Team Wuxi is go!: Bang! (Marcus)

So tonight we're feeling kind of ultra bored after a day around the apartment having had the day off. We went across to the coffee house for a meal as we really didn't feel in the mood for the starefest or Chinese language session that was every other restaurant around here. As soon as we entered the upstairs area of course there were a group of men at a table who called out the inevitable - hellllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Anyhow we sat down and ordered. I've taken to a particular type of steak called their Onion Beefsteak. I don't know what it is as it's more the colour of chicken or pork but it comes out on a sizzling plate, is covered in pepper sauce and has an assortment of random vegetables, onions, pasta...and an egg. All in all I find this damned delicious. By home standards the steak is pretty average, but it's about as you get around here - other than maybe a TGI Friday's steak which we suspect would be just like home.

The steaks are an interesting deal at this place. There's actually a LOT of restaurants around the cities that are 'Beefsteak Restaurants.' I don't know if this is an american thing or what, as we don't call them beefsteaks in Australia - even though they are essentially a 'beef steak'. Anyhow ordering these steaks is an experience in itself. Firstly they come out with a paper placemat that has a photograph of a steak meal on it. You also then get a bowl of pumpkin soup, a sweet roll(50% of the time it's warm, the other 50% it's still half frozen - come with a weird fairy floss type stuff inside it - Courtney reckon's it's pork fairy floss - i hope she's joking), a plate of watermelon chunks and sometimes, depending on the price of the steak you've ordered, a glass of this weird watered down red wine - sometimes it tastes like a very weak red lemonade, sometimes like weak red wine - either way, it's weird. Oh only steaks come with a proper napkin also; it's a prestige thing.

When the steak itself comes out, on a sizzling plate with a silver dome, the dome is lifted, they ceremoniously dump the napkin on your lap then pour the pepper sauce over the steak and voila, you're set. I think the pasta bows on the dish are the chinese attempt at chips. I suspect in these local places they have no idea what chips actually are, and obviously from the picture on the paper placemate, the chips I suppose in a way could look like pasta...i suppose, if you were partially drunk. You get a piece of....actually I don't know what it is, it's green and it's vegetable - but it's in a stick and it's cerrated - actually it looks like a green vegetably chip. So yeah, you don't order a steak at this joint, you live the beefsteak experience. Now that I've found a reliable one to order, I am pretty satisfied - i find the whole weird mix a tasty treat.

Tonight the restaurant next door to the coffee house had opened its doors. We have been watching this place undergo some kind of rennovation with an eagles eyes. This place was formerly our favourite local restaurant - Korean BBQ. But it went, and we have been mildly depressed since, as the meat there was just SO DAMNED GOOD! So tonight it opened, and we had hoped it would be the return of old favourite, but no, it's gone for good :( (or perhaps just around the corner - we are oblivious to most goings on around here.)

So of course there were the bunches of red flowers to bring prosperity knockin' but much to our delight they started setting up fireworks out on the footpath. Now this rocked because we have seen fireworks set off literally every night we've been in China(over 4 months now), yet never actually seen how they set them off.

I'll let the pictures tell what turned into a highly amusing evening.

Here we have a couple of excited staff members from the new restaurant setting up what turned into a double row of little red cannisters. These turned out to be the fireworks that popped, launched the cannister into the air then popped again, shooting the cannister into a random direction.

Out also came these mystery boxes. Note how the fireworks are on the scooter path - a sectioned off part of the road right beside the main road where scooters drive. Note also the proximity to the main road - ie RIGHT on the road.

Before the red cannisters could be lit and launched, they set off a massive cluster of crackers. These covered the entire area(and road) in smoke, explosions, paper, plastic and cardboard rubblish; ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE!!

We watched them set off what must have been around 40 or so off the red cannisters. It was highly amusing as a portion of them didn't explode in the air - one landing on the road right in front of a minivan and exploding. Chunks of shit was going everywhere - large amounts on the road where there was quite a lot of traffic. There is absolutely _no_ concern for safety. The other funny thing was that hardly anyone actually even acknowledged what was going on. Oh, some dudes letting off fireworks on the roadside, oh look, is that a cat over there in the bushes?

Then they came out, positioned these two red boxes and lit them. These turned out to be your all-in-one fireworks box, launching around 20 of the BIG fireworks each. Really cool actually. Note the car alarm going off botttom left - the added sound only increased the amount of prosperity being harvested.

So that was it, the show was done. The footpath was covered with about 2 bajillion pieces of paper rubble. The restaurant staff returned inside and all was again quiet. At least 45 seconds later, two old fellas turned up, grabbed the red boxes(which of course had been left on the footpath to rot) and walked. Anything that can be salvaged will be scavenged, don't you worry about that. I later saw the guy in the bike laying down in his bike, shoes off, feet resting on the box. I don't know if he took it to salvage the materials or for a foot rest.