"beijing" news and stories

In Japan, the "flavor of the month" isn't barbecue, or citrus, or licorice, it's...citrulline.

Sound strange? It's an amino acid found in large amounts in watermelon, and it's being touted as a performance enhancer to the Olympic athletes in Beijing, China. It widens blood vessels, allowing for improved circulation, as well as increasing levels of nitric oxide, as well as breaking down lactic acid, (which, as our readers have gently reminded me, is not the scary substance we once thought it to be).

L-Citrulline has long been available in supplement form, but the Japanese are seeing how far they can market it, putting it into sports drinks, sports bars and even gum.

But mainly, it's just another excuse to eat a huge, juicy slice of watermelon.

via [inventorspot]

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Chinese environmental activists continue to protest the country's use of disposable chopsticks, an industry that churns out about 63 billion pairs a year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Just yesterday, activists stormed a Microsoft Corporation cafeteria to alert patrons to the damage the utensils were doing to forests.

China is already mobilizing to decrease its reliance on disposable chopsticks. Since November, about 300 restaurants have promised to replace them with reusable chopsticks, and in 2006, the government levied a 5% tax on these and other products they deemed environmentally unfriendly.

And to go along with their attempts to green the Beijing Olympics this summer, many events will not offer disposable chopsticks to visitors.

But the industry that activists are protesting is one that employs over 100,000 people in China, and provides well-needed jobs for people in poorer areas (some younger activists are experiencing conflicting feelings, as their parents make a living producing the very product that they are condemning). And Lian Guang, president of the Wooden Chopsticks Trade Association, told the WSJ that the company uses leftover wood or wood from trees that are not endangered, like birch, poplar, and bamboo.

But though activists are encouraging Chinese citizens to tote their own pair of reusable chopsticks (much like the U.S. is encouraging people to use their own water bottles), it doesn't look like the disposable chopstick industry is going anywhere anytime soon.

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Seems like Coca-Cola is coming full circle some 120 years after its invention by druggist John Stith Pemberton.

Well, sort of.

Yesterday the soft-drink giant unveiled the Coca-Cola Research Center for Chinese Medicine in Beijing.

Coca-Cola has set up a lab to experiment with new Chinese herbal flavors for Coke and other beverage products. It's the first international company to open such a facility at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Coca-Cola plans to have its researchers develop beverages using Chinese herbal ingredients and formulas.

A Coca-Cola spokesperson had this to say "This collaboration will ultimately help us bring the insights and benefits of traditional Chinese medicine to consumers all over the world." And it should probably give them a bit more cred than Vitamin Water. Though to be frank, I'm not quite sure I'm ready for Diet Coke with ginseng.

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Guo-li-zhuang is unique among the restaurants in Beijing and, most likely, the world. It is the first restaurant in China that specializes in cuisine in which every dish contains one (or more) of the male reproductive organs of some animal. Though superstitions of virility and fertility have long been attached to the consumption of a penis from another animal, this restaurant is the first to base its existence around that belief. The clientele, according to staff, are primarily men eager to experience the promised benefits of the food.

The writer for the Telegraph sampled the Hot Pot containing six types of penis and four types of testicles. Generally speaking, he seemed to find the dishes to be gamey, gristly or stringy. Though he did not sample it, the restaurant boasts a specialty dish of Canadian seal penis. At over $500 per serving, it must be ordered in advance and is considered to be an aphrodisiac. For photos of some of the dishes, including dog and ox, see the full article.

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