Wok Fusion Flavor

Food safety authorities in south China’s Guangdong Province said Tuesday that they have raided two plants producing illegal cooking oil, or “gutter oil”, after receiving tips from the general public.

The illegal oil, which is one of several illicit products currently being cracked down upon by the Chinese government, is made from leftover oil which is dredged from gutters behind restaurants. The oil is collected, processed and resold to other restaurants. Although it is clean in appearance, it often contains toxic substances.

The two plants, located in the city of Dongguan, were raided on Monday, according to an official with the city’s food and drug administration. However, police are still looking for the plants’ managers, the official said.

A report in Tuesday’s Guangzhou Daily newspaper stated that sanitary napkins, plastic bags and other refuse had been spotted in one of the plants’ oil containers.

He Yong, a worker at one of the plants who was severely burned after falling into an oil cooking vat last month, said that the oil was put into barrels and shipped to wholesale markets in Dongguan and the neighboring city of Shenzhen, according to the report.
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Southeast Asian cuisine is famous for its fresh, aromatic ingredients and colorful dishes. No matter Thai food, Singaporean or Indonesian, dishes from this part of the world offer new and exotic taste sensations and fragrances.

Besides that, many Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore have multi-ethnic populations. Immigrants from all over the world bring their home country dishes and then create diverse dishes, a fusion cuisine of various culture’s cooking styles.

For example, Singapore’s Nonya food is based on Chinese and Malaysian traditional cuisine, using basic Chinese cooking way but blending in Malaysian spices; Malaysia’s Teh Taric is created by the early Indian immigrants who sought to preserve India’s historic tea culture. Sweet pineapple, fragrant curries, and spicy satay transport visitors from Shanghai to a tropical beach, enjoying lazy days.

Thai food is famous for its hot chilis, harmonious blend of the spicy, sweet and sour, and the abundant fresh ingredients. Each dish appeals not only to the palate but to the eyes and nose.

Aquatic animals, plants and herbs are major ingredients; the herbs in traditional Thai cooking are also beneficial to the health.

The Thailand Pavilion at the World Expo offers food ranging from the piquant and challenging to milder sensations and flavors.

They include noodles in spicy prawn soup, chicken Khao Soi and Pad Thai with prawns, among others.

A proper Thai meal consists of a soup, a curry dish with condiments, and sometimes fish and vegetables. Though the small restaurant in the Thailand Pavilion can produce only relatively simple dishes, it uses the freshest, high quality ingredients to create a range of food.
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The chopstick expert, Wei Jane Chir, 55, explains, there is right way and a wrong way to use these simple yet elegant utensils.

“Westerners sometimes hold their chopsticks too low or too high,” says Chir, a Taiwan native who is also the artistic director and designer of the International Chinese Culinary Competition.

“Chopsticks should be used as if they were an extension of your arm. Proper use of chopsticks shows that you have education and good manners.”

Indeed, watching Chir maneuver chopsticks while eating food at the Radiance Tea House (158 W. 55th St.; 212-217-0442) is like watching an artist paint. With her slender right hand she deftly works the retractable stainless steel sticks she always keeps in her purse, grasping even the smallest grain of rice.

Chir demonstrates the proper way to hold chopsticks, by resting the lower stick on the ring finger and the gap between the thumb and the index finger, then gripping the second chopstick with the index finger and thumb. The bottom chopstick does not move while the top one is manipulated by the index finger.

“Using chopsticks keeps the brain in shape,” says Chir, an upper West Side resident who owns at least 36 pairs of chopsticks. “More than 100 nerves and muscles have to work in order to use the chopsticks. There is scientific research that shows people who use chopsticks are less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease.”

Chopsticks originated in China more than 4,000 years ago. According to Chir, the ruling class originally made their chopsticks out of bronze, which turned out to be poisonous, so they switched to silver and ivory. The working class most often made their chopsticks out of wood, which is more common in north China, or bamboo, more common in the south.

