Friday, August 29, 2008

Home of the Potato

DingXi is so dry that few things grow. Even the cedar that the government plants on the hills to reduce soil erosion die because of the lack of moisture.

We were surprised that it rained while we were there. But the kids there told us that the last time it rained was two months ago. The potato is one of the things that grow around here. So much so that DingXi has declared itself the “home” of the potato.

It flower is small but really quite pretty. At the Jubilee School, they are growing some corn and potatoes. No wonder we ate a lot of potatoes there.

The potatoes are also eaten in the form of noodles. The starch is removed from the potato by powerful washing, and is a big business around here.

The starch can then be made into noodles. Naturally we also ate a lot of potato starch noodles while we were here. It is a little translucent and slightly chewy. It can be quite tasty in a good mutton soup.





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