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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Well it's just trollicious up in here.
Mmmmmmmm.
I just tryed a chestnut for the first time not that long ago. I had very high expectations. I was severely disappointed. It was so gross. I don't know how to describe it, sort of like what I would expect a caterpillar would taste like. Maybe I just didn't get a good kind or maybe I just don't like them.
@ rooney:
Tell us how you feel about Beluga caviar and escargots.
Do you like Twinkies?
@Mr. JIF: lol, I liked Twinkies when I was younger! I haven't eaten one in years, though I don't imagine they've changed much. I'll have to get back to you on the caviar and escargots.
A Twinkie would make me sick.
I like chestnuts.
Merry Christmas. I'm going to the gym now.
Yeah, I do have a bit of a sweet tooth. Merry Christmas to you!
i like chestnuts... facenuts are the best tho...
@jif and anybody thats interested try twinkies deep fried in batter,its gods goodies
Good morning gung hoe. That sounds awful, IMHO. I can't eat a plain Twinkie. I'll try them fried.
Had a great workout this morning.
lmao good morning gung, and Joey! Ya know twinkies are bad enough for you, deep fried they are 3 Xs bad! I suppose thats why ppl say they are delicious? Lmao
@Oh Snap Detroit will also have another site.
It will have u hanging in a tree with 9mm holes.
@Oh Snap and me pointing up at you hanging launging at u.
Hello all ,lol you all know I would destroy or hurt that racist fool if met face to face ,right?,lol awwww boy the devil exist in that clown.