I’ve been watching the construction of a new restaurant in our neighborhood with great interest. We are connoisseurs of Linyi restaurants, you see, and we’re always open to new options. After the turtle debacle, I was feeling like eating Pizza Hut last night. But instead we were lured by the flashing neon sign of the recently completed restaurant.
The New Flash Chinese
Our first year in China, living at the Shijiazhuang Airport, we became intimately familiar with all the restaurants in the area. All six or seven of them. More often than not we ate at the Russians, the Mongols or a particularly dirty little dive we called the Kwik-E-Mart, but every once in a while we ventured over to the “Flash Chinese.” (That’s it above.) The flight instructors who arrived to the company before us had christened it the flash restaurant, I can only guess because it was a little nicer than all the others.
It had the distinction of being located next to a big pink brothel, complete with faux-European white balcony. We called it Casa Rosada and that’s it on the right.
We ate out nearly every night while living in Shijiazhuang. (We did live in a hotel, afterall.) Here in Linyi we eat out practically every other day, if not more. It’s just too good and too cheap not to. I’m really looking forward to a few restaurant meals back in the US & Vancouver. (Sushi at In the Raw in Tulsa, Chicken Fried Steak at Double-D Eatery in Victoria, and who knows what kind of delights in Vancouver!)
So, the new flash Chinese is really ostentatious. So much so, I almost felt uncomfortable. While we waited for a room (private dining rooms only, which is common in China) we sat in this giant central room and had green tea, prepared just for us in an elaborate little ceremony.
It’s a little fuzzy, the DH doesn’t like to shoot with flash.
Flash would have been appropriate here. 
A close-up of the waterfall. There were a few fat koi in the water.
The DH, drinking tea and waiting for our room.
Try to ignore my make-up less look here and focus on the room.
This restaurant is brand new and very, very shiny. The rooms are plush with television screens (we watched CCTV9, the English language channel), soft chairs covered in nice fabrics, complementary soy milk, fruit, tea, snacks, soup and your own personal fuwuyuan (waiter/server) who stands at attention nearby, attending to your every need. No, really. He pours your beer. You take a sip. He refills your sip. You take another. He refills again. We’re used to this by now. See the little door under the TV? That is where the outside wait staff deliver your food.
And so, our bellies full, we left the flash, vowing to return.
The new flash truly did not disappoint. The food was delicious and well prepared. We had lotus bulb & celery, eggplant fritters with shrimp (that would be two slices of eggplant with meat & shrimp in between, deep fried.), broccoli and steamed clams. The service was efficient and fairly non-intrusive. The bill was not even ridiculously high. (17 Euros for private room, high quality tea, four dishes, three bottles of beer and lots of little extras like fruit & soup…)
And even the other clientele were friendly, good natured and drunk!
When this guy saw us, he jumped in the pic & then insisted on shaking hands with DH. We get that a lot.
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