Tanghulu vendor

Some are sweeter than others, I imagine.

"Tanghulu" describes candied skewered fruit sold by street vendors in China, especially in the North. Since I'd tried the typical version, which is dipped in a clear syrup that crystallizes into a transparent glaze, I ventured a different skewer with an opaque candy coating ($1).

The traditional fruit for tanghulu comes from the Chinese hawthorn, which appears in Manhattan as processed sweets; it also has cousins in the South, in Mexico, and elsewhere. This was not that, I knew after one bite. The coating was sweet, but the "fruit" inside was sour, perhaps pickled, and it contained a pit rather than several small seeds. I thought back to the vendor's display, and to the green bagged items on top; did I buy a skewer of candy-coated olives?

Follow-up: If the darkest of several lacquered skewers ($1) was the "same inside," as the vendor maintained (we spoke in broken English and more-broken Mandarin), the fruit must have been macerated, or further ripened. Unlike my previous skewer, this one was sweet through and through.

Tanghulu vendor
East Broadway, under the Manhattan Bridge

Comments

[Jason Lam]

Interesting. Sweet pics there