Winters in Beijing may be bitter, but they bring sweetness too, if you know where to look. The cold weather brings some of our favorite snacks (step aside chuan’r) to the streets of the capital: steaming roast sweet potatoes, fragrant roast chestnuts, colorful candied haws, and jewel-like pomegranates. Read on for an introduction to a couple of the most common ones.
Roast chestnuts (糖炒栗子, tangchao lizi)
Anyone who has biked or walked along Gulou Dongdajie in winter will have heard the staticky recording proclaiming “tangchao lizi, hey, tangchao lizi!” They are selling sugar-roasted chestnuts, one of the most popular Beijing streets snacks.
The climate and mountainous terrain of Beijing’s Huairou District make it perfect for growing chestnuts, with many of the area’s chestnut orchards dating back hundreds of years. In fact, Huairou’s chestnuts were once so in demand they were exported to Japan and even further afield.
The best roasted chestnuts in Beijing come from Qiulixiang – if you’ve ever wondered what the massive queues on the southwest corner of the Di’anmen intersection are for, now you know. At Qiulixiang, the chestnuts are first placed in storage for 15 days to slightly dehydrate them and enhance the sweetness, and then roasted with black sand in a continuously turning wok. Maltose is then added to intensify the sweetness. Chestnuts from a reputable vendor like Qiulixiang should cost around RMB 20 for 500g.
Candied haws (糖葫芦, tang hulu)
Shining red skewers of candied haws are one of Beijing’s most instantly recognizable street snacks. There are records of a similar snack dating back to the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE) when a physician prescribed them as a treatment for one of the Guangzong Emperor’s concubines. However, the sweet snacks really gained in popularity during the Republican Period (1912-1949), when the most sort-after tang hulu came from Dong’an Market, now the site of Wangfujing’s APM Mall.
Today, tang hulu are made with a variety of fruits, from strawberries to grapes, but we still prefer the traditional version made with haws (shānzhā, 山楂). Today, some of the best (or at least the most well-known) tang hulu come from Maji Bingtang Hulu on Niujie, but really they can be found all over town, particularly in the hutong areas of Dongcheng, Xicheng and around Houhai.
Pomegranate (石榴, shiliu)
Introduced to China in the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE), in Chinese culture pomegranates symbolize fertility or numerous progeny. This symbolism stems from their many seeds, since the Chinese character for ‘seed’, 子 (zi), also means ‘offspring’.
The best pomegranates in China are grown in the western and southern regions of Xinjiang province, although they are also grown in southern China. When buying pomegranates, remember the old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” The skin color and appearance of a pomegranate doesn’t have much influence on its flavor – instead, choose the ones that feel heaviest as they will have more juice.
Speaking of juice, we’ve all seen the pomegranate juice vendors around Sanlitun and Nanluogu Xiang, and while we’re none the wiser as to why this has become a trend (perhaps just for pomegranate juice’s many health benefits), we do know that it’s just as easy to make at home, and without the risk of it being adulterated with water from god knows where – I know, I know, we’re killjoys. Saveur has tips for juicing pomegranates.
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