For Chir, the beauty of chopsticks, which are used not only in China but Japan, Korea and Vietnam, lies in their versatility. They can be used for whisking, pulling, clamping, digging, cutting and, of course, picking up various sumptuous items of food.
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While many people think of Chinese food as a greasy takeaway option, celebrity chef Ching-He Huang is on a mission to sell its everyday, healthier side

Q: You grew up in Taiwan, came to South Africa as a girl and moved with your family to the UK as a teenager, where you are now based. Do influences from all these countries reflect in your cooking?

A: Not so much South African cuisine but I draw from my mother’s improvising skills when she cooked us Chinese meals in South Africa, especially when it was so hard to find Chinese ingredients. I have very loving memories of South Africa because it was my first encounter with Western food, so trying things such as avocado, yoghurt, mielie pap, biltong, ostrich, boerewors . it was such a food adventure for me as a young child.

My cooking now is a blend of my favourite dishes, whether Taiwanese, British-Chinese, Cantonese, Sichuanese or Eastern Chinese. I like to share dishes I think are a joy to cook and eat, and of course that are accessible to the Western kitchen. I have managed to keep my identity, culture and heritage through cooking Chinese. For that I’m grateful because as a teenager growing up in UK, all I wanted to do was fit in but cooking has meant I have been able to keep my “Chinese-ness”.

Q: Have you ever been back to South Africa?

A: Yes, I was back in 2008 for the Sunday Times Food Show. It was great fun and good to be back. I miss the warmth, sunshine and a good braai.

Q: Many people only consider Chinese food a greasy takeaway option. How do you go about changing this perception?

A: Chinese “fast food” is very different from home-style cooking, which is much lighter and healthier. At home, soups, stir-fries and steamed dishes are cooked more often than deep fried dishes. You also use fresh ingredients and can see exactly what you are putting into your food, which makes you eat more consciously. So my recipes try to reflect the diversity of Chinese food, traditional dishes and regional dishes so people can appreciate that Chinese food is not just served in a takeaway.
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A 64-year-old Fremont man who allegedly attacked a co-worker at a Palo Alto Chinese restaurant with a meat cleaver must stand trial on three felony charges, a judge ruled Monday

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Douglas Southard ruled there is enough evidence to try Chun Ren Chen, a former busboy at Jade Palace on California Avenue, on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated mayhem. He faces 10 years to life in prison if convicted, according to the district attorney’s office.

Chen is accused of stabbing the cook several times in the back with the cleaver on May 27, 2009. The apparent victim and Palo Alto police Detective Anjanette Holler testified at a brief preliminary hearing Monday morning, said Deputy District Attorney Jim Demertzis.

At the request of the district attorney’s office, The Daily News is withholding the name of the victim, who fears for his safety after testifying.
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Changing tastes among China’s growing middle class have helped the country become the leading importer of Bordeaux wines.

Wine body is ‘amazed’ at pace and endurance of China market growth

Bordeaux sales to China have doubled every year for the last five years, according the Conseil Inter-professionel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB).

The rapid and sustained growth saw sales hit £84m in the first half of 2010, catapulting China past Britain to become the largest export market.

While it was no secret that some wealthier Chinese had developed a taste for the region’s most expensive wines, the CIVB said consumption had been doubling as well.

This meant China also surpassed Germany as Bordeaux’s number one importer by volume in the second quarter.

Thomas Jullien, the CIVB’s director of marketing in Asia, told Sky News: “China has a strong thirst for wine and Bordeaux is a point of reference in the wine world.

“But to be honest I had expected it to reach a plateau earlier and I’m amazed at the growth figures.”

London-based wine merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd has also witnessed a fast-growing appetite for Bordeaux.

The group – which cites the fact that its 15-year-old Hong Kong merchant is China’s oldest as evidence of the market’s relative immaturity – has seen trade triple in the last three years, now accounting for a third of total Bordeaux sales.

Berry Bros. & Rudd sales and marketing director Simon Staples told Sky News it was still only glimpsing the “tip of the iceberg”, with only a handful of customers on China’s mainland.
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Join doctor of Chinese medicine Henry Jun Wah Lee and holistic chef Vicky Valencia for an evening of food and learning in Pasadena on Thurs., Sept. 23 at 6:30 p.m. There will be tasty (and healthful) dishes to sample, practical recipes you can use, and enlightening information on how to stay healthy in the coming months, drawing from principles of Chinese medicine.

