Taste-Testing My Way Through Beijing, While Watching Out for Pollution and KFC's
I’ve long wanted to visit China before the new completely overwhelms the old.
So last Sunday night, my wife, Jean, and I arrived in Beijing. Our first stop was to be a food tour of Beijing’s Hutongs--one of the fast-disappearing areas of traditional homes, shops, and restaurants. These older areas are being torn down and replaced with modern apartment buildings and shopping malls at a rapid pace. Just drive around Beijing for a day, and you are blown away by the scope of the development. The gleaming office and apartment buildings extend for miles and miles and miles--multi-block-size furniture, jewelry, and electronics markets, along with universities and five-star hotels. A tidy city of 20 million.
So what were were doing at the start of our food tour at a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet? Like in the U.S., fast-food locations make good meeting places, since it’s easy to find a place to sit down, and to use the toilets. But more significantly, fast-food places are spreading like topsy in China, and one of the biggest is apparently Kentucky Fried Chicken. Indeed, it even has a location adjoining august Tianmen Square.
The rapid spread of fast-food places is symptomatic of changes in traditional eating habits. Large supermarkets are full of glistening plastic packages of meats, of cartons of milk imported from Australia. There is concern everywhere about the quality of all food, thanks to previous food adulteration scandals and recurring poisoning of the soil.
But once we met our tour guide, Adlyn (of Hias Gourmet), and escaped the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, we were able to appreciate traditional Chinese eating habits. The Chinese, of course, have a proud and diverse culinary tradition. Madlyn quickly had us sampling all kinds of fried tofu and red bean snacks and various dumplings and fish and chicken dishes. Among the traditions that stood out to me:
*The preference for fatty meats. Chicken legs and thighs are more expensive than breasts, and pork bellies, which have lots of fat, are similarly highly prized, versus lean cuts.
*What you see is what you get. The Chinese like hard evidence of their food’s origins. So when I ordered some filet of fish at an area restaurant, it came with the heads. This is a lot different from Americans, who generally want the fish heads and other messy evidence of where their food came from to disappear, and certainly not show up on their plate.
*Nothing goes to waste. The Chinese are proud consumers of the innards of all animals they consume. Tripe is a popular dish, as are various concoctions based on pig and other animal blood.
*All kinds of animals are fair game for different tastes. At Beijing's famous Night Market, we saw live scorpions and worms on sticks, ready for frying. At another place, there were goat testicles--all I had to do was give the order and they'd be cooked right up. Our guide insisted we sample a “hamburger” at one small restaurant. It tasted somewhat “beefy” when I bit into it, but not quite the same as ground beef I am used to. “What animal do you think it comes from” she asked. Uh-oh, I thought. Dog? Cat? No...donkey. I have to admit, my stomach turned, and I left the remaining half of the concoction on the plate.
*Fermented foods are still big. Stinky tofu, fermented bean curd, and yogurt (at least in the north of the country) are all big-time foods.
There is a big issue around food safety, as in intentional adulteration and contamination of the soil and food with all kinds of toxins and pollution. And the air pollution in and around Beijing is as bad as advertised--it smells awful, it looks awful, and cars and plants of all sorts are quickly coated in dust and dirt, giving them a gray-green look. This past week I've been in Beijing was supposedly a "good" week pollution-wise...I'd sure hate to see a bad week.
Just as big a threat, though, seems to be those all-pervasive fast-food places. One of the biggest landmarks at the Great Wall? A Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet.
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And if you want a taste a blatant censorship, try to access the New York Times on your hotel (or any) Internet connection. It won't come up, apparently because of reporting the Times did on hacking of its news site by Chinese operatives recently.
This site's mission is to provide news and analysis about food rights and raw milk. Increasingly, our access to privately available food is under attack by government and industry forces that seek to impose their choices on us. The Complete Patient seeks to provide up-to-date information and encourage the development of community to maintain traditional food acquisition options.
I have a friend who lived in China for a few years, teaching English. He told me that whenever he got sick, he would visit the local medicine man. The medicine man would hold his wrist, as if taking his pulse, and stare intently at him for 5 minutes monitoring his "Chi" (or life force). Then the medicine man would go to the back of the shop, grind up some secret herbal concoction, make a horribly bitter tea out of it, which my friend would proceed to drink as if it were a shot of cheap whisky. By the time he woke up the next morning, he would feel as if he'd never been sick.
Chinese medicine has a fascinating history (a history which I don't know nearly enough about) and which was often tied into their peasant folk religion, Daoism. Daoist philosophy, or so the history books tell us, was the basis for most of the civil rebellions throughout China's long history.
Have fun over there David! Looks like some very interesting food!
http://jacobinmag.com/2013/03/the-case-for-open-borders/
"The populist reactionaries of the world – Ron Paul, Marine Le Pen, and others like them – propose to re-nationalize capital, which is a complete impossibility. It is for the Left to square the circle the other way, by globalizing labor; that is, eliminating borders.
When the Right charges the Left with advocating amnesty, we should show them to be correct. No penalties, no electric fences, no drone surveillance, no papers, no fear. Instead, universal human rights, consecrated in struggle, enforced by solidarity. The unification of the world’s workers demands this."
