Editor's note: Listen to the CNN Radio broadcast about the smell of chestnuts in New York:
It’s a familiar smell in the streets of New York this time of year. Alongside the hot dog carts and food trucks, you find vendors roasting chestnuts on the same stoves they use to heat up pretzels. Bowls filled with holiday treats hang from their carts.
Tourists heading to the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center are lured in by the pleasing aroma as it wafts through the skyscrapers in Midtown Manhattan. A few bucks will get you a paper bag filled with the piping hot holiday treat.
“We used to roast chestnuts when my grandfather was alive because he used to love them,” said Jennifer DeSalle Zino of Cornwall, New York. “It actually does make me think of him when he was alive and we would do that when he was a kid.”
The aroma reminds many tourists of their childhoods. Ray Edmundston of Bayard, Delaware, couldn’t resist the chestnuts. “My grandparents used to take me in to see the Christmas parade in Philadelphia,” Edmundston said, “and I remember the vendors at City Hall in Center City. They’d have two or three vendors there sell roasted chestnuts.”
The chestnuts are a street-food favorite in New York when the temperature dips down below the freezing mark. You’ll only be able to find them, though, for a few more weeks.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Do they even have Wal-Mart's in the heart of NYC?
It must suck getting mugged by an American. Huh, Afghanistan.
The worst thing about NYC cabs is the annoying TV set that our mayor's relative–sister?–put into them.
Actually what I got today was a gypsy cab; they're usually Lincoln town cars.
Lots of times limo drivers will take you while they're waiting for a booked client, and it's a better ride.
Gypsy cab? Never heard of them. Remember the Cash Cab gameshow? Was he a gypsy? No. He drove a Toyota Prius. He must of been a democrat.
Somebody is trying to put me on.
PED? Hi, anyway.
I have a car service that I use every day. Parking your own car on the street is a b!+ch.
I hear parking fees are a major deterant to NYers owning a car. It's something suburbia kinda takes for granted.
Walmart in Manhattan? I don't know: I've said before on here that they don't have anything I'd buy. I've seen them upstate.
We have Bergdorf-Goodman and Harry Winston.
Nobody at our house drinks Coca-Cola.
What ? The President of Coca-Cola doesn't drink coke ?
I've lived and worked in some major cities over the years. What freedom this never having to venture into those sh/tholes anymore.
You can own a good car in NYC if you keep it in a garage. It stays there until you drive out of town. For getting around the city I use a car service.
I know really rich people in NYC who own no car and rent whenever they take a trip. It's easy.
I missed my chance with the Coca-Cola lady by not saying, "no, but my uncle owned a Pepsi plant." (True.)
She wouldda stabbed ya for sure.
Thats economical sucking balls for a ride down town.
lmao
Can I go too? You know how much I like swallowing.