Besides being a TCM doctor, Lee is a licensed acupuncturist, medical qigong instructor and Eastern nutritionist with private practices in Pasadena and Venice. Valencia is a holistic chef who received her training from the Kushi Institute, a renowned macrobiotic educational and healing center in Massachusetts. She privately cooks and teaches in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mexico City.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the lungs and colon are the most susceptible organs affected by the fall season, according to Lee. This is a time when imbalances related to these organs–including allergies, asthma, colds, constipation, dry skin and wrinkles, and sadness and grief– appear or worsen. To combat these conditions, Lee and Valencia have come up with this “energizing and stabilizing” grain-based soup.

In the following recipe, millet and pumpkin seeds counter dry conditions by lubricating and strengthening the lungs and colon, Lee says. Squash contains beta-carotene, which boosts immune system function and protects the lungs and colon against colds and the flu.

The class will be held at 74 N. Fair Oaks Blvd. in Pasadena. The cost is $25 and includes cooking ingredients and recipes. Call (323) 540-4180 for more information or to sign up. Class is limited to 15 people.

Millet-Corn Chowder with Sweet Squash
From: Chinese medicine doctor Henry Lee and holistic chef Vicky Valencia
Note: Kombu is a seaweed available at Asian markets and at Whole Foods.
Serves: 4
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Summertime meals often mean something thrown on the grill – quick and mess-free. But there’s another easy cooking method that doesn’t require much energy, and it’s suited to all seasons: poaching.

Poaching is an often overlooked way of cooking a delicate protein – generally chicken, fish or eggs – that submerges it in a barely simmering liquid (about 160 to 180 degrees); the surface of the liquid shimmers, showing few, if any, bubbles. Up the heat a bit, to about 185 degrees, and you’ve gotten to a simmer, which is the heat level for braising. Crank the heat up even further, and you’ve reached a boil, used for cooking pasta, blanching vegetables and more.

My Great Uncle Yuen, a partner in my family’s Chinese restaurant when I was growing up, did great deal of poaching. He loved poached chicken, which he ate many times each week. He would place a whole chicken into the huge, barely simmering cauldron of chicken stock that was always on the burner, and then would go back to working. A couple of hours later, he would fish out the chicken, set it aside, and then eat it when he could.

If he didn’t have time to take a lunch break, he would wrap up the cooled poached chicken and refrigerate it. Later, he’d bring it out of hiding, chop it up and eat it cold. Uncle Yuen often used hot broth or made a quick sauce to take off the chill.

I haven’t poached a chicken in quite a while until lately, when I realized again how much sense it made. Poaching is easy and doesn’t require much attention. Chicken is relatively inexpensive, and when poached, doesn’t need its skin to remain moist so there is less fat overall. An added plus: Poached chicken can be used in many recipes.

I’ve developed a master recipe for poached chicken that uses ginger-infused water, which eventually becomes an Asian-style broth, but you can also use different flavorings to take the broth in a new direction (see accompanying suggestions).
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The Chinese now consume more than twice as much organic food as health-conscious Japan.

The market is worth an annual 10billion yuan (£1billion) having quadrupled in the past five years. For comparison, the British organic market is worth roughly £2billion. Interest has been promoted by a series of scares including toxic beans, contaminated milk and pork, pesticide-laced dumplings, chemically-tainted chicken, and the growing presence of what is known as “sewage oil”.

Night soil collectors typically visit the drains behind restaurants late at night to scoop up dregs of oil, which they filter and resell.

The government, which released the figures, has promised to take action against the practice. But since there are no laws against skimming oil from drains, police have had to release any suspects.

In April, a man was caught in broad daylight collecting oil at a sewer in Zhengzhou, Henan province, which he admitted intending to sell to street food vendors for 300 yuan a barrel.

“There is no way to prevent this oil from returning to the food chain,” said Zhen Zhiquan, 32, the manager of a company in Qingdao that turns sewage oil into biofuel.

“Companies like us buy around 10 to 20 per cent of the oil that is dredged from the sewers, but at least 80 per cent is recycled,” he said.
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Here is a discussion that was sent to Cecil Adams on this topic.

