Grilled Ice: the new surprising Chinese street snack

2 min read

2 months ago Robin

We are all familiar with the concept of fusion food that involves the amalgamation of unique ingredients to come up with a different recipe.
But who would have thought of grilled ice as a dish? Yes, you read that right.
Recently, videos of people grilling ice cubes and seasoning them with sauces and spices have been doing the rounds on Chinese social media and leaving people with lot of unanswered questions.

According to a number of news reports from the Asian country, the bizarre street snack was made famous by a short clip shot at a street food stall in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, in East China, in which we can see large ice cubes being cooked on an open grill and seasoned with sauces and spices, before being served on a plate.
And it is apparently very popular on hot summer days, especially since it’s offered as a free treat.

After the original video became popular, Chinese news outlets managed to track down the street food stall operator and learn more about his curious dish and, apparently, the man came up with the idea for grilled ice on a hot day, as a way to cool his clients.
It was meant as a joke, but people ended up loving it, so he kept making it.
The bizarre street food doesn’t cost anything, but people wanting to try it, and there are reportedly a lot, have to request it in advance.

Well, but does this count as cold or hot food?
It’s really tricky, because it is cooked over an open flame, but not enough for the ice to melt completely.
And how exactly do you eat this stuff?
Does it work like stir-fried pebbles, where you can suck the sauce off of the stones before spitting them out, or do you just eat the ice as well?
Actually no one knows, It can be eaten both hot and cold as long as it’s done before it melts, but grilled ice has not only the whole of China talking about it, but the rest of the world as well!