Via Fark, Chinese trucking live rats to southern restaurants:

Live rats are being trucked from central China, suffering a plague of a reported two billion rodents displaced by a flooded lake, to the south of the of country to end up in restaurant dishes, Chinese media reported.

“Recently there have been a lot of rats … Guangzhou people are rich and like to eat exotic things, so business is very good,” the China News Service quoted a vendor as saying, referring to the capital of Guangdong province.

Wonderful. The article also indicates that this rat plague could be partially caused by the eating of snakes and owls, who would normally help keep the rats in check, or the Three Gorges Dam project or climate change. Regardless of the cause, some local people are certainly making a tidy profit off of rat catching. I remember when I was in Guangzhou searching around for rat on a stick and being unable to find it. If I was down there now I would be in rat eating heaven. So to help out my friends down in the South, here are some rat recipes to take care of this rodent problem. After all how often can you say that you helped prevent the plague by eating.

Rat Ragout
Deep Fried Field Rat
Cooking Rats and Mice
Ground Rat Meat and Chili Paste

You can also check this Snopes article about Rat Food, which has some (most likely real) images of rats being prepared to be eaten. If you have any other rat recipes, or know of the Chinese websites that are listing recipes as mentioned in the story, please leave them in the comments section.

Popularity: 34% [?]

I saw this story on CCTV news tonight (I am using it as listening practice, with mostly no positive gain) about Bananas from Hainan being infected with a SARS like virus and searched online to find out more information:

China dismissed a rumour on Thursday that bananas grown on a southern island might contain viruses similar to SARS, the latest and most improbable in a series of food-safety scares to hit the country.

“It is purely a rumour and it is impossible for bananas to contain SARS-like viruses,” the Agriculture Ministry said, referring to text messages some cell phone users had received.

“The spreaders of the false information either have inadequate relevant scientific knowledge or have ulterior motives,” it said, adding police had been asked to investigate.

Since I will be in Hainan next week I wanted to make sure that there was not some kind of crazy viral outbreak going on. Now I know that I should just keep a wary distance away from bananas. Also, this is not the first time this year that Hainan bananas have been in the news.

Hainan bananas were subject to rumours they caused cancer earlier this year when the island’s plantations suffered a fungus blight called yellow wilt or, coincidentally, Panama disease.

All of this can not be good for the banana industry

Popularity: 12% [?]

A few nights ago I ate out at a restaurant on 湖南路， Hunan Road， one of the more popular restaurant areas here in Nanjing. Since we got there early we decided to buy a some of the 糖葫芦, tanghulu there. It fruit on a stick covered in a thick hard syrupy coating. I only buy these occasionally, as while eating them I can almost feel my teeth rotting away. Besides the usual strawberry and Hawthorne varieties, they had a bell shaped pinkish fruit that I had never had before. The woman at the stand said that it was a Taiwanese fruit and while I have had many different things covered in sugar, this was something different. This odd looking picture was taken by Jenn.

It had the consistency of an apple, but tasted as if it had black pepper on it. An interesting combination. When I got home I did some research online to find out the official name for this fruit. From Wikipedia:

Syzygium samarangense (syn.Eugenia javanica) is a species in the Myrtaceae, native to Malaysia and Indonesia. Common names include wax apple, love apple, java apple, water apple, mountain apple, jambu air (”water guava” in Malay), wax jambu, Rose apple, and bell fruit.

It is a tropical tree growing to 12 m tall, with evergreen leaves 10-25 cm long and 5-10 cm broad. The flowers are white, 2.5 cm diameter, with four petals and numerous stamens. The fruit is a bell-shaped edible berry, with colors ranging from white, pale green, green, red, purple, crimson, to deep purple or even black, 4-6 cm long in wild plants. The flowers and resulting fruit are not limited to the axils of the leaves and can appear on nearly any point on the surface of the trunk and branches. When mature, the tree is considered a heavy bearer and can yield a crop of up to 700 fruits. (1987) “Fruits of warm climates”. Java Apple: 381–382.

This fruit is also supposed to have several medicinal properties, although I don’t know how much I would trust their curative powers.

Wax apple has many medicinal applications: The flowers are used to treat fever and diarrhoea. The phytochemicals in the wax apple tree show some antibiotic action against staphylococcus aureus, candida albicans and mycrobacter smegmatis.

In Taiwan, people make wax apple soup with crystal sugar to treat coughing without phlegm. The fruit is also served as a cold dish on banquets to relieve the effect of alcohol.

This is a strictly tropical grown fruit, and while they can be grown in Southern Florida I don’t remember seeing any while I was in the United States. And from what I gather from the Internet they seemed to be used much more in Taiwan then on the mainland But if you see one around give it a try, it is an experience.

Popularity: 10% [?]

We have been frequenting a restaurant that is down the street from our apartment, and have been ordering random dishes to try out new things. I saw 苦瓜肉丝, bitter melon with shredded meat, on the menu and thought that this me a fine time to try a new melon. I had read about it in various Chinese language practice passages, and frankly wasn’t even sure what it looked like. After I said that I wanted the dish, the waitresses tried to convince us that it was indeed very bitter, and that we would not be used to something like it. Of course I have often found that when something is called too sweet or too hot in China it is usually very mild by American standards, especially concerning Chinese baked goods as they are almost never sweet. So being a big manly foreigner I decided to give it try.

After getting the dish I realized that I had seen these before in stores, and just didn’t know what they were called. I would call it more of a gourd or a squash, but there is not that kind of distinction in Chinese. It was cut into inch wide strips with a few red peppers and meat. And the taste was indeed very bitter. Imagine tasting something that only tasted bitter, that is the very example of what a bitter taste is, and that is the bitter melon. It was not particularly pleasant. Maybe different preparation would improve the flavor?

