Tater tots

Around the corner from the school lies a street without much too brag about, as ordinary a street in this city as any other. However, it does have a good assortment of streetfood carts, and being less than 5 minutes away, a good place for a local snack. WZhou isn't a big streetfood place, not much of what I'd call an indigenous food culture about, so most of the food carts tend to tout either Sichuan style or Fujian style food. I'd had a few bowls of the cold noodles over summer, heavily spiced, and a bowl of their dumpling soup (shui jiao, tang) with tidbits of dried shrimp. One of my favorite choices late in the day is the spicy flatbread, freshly heated in the tandoori-style coal oven. For three renmimbi, a wonderful and slightly oily snack. Today, I think I may have found my other new favorite - a bowl of fried potatoes mixed with onions, coriander, shredded cucumber, and chilli. Oh my, another 3 rmb wonder. Just never get it less than 15 minutes before a meeting or class as it should be savored. It's too fiery to gulp down anyway, spearing each tater, blowing on the tongue searing edges; it would be perfect with an ice cold beer.