Changsha has one of the most celebrated food cultures in China, and unlike many places that claim that distinction, it is actually justified. Hunanese cooking — built on dried chillies, fermented black beans, and preserved vegetables — is distinct from the Sichuan cooking it is often confused with: less numbing, more direct, with fermented and cured elements that add depth rather than just heat. The city has been producing nationally famous restaurants, street food scenes, and television food shows for twenty years; the food infrastructure is sophisticated and very inexpensive.
Fire Palace (Huo Gong Dian) near Wuyi Square is the institution every visitor is sent to: it has fed Changsha since the Qing dynasty and still serves the fermented tofu and spicy snacks that define the city's flavour. Pozi Street and Taiping Street gather street food vendors in the evenings. For sit-down meals, the restaurants around the Yuelu Academy area and along the Xiangjiang Middle Road tend to offer better quality-to-price ratios than the tourist-oriented spots in the old city.