Walking through China’s busy night markets and old alley laneways, you are greeted with warm, fragrant smells and fun, loud crowd vibes everywhere. These cheap fresh street eats do not just fill your stomach but also give you a true sincere taste of normal local daily life. Every local specialty comes with hundreds of years of simple cooking tricks down passed from one generation to another. This great Chinese street food experience will let you discover little known tasty gems most travel guides never mention at all.
What Staple Street Dishes To Try
Start your food trip with crispy jianbing, the Chinese savory crepe grilled on a flat iron pan. Vendors spread thin wheat batter,crack one fresh local egg, add crispy fried cracker, raw scallions and sweet bean sauce. Many foreign visitors say this savory snack tastes far better than any fast food they have priced across Western countries down their years of traveling round the whole wide world.
You can also grab hot spicy stinky tofu from Changsha street stalls, once you get past the strong unique smell. Deep fried fermented tofu becomes golden crispy outside, soft and tender inside, splashed with chili oil first thing before they hand it over. You even can find modern twist stalls topped with crushed peanut for extra salty sweet crunchy layer you never ever imagined you would enjoy in your life.
Where To Find Best Street Stalls
Wangfujing Snack Street in Beijing gathers all over the nation’s must try snacks in one very busy crowded pedestrian district. You can easily try instant cooked quail egg skewers, crispy sugar figurines and hearty lamb soup while watching street performers show their skills every after a couple of quick minutes in front of all the walking pass tourists.
Once you head south to Chengdu Kuan Zhai Alley, local grand aunties sell homemade tangyuan right outside their residential old gates. This soft chewy glutinous rice ball in ginger warm syrup costs less than one USD portion portions most times that you still feel full for two whole hours after finishing it up all slowly in the cool evening air.
How To Avoid Fake Tourist Stalls
Pick food stalls that have long lines made up largely of local residents who carry house key pouches and tote usual grocery basket cloth bags everyday around neighbourhoods the regular old familiar folks often travel visit. Those stalls usually keep flavor authentic, price cheap far below what fancy restaurants overcharge same menu menu items over hundreds of percent in their air conditioned busy commercial areas built in last few recent years in big metropolis cities sprawling newly developed.
Do not follow touts that shove discount menus right directly at you on the main busy road crowded large visitor check point entry ways. Walk four or five small alleys deeper off the major crowded scenic attraction spot main street, you would surely find auntie vendors selling braised pots, boiled spicy sour noodles full of proper genuine old local taste you could have never tasted otherwise anywhere else far and wide all across the country. Who is the most memorable street snack you hope to try first once you set your foot on China’s pavement?