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Melbourne

Chestnuts

Chestnut standNot as in-your-face as the charity muggers waiting on street corners with clipboards are the roasted chestnut stands around town.

But does anybody actually buy them? Particularly now the warm weather’s arrived, I can’t imagine many people buying them, but even in winter I never seem to see them have any customers whatsoever.

I hope the sellers aren’t on commission.

By Daniel Bowen

Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.

5 replies on “Chestnuts”

I’m not into Chestnuts…

But I can understand why you’d think nobody buys them; they’re not that popular, and it’s a bit sad when you see the vendors staring absently into space, anticipating a lack of patronage.

I prefer peanuts and pistachios.

I see those vendors everywhere in the CBD, my dad bought a packet one time and I tried one and it did not taste any good.

If I go past a chestnut seller I will stop and buy some. I love the sweet, floury little morsels. Plus I’ve developed an unfortunate allergy to cashews and almonds so it’s not like I have a choice. *sigh*

I have eaten the chestnuts from the stands on Swanston St. a few times too. They were roasted just right. Sometimes I roast them at home too. I had them frequently growing up in Pennsylvania as my grandmother had a chestnut tree in her backyard that would yeald a bumper crop of them. This tree also seemed to attract many lightning bugs (fireflies) and my brother and I would catch them and put them in a jar. The chestnut itself is in a sharp prickly ball that looks like a sea urchen but has a velvety soft lining that holds the chestnut inside.

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