Dear Cecil, I’ve heard it often said and experienced it myself on various continents (including Asia): you enjoy a terrific Chinese, or Thai, or Malay dinner, only to feel hungry again a short while later. Is this our imagination playing a trick on us appreciators of Chinese cuisine? Or is it a western counterpart to the fact that many Asians don’t tolerate milk? — Erwin Kuhn, Germany

Cecil replies:
We had a helluva time with this one, Erwin. The problem wasn’t just coming up with an answer. It was figuring out the question, which we’ve gotten in different forms over the years.

Possibilities:
1. Why, after eating Chinese food, do you soon feel hungry again?
2. Do you, in fact, after eating Chinese food, soon feel hungry again?
3. People used to say that after eating Chinese food one soon feels hungry again. Now they don’t. What changed?

All we were able to establish initially was that, long ago (at least), people did in fact say the Saying, as I’ll refer to it, and that this wasn’t some mass hallucination. My assistant Una found the following fragment from a dramatic piece published in the literary magazine Golden Book in 1934:

julie (in a flat tone): Yes, but the trouble with that Chinese food is, no matter how much you eat you feel hungry an hour later. Have you ever noticed that?

ham (the Orientalist): It’s the rice.
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A German food conglomerate and several executives are under indictment on charges that they engaged in what amounts to honey laundering.

Federal prosecutors allege that 10 top executives of Alfred L. Wolff GmbH conspired to illegally import more than $40 million worth of honey from China between 2002 and 2009, and concealed its origin to avoid paying nearly $80 million in anti-dumping duties.

The U.S. Commerce Department has imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese honey brought into the United States since 2001. The current duty is $2.06 per net kilogram.

Prosecutors say the some of the honey in this case was tainted with antibiotics, although there were no reports of illness stemming from it.

All 11 people and six corporations in the case were charged with one count of conspiracy, and most others were charged with smuggling, falsifying federal Customs and Commerce Department records, and violating food and drug safety laws. Former Alfred L. Wolff chief executive officer Alexander Wolff, of Hamburg, Germany, is among the defendants.
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Try substituting peanuts for other ingredients that enhance flavor and texture. The possibilities are endless, and even the most avid peanut lovers might be surprised.

Use vegetable oil: One of the main reasons to use peanut oil is its high smoke point – the temperature at which the oil’s flavor and nutrition decomposes. Additionally, peanut oil is relatively bland and some cooks argue it will not alter the flavor of ingredients. Other light oils such as vegetable oil and sunflower oil are just as effective as peanut oil in flash frying or stir-frying, and can be used without a visit to the hospital.

Use cashews: Looking for a garnish on your noodle dish? Place a handful of raw cashews on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for roughly five minutes. The nuts should exit the oven golden brown and aromatic. Sprinkle them whole, or place them in a plastic bag and crush them using a pot, on any stir-fry or noodle dish for added flavor and texture.

Use Dijon mustard and soy sauce: Peanut butter-based dressings and sauces often accompany Chinese-inspired dishes ranging from salads to spring rolls. Those allergic to peanuts could consider mixing equal parts Dijon mustard and soy sauce. This combination achieves the same viscosity as peanut sauce, and arguably adds depth of flavor with the tang from the mustard.
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Source: NTD Television

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More than 150 diplomats from over 50 countries and their spouses, as well as officials of government departments, gathered in Beijing Sunday for the Delicacy Culture leg of the annual Friendship Competition of Ambassadors and Madams on Knowing Chinese Culture.

Held at the Friendship Palace of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), Sichuan cooking performances and traditional Sichuan opera were on display.

Following the success of the Tea Culture event held in Beijing, Chongqing and Chizhou in April, Delicacy Culture consists of three major parts: the opening ceremony, Chengdu cooking training and competition and a cuisine trip to Chengdu later this month.

Several Sichuan chefs are scheduled to conduct cooking classes, with a dish of Gung Pao Chicken up for judging.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Inflation in China accelerated last month, as rising food prices pushed overall prices higher.

The consumer price index increased to 3.5% in August, compared to a 3.3% annual rate in July, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported on Saturday.

The global economy has become increasingly dependent on China’s rapid expansion as an engine for growth.

