Sichuan Street Food

6 dishes in China

6 street foods from Sichuan, China: Gaiwan Tea, Dan Dan Mian, Bobo Ji, Tu Tou and San Da Pao 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 Sichuan

Teahouse Culture · Covered-Bowl Tea Gaiwan Tea (盖碗茶) In Chengdu's People's Park teahouses, ear-cleaners and fortune tellers still work table to table while patrons refill the same lidded bowl for hours. Gaiwan tea is served in a lidded three-piece bowl — saucer, cup, and lid — used to steep loose green or jasmine tea right at the table, refilled endlessly by roving kettle-wielding…

Noodle · Tossed Dan Dan Mian (Carrying-Pole Noodles) The name has nothing to do with the flavor — 'dan dan' refers to the bamboo carrying pole 19th-century street vendors balanced on their shoulders. Thin wheat noodles are topped with a little preserved vegetable, minced pork fried until crisp, and a spicy, numbing sauce of chili oil and Sichuan peppercorn.

Skewer · Cold, marinated Bobo Ji (Leshan Cold Skewer Chicken) The name comes from the 'bobo', the earthenware bowl the skewers are steeped and served in, not from the chicken itself. Chicken and vegetables are pre-cooked, skewered, and steeped in a numbing, spicy sauce in a large earthenware bowl, then pulled straight from the bowl and eaten cold. 🍖 Snack · Braised Tu Tou (Spiced Rabbit Head) It began as a way to use a genuine byproduct — leftover rabbit heads discarded after the more marketable meat was sold. Whole rabbit heads are braised in a Sichuan-style spiced broth, then eaten by hand — cracking the skull to reach the tongue, cheek, and brain.

Dessert · Thrown & rolled San Da Pao ("Three Cannons") The name 'three cannons' comes from the three loud bangs a vendor makes throwing each of a portion's three rice balls against the board and its… Balls of glutinous rice paste are thrown hard onto a wooden board fitted with small brass cups, making a loud clanging sound before they bounce into a tray of roasted soybean flour, then… 🍢 Skewers · Chengdu Night Market Chuan Chuan Xiang (串串香, Skewer Hot Pot) The bill is tallied purely by counting how many bamboo skewers are left on your table — no menu, no receipt needed. Skewers of meat, tofu, vegetables, and offal are lined up at streetside stalls, then dunked by the diner into a shared pot of bubbling mala broth until cooked, finished with a…

More of China

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