On Demand
A Gut Feeling About China
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Fuchsia Dunlop, Chinese-trained cook, food writer, and author of Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, explains what she calls "the texture frontier" and talks about how Chinese cuisine is changing from chi bao (“eating to fill your belly”) to chi qiao ("eating skillfully").
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what is the chinese gov't doing to stop illegal poaching of endangered species, such as..shark, turtles, tigers, bears..some list. Has anybody heard of viagra over there? atleast it's actually been tested.
other than that, i love chinese food too.
Do skillful Chinese consumers know about organic foods, wild vs. farmed and other food grades -- and try to select what's healthiest?
Personally I try to avoid eating most things grown or produced in China (down to vitamins) because I am familiar with at least some of the risks -- surely many Chinese feel likewise. What are their alternatives if any?
Perhaps the real question is whether Shanghai will be getting a "Whole Foods" any time soon.
Visit the produce aisle of any given East Asian market and you will find better and more interesting vegetables and greens. The sad thing is, Americans used to eat like this. I wonder if newly arrived Chinese in America will move to a processed food and meat-based diet?
One of the funniest questions put to me once by a co-worker when I recommended we order Chinese food for lunch was, "I had it yesterday! Who can eat Chinese food everyday!?" "Duh," said I, "like 1,000,000,000 people in China and ME!"
Did she eat dog?
1. In China, people ask each other "Have you eaten?" instead of "How are you?" to greet each other.
2. How about Caviar? In the Western society, people continue to eat caviar as caviar fishes becomes extinct.
There is a wonderful documentary called "The Chances of the World Changing" by Eric Metzgar about the decimation of the world's turtles because of the Asian markets - I recommend it to anyone who is concerned about eating species to extinction, which is what is happening in China.
Jason -- the only legal caviar available today is farmed, not wild.
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