Hawthorn berries on a bamboo skewer, dipped in boiling sugar syrup that sets into a thin, glassy shell — a winter street snack.
What makes it tanghulu
Sour hawthorns, seeded, on a long skewer.
Syrup boiled to the hard-crack stage, so the shell snaps rather than chews.
Eaten in the cold, which keeps the shell from going sticky.
Where it comes from
A popular story traces it to the Song dynasty, when a court physician is said to have cured an ailing imperial consort with hawthorns boiled in sugar. Whatever its start, it became the sound of a Beijing winter, sold from bundles of skewers stuck in a straw pole.
Hawthorns are tart and a little mealy; the sugar shell is there to crack against them. Strawberries, tangerine segments and yam are skewered the same way now.
How it varies
Stuffed tanghulu
Hawthorns split and filled with red bean paste before dipping.