Unique Chinese street food, buzzing with Grilled Ice and Chili Stir-fried Ice Pebbles

China is famous for its diverse culture and rich, fascinating cuisine. And especially the street food culture is loved by domestic people and foreign tourists.

Street food is rich and diverse in flavors and ingredients to make delicious dishes. Biscuits, goat hotpot, fenugreek, sandwiches, ... Each dish has a different unique flavor that stimulates the taste buds and appeals to diners. Not only are the flavors and ingredients of Chinese street food different in the region, each locality will sell different types of food.

With a few tens of thousands of dong, you can taste rustic dishes on the streets of China, many of which have a long history.

Leisurely walking the streets, enjoying the bustling atmosphere and discovering the traditional flavors of Chinese cuisine are the pleasures many visitors want to try when coming to this country.

Besides, Chinese street food also has to mention unique dishes but make a big wave for Chinese youth.

Ice cubes cold grilled

Referring to the unique Chinese street food, it is impossible not to mention the grilled cold ice cubes. Grilled ice cubes are a dish that is "storming" in China. This is a specialty of the northeast in the country of billions of people, where there are icy cities like Heilongjiang.

Ice chilled with baked paprika is an emerging street food in China, known and going viral online thanks to a 9-second video of how to prepare it at a street stall in Nanchang, Jiangxi province.

This is an easy snack to make, the cold taste of ice blends with the typical taste of Chinese cuisine. People cannot eat and watch the streets at the same time because they need to eat when it is finished because ice cubes melt very quickly. Each such serving will cost about 15 yuan.

Accordingly, the chef puts ice cubes on top of the charcoal grill, then spreads a little cooking oil on it with a broom and sprinkles with spices such as paprika, chili sauce ... up and then grill along. After grilling enough, the vendor sprinkles a little cumin on top of the ice grate and the dish is ready to serve diners.

The dish is said to help cool off in hot summer weather because the spiced stones have not completely melted.

Customers who enjoy this unique dish for the first time are very interested and they ask the seller: "Should I eat it when it is hot or let it cool down a little before eating?" The chef advises everyone to eat quickly when the ice is still hot.

Each portion of such baked stone is sold for 15 yuan (about 50,000 VND). The seller of grilled ice cubes said that this dish is a specialty of northeast China.

However, a culinary researcher in Heilongjiang claims there are no such snacks in his province.

Currently, grilled ice cubes are becoming popular on Chinese social networks and are tried a lot by young people.

Pebbles stir-fried with chili peppers

Stir-fried chili gravel is also one of the dishes that have been interested recently. A video on June 4 showed a street vendor in China's Hunan province stir-frying gravel with all kinds of spices and selling it to diners for 16 yuan (about 52,000 VND). The video immediately attracted 4 million views on Douyin (Chinese version of Tik Tok), forming a check-in trend in the country of billions of people.

The street vendor says that you can enjoy it by sucking the well-fried ice cubes with spices and enjoying their aroma. When asked if he needed to return the stones after eating, the shopkeeper happily replied, "No need, you can bring them back as a souvenir."

Perhaps you are wondering how the chef created this special dish and how diners eat it?

First, the cook washes the ice, drains it, marinates it with chili oil. Heat animal fat or vegetable oil, then stir-fry ice with dried peppers, garlic, ginger and some other spices. Sometimes people add chives, onions, carrots, cabbage ... Finally, add a pinch of salt, black pepper, and place in a bowl or plate, according to Medium.

Diners enjoy the dish by putting ice cubes in their mouths, sucking or sucking on ice to enjoy the taste. Then they will release the stone. A set of stir-fried pebbles sold at the Chinese night market costs about 2 USD / serving (nearly 47 thousand VND).

Many diners expressed shock at the strange dish and named it "the hardest dish in the world". "It's true that as long as the seasoning is good enough, the soles of shoes can also be an attractive dish," one person commented.

Another wrote: "This dish is the perfect suggestion for dieters who satisfy their appetite but not fat."

In fact, stir-fried chili gravel is not a new dish but developed from a traditional dish in Hubei province, called suodiu with a centuries-old history. According to Guangming Daily, the name means "sucked and thrown away." It originates in the area along the Yangtze River and was invented by boaters who lacked food.

They commented that the pebbles lying in the rivers and streams tasted like fish, clams, and oysters and were perfect for aiming wine. Currently, many elders in Hubei still keep the custom of making stir-fried pebbles when drinking.