Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

Pick N Point noodle soup joints, (Ma La Tang - Hot & Numb Soup) honestly, you just can’t beat 'em! Except for the frozen seafood balls, it’s all fresh and it’s all right there before you.

Simply grab a basket, fill it full of goodies found on BBQ sticks, hand it over and within minutes you have a delicious soup placed before you. If you desire noodles you can also choose from a small selection but as I eat enough noodles throughout the week and always seem to fill my basket far too full to even contemplate adding them.

During summer to help save money on rent etc many become ‘street food’.

The soup pots and ‘selection’ are transferred onto a largish cart which is then wheeled around the market streets from corner to corner depending on the time of afternoon or evening. Throughout the year, several times a week I can be found sitting up upon a small plastic kindergarten stool at a knee high street stall table chowin down on a large steaming bowl of Japanese tofu balls, a variety of fresh vegetables such as bok choy and Chinese cabbage, seafood balls or sticks, potato slices, several small rolls of seaweed noodle type things and dumplings or won tons.

Add to that any other offering that makes me salivate during the selection process.

The White Wash Villages

The ‘White Wash Villages’ ride is one of the last rides I found prior to the weather becoming too cold/wet (and dark far too early) for continuous riding throughout the week. Now I get to ride it only on weekends if it is isn’t raining which thankfully due to my three day weekends I continue to do so as usually one of my three free days actually does take pity my peddles and holds back the howling furies long enough for another five to seven hour ride.

The ride begins due west of town.

It then takes me past the ‘dead centre’ of town (Shuanglong Cemetery) and for some time ended at Zhujia Village which is the first White Wash Village I came to. Back then I only rode this ride after school so I never had enough time nor thought I needed to explore further. Then one weekend I found myself in the area and took what I thought was a dead end road which thankfully took me through the mountains and down into Yincheng ‘White Wash’ Village.

Yincheng Village is found amongst beautiful rice and vegetable fields.

It took several more rides exploring the small roads in the area before I found one that actually continued through several more villages and ended at Diaozhongcun, a small river village found an hour or so later. I continued to ride this ride as it was extremely peaceful yet it always ended with me looking across the river at another tiny village wondering and wanting to continue exploring but without any way to do so, so I’d retrace my peddles and head back to Dexing Town to my favourite ‘Pick N Point’ noodle soup joint.

But…last week good fortune smiled upon me and I found a way across the river.
What I found was a river village full of ancient homes and beautiful people.
Maybe a little too many screaming children but the dumplings were great.
That though, will have to wait until my next blog.
Beers N Noodles toya…..shane
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The soundtrack to this entry was by Faith No More
The album was ‘King For A Day’
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