Huo Gong Dian (Fire Palace)

Huo Gong Dian (Fire Palace) is a Changsha institution that has been feeding the city in some form since the Qing dynasty. The current complex near Wuyi Square occupies a large courtyard of restored traditional buildings and serves as an anchor of Changsha street food culture: dozens of stalls selling the city's most celebrated snacks, each prepared to order by vendors whose families have often run the same stall for generations.

The non-negotiable order is chou doufu — stinky fermented tofu fried in oil until the outside crisps while the inside turns creamy, served with chilli sauce and spring onion. The smell is genuinely alarming; the flavour is excellent. Also worth trying: mala (numbing-hot) beef rice noodles, sugar-fried chestnuts, and the various preparations of glutinous rice that appear in every Hunanese snack tradition. Prices are very low — ¥5–15 per item. The palace is busiest from late afternoon through late evening; morning visits are quieter. Located near Wuyi Square, about ten minutes' walk from Tianxin Pavilion.

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A story
Huo Gong Dian's chou doufu — stinky tofu, fermented until it produces a smell that clears tables at twenty metres — is the dish that defines Changsha's food identity more than any other. Locals insist you must try it. The fermentation process produces a crust when fried that seals in a flavour quite different from the smell. The Chairman himself ate it as a student in Changsha. Whether this endorsement helps or hinders is largely a matter of personality.

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