I laughed at your reaction to "donkey". I had a similar reaction in Turkey, I ordered a "mixed grill" of various meats. I recognized the brains and kidneys (didn't care for them), Was enjoying a very tender, lightly breaded meat, asked the tour guide what it was and he said he'd tell me when I was done eating. I didn't take another bite until told what it was---goats testis. I know it was all in my mind, but couldn't eat another bite. Like escargot, it did taste good.
I think the chicken thighs and legs are more flavorful, fat is good! How awful a fast food joint planted at the Great Wall.
Enjoy your trip and stay safe.
On the question of censorship, it never ceases to amaze me how unaware Americans are of the censorship in our own society, while we condemn other nations for it. We have official censorship in America as well, its just that censorship here has been privatized. Censorship in America is conducted by corporations, through control of the media, access to the internet, etc. WikiLeaks has experienced this, after they exposed US state secrets, in the blockade which has been placed on them by PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, etc.
And we'd be remiss not to point out Google's collaboration with the Chinese government in censorship.
China is a shining example of why liberalization of markets does NOT neccessarily lead to political democracy, and often leads to quite the contrary -- the tightening of authoritarian control. When freedom and democracy are private goods, to be sold and traded on the free market, then only the wealthy can afford to be free.
David, Are you still thinking about that "thumbs down" button?
Can't wait for it, Sylvia. Then all of these libertarians can take pride in their self-righteous "thumbs down" to my posts, because they don't want to be confronted with their white petit bourgeois privilege, talking about only about food and alternative healthcare as the world burns.
I share Eugene Deb's sentiment that “While there is a lower class I am in it; while there is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free”
Here, "thumbs down" this too, while you are at it, Sylvia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/opinion/coates-the-good-racist-people....
I'll put the tiny bit of pity I have for such a young pup still wet behind the ears, as you-self ... in to free advice = to help you out of your stupidity : the wisdom of Scholomo Karlbach when he visited us at Simon Fraser U. (oh, back about 1968, when us white folks were enjoying our privilege to the max ) "it's not the walls of the world burning, it's a Great Light Shining".
Tell that to the revolutionaries in Egypt or the rebels in Syria right now. Or to the Greeks who have been out on the streets with numerous general strikes over the last year and half, protesting neoliberal austerity.
You're right that the economic crises of the last 4+ years has shone a bright light... on the global class struggle.
"cutting cattle tails for sanitary reasons, called docking."
How is that supposed to be sanitary?
"keeps the tail from dragging in manure"
Gee, if they weren't standing in their own poop, they wouldn't be dragging their tail in it.
"By cutting off the part of the tail, some farmers believe they protect workers from disease and helping to keep cow udders — and milk — clean."
ROTFLMAO They've got to be joking?
http://news.yahoo.com/colo-bill-ban-cow-tail-cutting-worries-farmers-183...
Bill,
Who is going to eat your cheese?
You, Brett. You can eat my cheese. Its quite delicious. You'll probably like it.
Want to make a trip to Wisconsin?
I'll give it a try on my way home to the Driftless Region
That is if I can find time between my feelings of "white petit bourgeois privilege",and "talking about only about food and alternative healthcare as the world burns"
OT: I'm sorry to go off-topic here, but I can't find the article where tomm culhane was asking about heirloom wheat varieties, etc. I found this site today and thought it might be of some help to you in your search. There are some other grains/seeds/grasses there, as well.
http://www.heirloom-organics.com/or/organicgrainseeds.html
I would advise people to ditch most all store bought processed foods. People read this crap and believe it to be true, after all, our govt wouldn't allow anything that would harm us, would they? UGH
1. flavored yogurt- no mention of the added chemicals
2. choose packaged cookies- again no mention of added chemicals
3. popcorn- first; who eats only one cup? GMO?
4. Go for flavored seltzer water for a fizz sans caffeine and chemicals.-OMG even encourages you to consume chemicals!!
5. Slow-cooked oats- one positive so far!
6. egg..olive oil on a whole-wheat English muffin- yuck, I'll fry my eggs in real butter or bacon fat.
7. dry rub- make your own; doesn't suggest what to use for salad dressings
8. bars naturally low in sugar- processed has added chemicals=toxins
9. Finn Crisps- chemicals? http://www.finncrisp.com/crispbreads/round-crispbreads/finn-crisp-multig... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E471
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/9-processed-foods-ditch-now-152600...
A stand-by OTC Chinese herb remedy is Gan Mao Ling, which we take if a cold or the flu threatens. Get it early, get a good night's sleep, and don't get sick. Recommended by my wife's MD who says he takes it preventively during cold/flu outbreaks when he is exposed constantly to sickness. It works!
Thanks for the tip Steve. I'll check it out!
An article from my favorite writer to dislike. You know, the guy you love to hate? We're often on opposite sides and there will always be two sides. But really - defending monsanto rather than Bowman? Looks like the SCOTUS is going to select monsanto as their prizewinner, too. How sad. How sad for all of us.
http://reason.com/archives/2013/03/08/seeds-of-invention
This is more about Vernon Bowman: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_22617165/vernon-hugh-bowman-will-t...
It's true. Money talks no matter what is at stake.
David, oriental food of any kind has never been my favorite, in fact I go out of my way to avoid it. My uncle tells me I have a boring palate, but then he's been all over the place in his lifetime and eaten some stuff I wouldn't touch with the end of a stick. But I hope you're having a great time and taking lots of photos so you can put up a page of them here so we can all have an armchair tour.