Last Monday I took two of my fellow teachers, 2 sisters from Georgia, USA, and my Chinese assistant to a nice restaurant for lunch. And the name of the restaurant? Australia!!

Ever since I moved to Longfeng I have been intrigued by the name seeing as I come from 0Z. The first time I saw it I popped in and asked to see the menu. The place is quite classy in comparison to many of the other Chinese restaurants in this city and staff wear a uniform albeit from a period that I would imagine to be circa 1940s London – you know, that mainly black with white trimming. On the back wall, at a distance, I noticed a TV screen that was playing some football match and my heart missed a beat thinking that it might have been an AFL game. Unfortunately, on closer inspection it was soccer.

Nobody in the place spoke English, of course, but I got a little excited again when I opened the menu and saw that they served Australian lamb, that probably being the main reason the place was called Australia. I had my assistant with me that day as well and after a bit of backwards and forwards conversation with a waitress they admitted they did not have Australian lamb, in fact, they served New Zealand lamb! (Why not change the name then to ENZED?) I think NZ lamb is better than Aussie lamb so I marked this place down as a must visit.

I did go there with another Chinese friend a few days later needing her to help me with the ordering for the first time that I was there. Usually I master the Chinese words for what I want by bringing a Chinese speaker with me and then I can go back to these places on my own and in my own time. The food was great and the service was great and that is why I decided to take my fellow teachers and my assistant there for lunch last Monday.

For those of you old enough, cast your mind back to the early 70s when the social eating phenomenon of fondues was popular. However, instead of cheese or chocolate in the fondue pot there is a sort of soup mix poured into it and you can have it plain or spicy. Each person at the table has their own little pot and the waitress lights the flame underneath to heat the liquid. Then from the menu you order whatever it is you want to put into that pot to cook. You can choose from shaved lamb, little chunks of lamb, beef, pork , vegetables, different sorts of noodles, tofu and a range of mushrooms and seaweed. You just keep popping this stuff into the pot and eating it as it is cooked.

Your first drink is on the house which for me is a bottle of beer and that's a 500ml stubby by the way. Another bonus was that the beer was cold! It's a very enjoyable place to eat and I repeat, the service was good. You need to comment on the service because in some places it is non-existent!

My future thoughts are to hold Australia Day celebrations here on January 26. I wonder how they would cope with that?! Ideas on how we could do that are welcome. And don't forget the temperature here at that time will be about -25C! So, let's not talk about outside barbecues, shorts, thongs and T-shirts! Anybody with old Australia Day paraphernalia feel free to send it to northern China so I can dress some of the Australia restaurant staff in OZ regalia. By the way, a big feed for 4 people including drinks came to 187RMB ($30)!