Made in China

July 16, 2007 by reyna10
Filed under: Culture & Society

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Dirty Chinese Food. What’s going on with China? Are all the counterfeiting finally catching up with them? Their economy went crazy with double-digit growth year after and it looks like they will finally be baptized as an economic power with the holding of the Summer Olympics. But you begin to wonder:

The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef’s nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella. Yet, it took a much more obscure item, contaminated wheat gluten, to focus U.S. public attention on a very real and frightening fact: China’s chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.

Fake goods and unsafe food threaten Chinese exports blares the headline. Weeks after tainted Chinese pet food ingredients killed and sickened thousands of dogs and cats in the United States, China faces growing international pressure to prove that its food exports are safe to eat. But simmering beneath the surface is a thornier problem that worries Chinese officials: how do they assure the world that this is not a nation of counterfeits and that “Made in China” means well-made?

You see, when we go out on Fridays or on Saturdays in Philadelphia, it’s part of our schedule to have breakfast at around 3:00am in Chinatown. We’ve been doing this for years. However, I noticed that I would get headaches and get dizzy or feel very very sleepy right after eating chinese food. I specifically suspect this one Chinese restaurant (that I won’t name) where we love to order salt-baked squid and shrimps. It has driven my internal apparatus crazy. I really suspect MSG. I began to think: why would someone use MSG on food. To me, it means that they don’t know how to cook delicious food because they’d manipulate our taste buds to making feel that what were eating are delicious when they are not! Am I right?

As this article would say: One of the oldest controversial ingredients is monosodium glutamate, or MSG. It has been blamed for a myriad of health problems — from numbness to headaches to chest pain. These symptoms have been collectively referred to as “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” due to the fact that many Chinese restaurants use MSG in their food. But how much of this is myth, and how much is based in reality?

Which brings me to question myself. Are Chinese and China blind to hygiene and food safety? Is it all because of money and they have to do whatever it takes to get some sales? Or one could also argue that all these are nothing but a heavy-handed take on Chinese food that almost sounds like racism of food type. Don’t you think?

Gosh! I would hate to think that! There’s just so many things coming into my mind. I remember Seinfeld. What’s with the hilarous episode in the Chinese Restaurant where the entire show was all about. I think, there was also one on the Chapelle’s show, if I could remember it right. What I mean is that, Chinese food is known to be very healthy and delicious. But is it?

But wait! Don’t make any decisions just yet!

China rejects tainted US food. Chinese inspectors have seized shipments of US-made orange pulp and dried apricots containing high levels of bacteria and preservatives, the government said Tuesday. The move appeared to be the latest attempt by China to show it is not the only country with food export safety problems.

Simple, right? China is fighting back!

Sometimes, I begin to think - Is this a China-American media food war? And maybe America is winning the fight because theirs is louder. I don’t know. I just read news and feel it. You know. But maybe China is guilty, after all, it was several weeks ago that the head of their FDA (similar agency with that of America) was erased from the earth. And so they seem to be making amends.

Numerous countries have stopped imports of Chinese-made toothpaste in recent months for containing diethylene glycol, or DEG, which is also used as a low-cost — and sometimes deadly — substitute for glycerin, a sweetener in many drugs. A set of “strict certification and evaluation procedures” are being drawn up by China’s Health Ministry and the China Certification and Accreditation Administration, the China News Service said, citing an announcement made during a national symposium. No other details were given.

And the fighting seems to be unending:

US study finds Chinese resto food ’sea of no-nos’

I’m not really trying to scare you eating Chinese Foods. We were just at Joe’s Peking Duck in Marlton, NJ last Sunday. That’s one of my favorite places to eat and the Thai Restaurant beside it. So, let me give you some comfort about eating Chinese food.

Here are 7 Reasons Why You Should Eat at Dirty Little Chinese Restaurants

In the meantime, when there’s smoke there must be fire. But, just in case, be careful about what you eat.

Tags:

Comments

4 Comments on Made in China

ate cha on Tue, 17th Jul 2007 7:23 am

news din yan dito sa amin. a jap journalist even managed to coax a small-time chinese restaurateur to divulge his culinary secrets. of course he didn’t show his face on tv. but he allowed the camera to roll in his kitchen.

his recipe for meat fillings for shiopao includes …. take this , CARDBOARD. He soaked the cardboard/carton in water for a few hours until soft then drained the water. Mashed it and added ground meat to it. he said he’s been serving this for many years and so far no one has noticed. yukk !

happy tuesday!

[Reply]

reynz on Tue, 17th Jul 2007 12:39 pm

wow! really! that’s news to me! ma-search nga yan! makes me think twice about eating anything that starts in SHOE, mahilig pa naman kami sa dimsum!

[Reply]

pusa on Wed, 18th Jul 2007 6:00 am

ay naku super balita nga yan formalin laced food na gawa sa china
takot ang lola mo kc kasama dun sa foods from china na me formalin eh un white rabbit candy! un me transparent na balat na natutunaw sa bibig mo….waaa eh sangkaterbang white rabbit na ang nakakain ko

[Reply]

rieaane on Wed, 18th Jul 2007 7:55 am

Yucks naman…nakaka “waaaah” naman yang mga kuwento nyo, mahilig pa naman ako sa chinese foods! Pusa, ako rin marami na akong nakaing white rabbit with transparent na balat