Chongqing Street Food

8 dishes in China

8 street foods from Chongqing, China: Chongqing Xiaomian, Suanla Fen, Chuan Chuan Xiang, Mao Xue Wang and Chongqing Youcha and more. Each one has its own page with the story behind it and what to look for.

🗺️ Open the interactive view All China street food

Street foods of Chongqing

Noodle · Boiled & tossed Chongqing Xiaomian (Chongqing Noodles) There's no single fixed recipe — locals argue the dish is defined less by the noodles than by the sauce, often assembled from a dozen-plus separate… Thin wheat noodles are boiled briefly and tossed in a bowl pre-loaded with chili oil, Sichuan peppercorn, preserved vegetables, garlic, and scallion, often with pickled long beans or…

Noodle · Boiled Suanla Fen (Hot and Sour Sweet Potato Noodles) The noodles aren't rice or wheat at all — they're pure sweet potato starch, which gives them their springy, translucent, almost gummy bite. Chewy, translucent sweet potato starch noodles are boiled and served in a tangy, spicy broth built from chili oil, vinegar, and Sichuan peppercorn, topped with peanuts and cilantro.

Skewer · Self-serve hot pot Chuan Chuan Xiang (Skewer Hot Pot) It's hot pot stripped to its cheapest, most democratic form — diners grab handfuls of pre-skewered ingredients and pay by counting empty sticks at… Dozens of small skewers — meat, vegetables, tofu, quail eggs — sit chilled in an open display for diners to pick themselves, then are dropped into a shared pot of numbing, chili-laden broth.

Stew · Simmered in chili broth Mao Xue Wang (Duck Blood and Offal Hot Pot) Despite its rich mix of ingredients, the dish is said to have started as leftovers — a way for slaughterhouse workers to use up duck blood and organ… Duck blood curd, tripe, and other offal are simmered together in a fiery chili-and-peppercorn broth, often finished with bean sprouts and cilantro just before serving. 🌶️ Snack Stall · Spicy Porridge Chongqing Youcha (Spicy Rice Paste with Fried Dough Crisps) Despite the name ('oil tea'), it is not a drink: it is a thick rice paste eaten with a spoon, and few visitors to Chongqing have heard of it. A bowl of thick, glossy rice paste is topped with crunchy fried sanzi (thin dough strands) and a special seasoning, so it is numbing, spicy, crisp and soft at once.

Workers' Lunch · Tofu, Rice, Chili Dip Douhua Fan (Tofu Pudding with Rice) In Dongxi old town on the Sichuan-Guizhou salt road, the daily batch of stone-milled, brine-set tofu pudding takes three to four hours and several… A bowl of soft, freshly set tofu pudding in its own light broth, eaten with steamed rice and a small dish of chili dipping sauce (zhanshui). 🔥 Late-Night Grill · Chili-Roasted Brain Kao Naohua (Grilled Spicy Pork Brain) Jiucun, the name most locals link to the dish, began as a barbecue stall in Dashiba, Jiangbei district, in the late 1990s and grew to about 20 shops… Pork brain in a foil tray, seasoned with chili, Sichuan pepper, scallion and preserved mustard root, doused in hot oil and roasted until bubbling.

Summer Street Sweet · Hand-Rubbed Jelly Bingfen (Brown-Sugar Seed Jelly) The jelly comes from rubbing a cloth bag of tiny seeds of the shoo-fly plant (Nicandra) in water; a little lime water then makes the pectin set. Clear, wobbly seed jelly served chilled; Chongqing tends to keep it to brown sugar syrup, while Sichuan versions pile on raisins, hawthorn, nuts and sesame.

More of China

Part of World of Street Food — 3441 dishes from 118 countries. Photo credits.