Ishi Yaki Imo

Now that there is a chill in the air, I see this truck around the neighborhood almost everyday at about 3pm. You can hear it coming because the speakers project an eerie cadence of “ishi-yaki-imo, yaki-imo”. One day I took a closer look and realized the red box in the back contains an actual fire. You can see the flames from a short distance. My first reaction was towards safety as I thought of the gasoline tank below. The vendor is selling slow stone grilled sweet potatoes. I haven’t purchased one yet, but will because I hear they are delicious. I’ve noticed advertisements revering the sweet potato by picturing a beautiful young woman with her lips softly parted as she’s preparing to take a bite of the steaming potato flesh. I tend to imagine this sort of advertisement for chocolate mousse, not a vegetable. But then again, the Japanese transform beans into a sweet treat, so why not the potato too?