Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Street Eats: Popcorn

The Chinese are always looking for ways to do things quicker or more efficient than everyone else. Take popcorn for example. You probably thought the fastest way to make it was in the microwave, right?

WRONG.

In China, your friendly neighborhood popcorn maker is waiting on the street corner to show you just how superior his method happens to be.

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A metal, teardrop-shaped container is filled with popcorn, sealed, and cooked over a flame. When the pressure gauge mounted at the end reaches a certain level, the street vendor opens a lever on the side that shoots air into the metal cooker, relieving the pressure and shooting out freshly popped popcorn. The sound of the pop resembles a bomb going off. Or Shanghai during Chinese New Year

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This method of popcorn making caused quite a stir in the US last year when it was featured on an episode of Mythbusters. The Chinese were similarly amused by how dangerous Americans found it to be. 


The whole process takes only a few moments. 5 rmb will get you a bag of this kettle corn like snack and a near death experience to go with it.

4 comments:

  1. I've never bought popcorn from the street sellers - I must remedy this. I normally use the microwave and a Baker & Spice brown bag. This looks much more fun.

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    Replies
    1. You really should, it's delicious! My friends and I ate the whole bag in one sitting. But the initial POP is a little terrifying.

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  2. Oooh, I saw a guy with that thingy on the street, but as I had heard about how loud the process of getting some popcorn is... well, also the thing looked a bit unsafe, I wasn't brave enough to approach :D Maybe I should be more adventurous next time, hehe, live a little :D

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  3. I wouldn't stand behind it, but it's worth approaching for some popcorn after it has popped =)

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