honey roasted peanuts in London, Vlaamse Frites in Amsterdam, Rojak in Bali, glass noodle in Phuket, and Macadamia nuts in Gold Coast, they are all fascinating! But what I fell head over heels in love most with while traveling is the local street snacks in China, the Chinese chestnut!

Chestnut is an edible nut encased in brown and hard pellicles that softened after cooked or roasted. China is the biggest producer of chestnut in the world where over 90% of the total chestnut outputs come from there. China chestnuts are sweet and considered by some to have the best taste of any chestnut variants. That is why you can see street stalls selling baked or roasted chestnut every town or city in China. I tried and fell for it immediately when I first visited ChenHuangMiao in  Shanghai. They are honey sweet and freshly roasted in a big wok. It’s soft and best to be eaten when hot. I had to peel it off for the chestnut. But once started, I could stop but to finish the whole packet of 500g! 🙂

That was only the beginning. I bought packets after packets, city after city, from Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, to Wuxi. Eventhough they are all from China, different region actually produces slight different variant of Chinese chestnut. Tianjin variant of Chinese chestnut is considered as the most tasty and popular variant due to its weather and geographical characteristics at the Northern hilly Yanshan Mountain where the Great Wall crossing over.

I was lucky enough to had found (actually told by the local people) Tianjin chestnut in Suzhou. “LiLiXiang” is the first shop in Suzhou selling Tianjin chestnut since 80 years ago and even local Chinese are queuing up every day for its mouth watering chestnuts! Selling for CNY19 per 600g, they are certainly worth your money spent. By far, it’s the best chestnut that I’ve ever tried. I’m now starting to miss them… when could I go back there again?

For those who are visiting China soon, make sure to try a paper bag full of roasted chestnut before telling people that you’ve been there! Tianjin chestnut surely is my favorite street snack in China.  – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.