But prices in the fast-growing Chinese economy have been outpacing most western economies; U.S. prices were up only 1.2% over the 12 months ending in July.

That has raised some concerns that the Chinese government might take steps to slow down growth in order to keep prices in check.

“China has to be careful,” said Robert Brusca of FAO Economics. “Their big objective is domestic stability, and domestic stability requires employment. But they can’t let inflation get away from them. So they have a tiger by the tail.”
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Millions of Muslims across China celebrated Eid al-Fitr Friday, the festival that signals the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan — a season of fasting and spiritual reflection.

Early Friday, Muslims of different ethnic groups in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, as well as in other Muslim-populated regions, donned festive costumes and swarmed mosques to hear imams preach.

Sumptuous foods have been prepared at Muslim homes celebrate the fast-breaking festival.

In Xinjiang, people can have a day off for Eid al-Fitr, and in Ningxia, the local government has decided to lengthen the public holiday from one day to two from this year, to enable Muslims to have more time to attend religious rituals and visit relatives.
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One of the great joys of travel within China is its eating opportunities, from ornate banquet halls to the street vendors all over the cities. Well, perhaps that was one of the joys. It turns out that as many as 1 in 10 meals in China is cooked with reused cooking oil. Perhaps “reused” is the polite term—oil collectors often salvage cooking oil from restaurant drains or even glean it from sewers, and then recycle it into cooking oil.

The shock over tainted food from China, which gave cable TV commentators in the US like Lou Dobbs plenty to screech about, caused not only a scare with China’s trading partners, but within the nation of 1.3 billion hungry people. Contaminated milk, high melamine content in food products, tainted vegetable protein, dumplings laced with pesticide, and beans with a side of isocarbophos have caused outrage among the Chinese as well. But in a country where fried bread (you tiao) is a cheap and popular breakfast food on the go, cooking oil from sewers has pushed many Chinese, albeit wealthier ones, to buy organic.
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American Institute for Cancer Research – Chao and Bao are stir-frying techniques that differ in the amount of heat used, the speed of cooking and how much the ingredients are tossed. The goal of both techniques is to brown the food quickly while preserving the nutritional value, color, texture and flavor of the individual ingredients. Chao is the more common technique for home cooking since Bao requires making the pan red-hot.

Canola oil is high in beneficial monounsaturated fatty acids, and with its light taste and high smoke point, it is ideal for stir-frying in a healthy way.

Soy sauce has been used for over 2000 years in Chinese cooking. Dark soy sauces are usually thicker and employ a single fermentation process, aging over a longer period than the lighter varieties. The flavor will come through, however, with any reduced-sodium soy sauce.
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Reuters reports Chinese police have detained three people suspected of selling milk powder tainted with melamine, state media said on Thursday, the industrial chemical involved in a massive toxic food scandal last year.

The three were detained in northwestern Shaanxi province on Dec. 2, before tainted goods reached stores, the official Xinhua news agency said.
It named the three as Liu Ping, general manager of Shaanxi Jinqiao Diary Company, and two of the firm’s employees and said they were detained for “the suspected crime of producing and selling toxic food.”
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Every six seconds a child on this planet dies of hunger.

We’ve had industrial revolutions in the west and more recently in China and South Asia; budding revolutions in “superjumbo” aircraft and plug-in electric cars; and Seinfeld episodes that can be downloaded onto cellphones worldwide.

Yet we remain trapped in some previous century in that most basic of necessities; keeping the world population fed. Remarkably, the facts today point to yet another global food shortage just a few years after the food crisis of 2007-08, which ended only when the Great Recession curbed a debilitating upward spiral in prices of basic staples like rice, corn and wheat worldwide. As the world economy recovers, the prospect of another global food crisis looms large.

The determining factors in famine are mostly man-made. They include civil war and political instability in many, if not most undernourished regions. Protectionism in affluent nations that removes the incentive for developing-world farmers to enhance crop yields in the hope of earning export revenue. A sharp decline in affluent-world donations of agricultural assistance to underfed countries. A growing scourge of crop failure related to global warming. And a ferocious debate between advocates of natural farming methods and those arguing for a new agricultural revolution based on genetically modified (GM) crops.

By David Olive. Read more about this story.

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