It was only after I got home and starting searching online that I discovered there is a whole community involved in the promotion of bitter melon. There was even a week devoted to it, July 21 - 30, 2005, in Boston’s South End. It also seems to have many good medicinal properties as well. This information is from the The National Bitter Melon Council (which oddly does not work here in China). I don’t think there are any scientific studies to back this up, but it sounds impressive.

Bitter Melons are rich in iron. They have twice the beta carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, twice the potassium of bananas, and contain Vitamins A, C, B1 to B3, Phosphorus and good dietary fiber.

As for its medicinal value, at least three different constituents in Bitter Melon have been reported to have hypoglycemic (blood sugar lowering) or other actions of potential benefit in treating diabetes mellitus. In traditional Chinese medicine, Bitter melon is used as an appetite stimulant and as a treatment for gastrointestinal infection and against breast cancer. Bitter Melon may prove to be a very effective herbal remedy against diabetes! It has been proven to increase the number of beta cells (those which produce insulin) in the pancreas. Bitter Melon seems to be supportive in HIV treatment, several proteins (such as alpha – and beta momocharin) have HIV inhibitory effects in vitro. However, they are not cytotoxic.

Bitter Melon’s bitterness comes from the high concentration of quinine it contains, which incidentally, is the reason why it is regarded by Asians, as well as Panamanians and Columbians, as a valuable agent for preventing and treating malaria.

It is some kind of miracle vegetable! Maybe the NSF should start doing some research on it. And maybe I should start doing some research on a bottle of Bitter Melon Beer.

Popularity: 21% [?]

We have a good relationship going with the couple that runs the milk tea store in the bottom of our building. About every other day or so we purchase either milk tea or ice cream from them. They smile at us, we exchange some pleasantries, and they take our money. It is excellent for everyone.

A few months ago they started selling a low priced ice cream bar that is only 1 RMB. And it is quite large for the price, as it is a vanilla face with chocolate eyes and mouth wearing a large chocolate hat. The name of this ice cream is 雪生 （xue3sheng), a delicious (haha) play on words of 学生 （xue2sheng), the word for student. The product gets additional clevernesses points since the 雪 in the first word means snow, and relates directly to the cold snowy nature of ice cream. Brilliant.

A few weeks ago I noticed a new product in the freezer downstairs, roughly the same shape and packaging of the above ice cream. This was called 雪孩子 (xue3hai2zi) roughly translated as snow child, an obvious joke involving the word for snowman 雪人 (xue3ren2). After buying one and unwrapping it I discovered that it was the exact same ice cream bar. Same eyes, mouth and giant chocolate hat (which frankly makes more sense on a snowman).

Here are a few assumptions that I am going to make that I have no real basis for but will make anyway because I think they are true. Ready? Chinese people love ice cream. They also love cheap things and silly word jokes. This ice cream company has discovered something powerful I think. Therefore I have come up with this formula based upon their tactics for marketing things to the Chinese population. If anyone from a giant corporation is reading this feel free to use this formula after sending me a big fat check.

Ice Cream + Low Price + Silly Play on Words = Profit!

If you can manage to sell the exact same product in different ways, profit then gets 3 exclamation points.

Popularity: 15% [?]

There, I said it. The cat is out of the bag. As much as I like to make myself out as a fruit expert, it is in fact untrue. So then can someone please tell me what this is:

The man who had the fruit stand said this was a watermelon. But this is certainly no watermelon I have ever seen. It tasted kind of like a honeydew melon, but a little more bitter.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Pineapple Season is fantastic. You can buy a quartered piece of one for 1 RMB, and a whole one for somewhere between 3-6 RMB. And of course pineapples are delicious.

Apparently I am now in the midst of coconut season.

Coconut season is not as delicious. I have had better coconut milk before, as this just taste like water with a smack of coconut about it.

Popularity: 7% [?]

A street vending lady nearby sells various foods fried in oil of questionable cleanliness. A few days ago I tried something that totally blew my mind, a deep fried banana. She peels the banana, puts it on a stick, dips it in batter and fries it. It’s like a pancake wrapped around a banana.

She also sells sausages. I don’t know why you would want a deep fried sausage.

UPDATE: I got another deep fried from a different lady today. And it was not nearly as good. The breading tasted like the batter around a Long John Silver’s fish fillet.

Popularity: 19% [?]

I decided at some point during this trip that I am just going to eat anything that people put in front of me, as when am I going to get a chance to try these things ever again. But when you ask someone, “What kind of meat is this?” and they respond with “Pig head” it makes you pause for a minute. If you think about it objectively, there is nothing inherently dirty about eating pig head. I mean its not like eating pig assholes, which I am sure I have unwittingly eaten at some point in my life before (hotdogs). And if you look at the pig head on Jenn’s blog, then at least it looks clean if not nightmarish. They shave it!
I am not really sure how the meat is removed from the head, as it is served in strips like bacon. And also like bacon the pig head meat itself is almost entirely fat. It tastes very good though. I think it really depends on the way it is prepared, as the meat really picks up the flavor of what it is cooked in. Luckily our friends mom is a really good cook and every pig head meat dish was totally delicious.
Also, pigs blood tastes way better then ducks blood. This might have something to do with the preparation as the ducks blood I have had was boiled while the pigs blood was fried. Although they both have this firm tofu like texture that is not pleasant but I think is just the way that blood congeals.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Yesterday a guy was buying a snack for one of my favorite street dogs, huang guang, aka the fox. Knowing that almost every part of the chicken or duck or whatever is eaten, I wonder what they give to dogs as extra snacks. My best guess so far is sack full of chicken penises.

Popularity: 18% [?]