Roasting on an Open Fire

Have you ever eaten roasted chestnuts?  I never had, but it was cold and I was hungry the other day when I came upon this stand selling roasted chestnuts and roasted ears of corn.  Sounded good to me.

When it was my turn to order the older gentleman with a very thick Slavic accent who was working the stand said in his loudest broken English Seinfeld Soup Nazi voice, "YOU LOOK LIKE A CHESTNUT PERSON!".

*blink* *blink*

Uh....okay....

I'm not exactly sure what that meant, but who was I to argue?  So I said, "You're right!" and ordered my bag of holiday cheer.

Then the chestnuts promptly burned my fingers off.

The one I'm holding here was so hot I could barely hold on to it.  They are slit before roasting so the steam can escape.

You peel the shell off and pop out the chestnut.  It is really hot and very soft.  The texture of the meat is what you might expect if you boiled a walnut.  I had always imaged a roasted chestnut would be crispy, but it's just the opposite.  Very, very soft and very sweet.  No salt at all.  A very unique flavor and quite tasty.

This lead me to wonder what other legendary Christmas treats I might be missing out on.  I wonder if I look like a figgy pudding person?

I suspect yes.