JANVI TOURS

Street food is one of those things that's unique to a region and often overlooked when describing a culture. Yet, it's an essential part of life for many. It's cheap, fast, made to order, and tasty. Street barbecue vendors are a great way to have a whole pile of food you like cooked to lip-smacking perfection right in front of you on the street grill. Walk up, and choose any mouth-watering combo from the bamboo skewers of raw foods laid out on a long table - there are mushrooms (shitake, oyster, enoki), meats (pork, fish, prawn, squid, sausage) and vegetables (lotus root, spring onions, peppers), plus some unidentified tofu-type things.

The vendor will beckon you over, put all your skewers on to the smoking grill plate, and then season them to your liking - any combination of salt, soy sauce, spice mix, chili and vinegar, shaken and splashed in a perfect symphony of flavours.  The smell of the smoke mingled with the smell of spiced barbecuing meat is like torture for your hungry stomach while you wait. Everything was spiced with a delicious mix of cumin, chili powder and flower pepper. Squatting down on stools with a Tsingtao or Pearl River beer, this feast made for a perfect nightcap after a day of biking around to various villages. You can even get oysters!