Yummy! (Courtney)

Just wanted to show you a couple of pics of two of our fave foods around these parts. Down at the food market, we have an awesome "food street" by the side of the market, which we were introduced to on our first day in Wuxi. It took a while but the men and women who operate these stalls are now pretty familiar with us (what with us being the only two laowai in Dong Ting!) and we have a few favourite stands that we frequent. We are even pretty much charged the local price too! Maybe a kuai or two more every now and then, but on the whole I think we have earnt their respect by buying and eating their food, and also speaking to them in Chinese.

The street is yet to feature in the blog, as I feel that by taking the camera down there, I will effectively make them uncomfortable, in some sense turning it into a touristy thing, and in turn making me a tourist. Marcus reckons they would love it, and they most likely would, but I am saving my photos until just before we leave. Then...it will be a free for all of photos of this little street!

Whilst down there today, we ran into the two girls from the mobile phone store, who had helped us only 10 minutes prior. We went to the phone shop yesterday and then had to return today to try and get our Chinese phones fixed. Seemingly we can now call Australia again, but we've sent a few test messages to people with no replies, so we imagine that texting is still not an option! So we had a funny little interaction with the two girls from the store, as I think they were pretty surprised to see us ordering from the same cart that they too were getting their lunch from. It's these little interactions, and also our own behaviour, that helps us to "fit in". We will categorically never fit in here, but these little steps I think help to show other people that we are just regular folk, getting our food, eating etc and that we don't see ourselves as better than the local market. Whilst we are still pointed at and called out too, the people who we have interactions with are all just charming, helpful and friendly people. It all works both ways. It helps with our understanding and it helps with their understanding.

But enough of that, I'm getting all philosophical when I all I wanted to do was show you two pictures!!

Here we have Marcus' fave flat bread. These are obviously made all over the world in various countries, but it's certainly not something you can just pick up on the street in Melbourne. These are made in a 44 gallon drum, that looks about 30 years old, with a fire at the bottom. In goes the bread, little bit later out they come and onto a piece of dirty of mesh. You can get either salty ones or sweet ones and they are both delicious. Marcus loves them and devours them in record time. Six of these things cost 2 yuan, about 30 cents.

And this is what we have dubbed "Asian Souvlaki". A little lady has an old cart with a pan of oil, and a small chopping board. Onto these incredibly thin pancakes goes an assortment of things, from these old enamel bowls. Various noodles, greenery, seaweed, chilli, and of course, the frankfurt/hot dog sausage, which the Chinese go GAGA for. They are so yummy and at a cost of 1.5 yuan, I have no idea how she is making any money. Next to her is our friend the popcorn lady. Now that it is summer she no longer makes popcorn but helps out her friend chopping up noodles and bits and pieces.

If you could see this little street you would think us crazy to eat there, but my god there is just so much amazing food being produced there, all with little to no equipment. We will sorely miss this sort of thing once we return home!