Green Elephant Identification

[zhi zheng]

"man-made pu-erh caves in the United States."

I knew those Puer caves had to around somewhere. Maybe it's an American tradition rather than a Chinese one!

[TIM]

This is off the subject now, but let carry on about food.

It's really one man food another person poison, here is what Fuchsia Dunlop comment about the Chinese State Dinner Menu couple of weeks ago:

"Many Chinese people, especially those of President Hu's generation, would be less than delighted with raw salad and goats cheese and with the prospect of eating a whole slab of beef," she says.

In the past only "barbarians" ate raw food and dairy products, she says, while rare, pink oozing meat is an "atrocity" in terms of Chinese gastronomy.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12255127

That's why the Chinese invented chopsticks

[MarshalN]

This is off the subject now, but let carry on about food.

It's really one man food another person poison, here is what Fuchsia Dunlop comment about the Chinese State Dinner Menu couple of weeks ago:

"Many Chinese people, especially those of President Hu's generation, would be less than delighted with raw salad and goats cheese and with the prospect of eating a whole slab of beef," she says.

In the past only "barbarians" ate raw food and dairy products, she says, while rare, pink oozing meat is an "atrocity" in terms of Chinese gastronomy.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12255127

That's a little orientalist, to be honest. Guys like Hu (and most people in his delegation) have had plenty of good, western meals already. It's not like they don't know what they're doing.

[gingkoseto]

This is off the subject now, but let carry on about food.

It's really one man food another person poison, here is what Fuchsia Dunlop comment about the Chinese State Dinner Menu couple of weeks ago:

"Many Chinese people, especially those of President Hu's generation, would be less than delighted with raw salad and goats cheese and with the prospect of eating a whole slab of beef," she says.

In the past only "barbarians" ate raw food and dairy products, she says, while rare, pink oozing meat is an "atrocity" in terms of Chinese gastronomy.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12255127

That's a little orientalist, to be honest. Guys like Hu (and most people in his delegation) have had plenty of good, western meals already. It's not like they don't know what they're doing.

I also think Hu and many Chinse of that age may enjoy some other western dishes more than the raw salad, cheese and steak. When my Chinese friend's mother visited the States, she commented, there are some tasty western dishes that are very similar to Chinese food

But I guess usually in a State Dinner, the food is not the most important. It should be very good, but doesn't have to be something you can't have enough of

[gingkoseto]

Most unusual Chinese dishes have fancy names that mean nothing in English, and sometimes they're actually rather benign. Husband and Wife Lung Slices, for example, is just pork in a hot sauce.

According to Fuchsia Dunlop, graduate of Sichuan's Chengdu Cooking School, says in her cookbook Land of Plenty that husband and wife lung slices was "traditionally made with a mixture of lean beef and innards, (including ox hearts, tongue, and stomachs)" which actually doesn't sound half bad to this omnivore (and I mean omni!).

Yeah it's usually beef stuff, not pork. But I even if it were made with pork, I can enjoy it as much. I think beef stuff is used because overall beef and cow organs have better chewy texture than pork and pig organs.

I love it that anything can lead to discussion of food

[bearsbearsbears]

In the past only "barbarians" ate raw food and dairy products, she says, while rare, pink oozing meat is an "atrocity" in terms of Chinese gastronomy.

And despite that history, the Chinese are recently obsessed with yogurt and dairy, and there is a Brazilian BBQ in every major city.

Cultural exchange goes two ways (or more?). Here in the US, cultural awareness discussions outline open-mindedness with a distinctly one-way slant: the integration of ideas, food, language, and customs into US culture. When it's US cultural ideas integrating into the cultures of other countries, it's called "globalization"

As for raw vegetables, night soil is a good reason to avoid them in China, no matter how open minded a Chinese person is at the dinner table!