"china" news and stories

We'd like to second Saturday Night Live 'Weekend Update' correspondent Seth Meyers from last Saturday -- "Because that's what the Chinese should be working on, ways to make their ten-trillion people unnecessary." -- and add that every rising actor, writer, artist and second-job-er in America would appreciate if those little electronic workers stayed right where they are.

According to the AP, "More than a dozen robots operate in the restaurant" -- Dalu Robot, billed as the first robot-staffed eatery in the country -- "as entertainers, servers, greeters and receptionists. Each robot has a motion sensor that tells it to stop when someone is in its path so customers can reach for dishes they want."

First-time patron Li Xiaomei told the AP: "They have a better service attitude than humans," who can be "temperamental or impatient, but they don't feel tired, they just keep working and moving round and round the restaurant all night." That may be true, but there's no chip for witty comebacks to the customers. Or flirting back. Not that we do that sort of thing.

Egg producers in Iowa may still be reeling from last month's recall of half a billion eggs, but at least they can be grateful for one thing: they don't live in China. Chinese authorities have announced that manufacturers who violate the country's food safety laws will face the death penalty in the future.

Whether the threat of the lethal injection will markedly improve food safety in China is an open debate. The country made worldwide headlines last year when it executed a dairy farmer and a salesman who were convicted for their roles in a huge food contamination scare in which milk tainted with melamine killed at least six children and sickened an estimated 300,000.

But according to the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Report online, the country continues to face concerns over its food safety. New questions have been raised about the country's milk supply after several infants began to show signs of early onset puberty, which doctors believe may be caused by elevated hormone levels in milk. Last month, dozens of people in Nanjing were hospitalized with severe muscle pain after eating crayfish contaminated with an industrial acid, while public health officials in California pushed for a recall of ginger candy imported from China that was found to contain dangerous levels of lead.

Which is kind of ironic when you think about it, since being put in front of a firing squad has been shown to cause exposures to dangerous levels of lead, too.

Shaping fruits and vegetables as they grow on the vine is nothing new. John Czeski, an Ohio farmer, was harvesting pumpkins with human faces in the 1930s. But these adorable baby Buddha pears take playing with food to a whole new level.

A Chinese farmer been tinkering with modified pears since 2003, and this year he's reportedly grown 10,000 edible Buddhas. But are they too cute to eat? Tell us what you think in the comments below!

A bulk order of Louisiana crawfish. Photo: nola.agent, Flickr

Louisiana crawfish advocates have finally discovered -- after years of unsuccessfully appealing to economic interests -- that the quickest way to consumers' hearts is actually via their (unsettled) stomachs.

The state legislature this year enacted a law requiring restaurant owners to disclose whether their crawfish is Louisiana-raised. Bill sponsor Fred H. Mills, Jr. -- a pharmacist whose district includes Breaux Bridge, better known to Cajun gourmands as the "Crawfish Capital of the World" -- credits the law's passage to a major tactical shift.

"Everyone was upset that Chinese seafood was being disguised as Louisiana seafood, but the law just never could get any legs to it," Mills says. "The difference this time was we didn't talk about commerce. We talked about public safety."

The campaign against imported crawfish, after the jump.

It's official: The wine world is truly global. First growth Bordeaux estate Chateau Lafite is developing vineyards in China, according to a Decanter magazine exclusive.

When the French began planting vines in California, we felt validated. Then some of them moved into Chile and Argentina, and they probably felt validated. But China? It seems as if the last frontier has finally been conquered.

I blogged my doubts about Chinese wine during the Olympics last summer, and Marc at China Wine Tours was quick to say there's good wine there -- you just have to find it. Just a guess, but I'm thinking if anyone can make world-class wine in China, Lafite is at the top of that list.

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