New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee traveled the world to crack the case of the fortune cookie's cryptic origins, hunt for the infamous General Tso and track chop suey back to its creator. Turned out, many of the answers were closer to home than she'd ever imagined.
Q: What makes you pick a particular Chinese restaurant from all the ones around it?
A: Well, I tend to like Chinese restaurants that cater more to Chinese people rather than to an American palate. They may both serve General Tso's chicken, but you can look at a Chinese menu and know if they expect a more Chinese clientele. For example, cold appetizers -- especially jellyfish – is a giveaway. Lamb dishes are also ore Chinese. Anything with whole fish, and certain kinds of noodles: cold noodles, dan dan noodles.
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.
Said to have aphrodisiac properties, this fragile species is suffering from drought on Southern European farms and will continue to suffer if predicted temperature increases come to fruition.
But as Southern farms are suffering, some Northern plantations are thriving from the increase in temperature (truffles are very sensitive to both frost and drought). But by the end of the century, scientists predict that in Toulose, France, temperatures will exceed 95 degrees F on 25-55 days out of the year (currently, it's only that hot about four days out of the year).
There is a huge piracy problem in China. Lots of western companies find that they can't sell their product in China because there is already a Chinese clone of the product. This was a big problem for Ferrero Rocher, that is until recently.
The chocolate maker just won a long-fought lawsuit in China's Supreme Court against a Chinese company that copied Ferrero Rocher's famous, gold wrapped pralines. Montresor, the Chinese chocolate maker that was copying Ferrero Rocher, was ordered not only to stop but also to pay a token fine of €50,000.
A lot of people see this as welcome news. It could mean that China may be ready to adopt more fair marketing practices. I am all for local competition to global brands, but I think a copy cat company shouldn't be allowed to just piggy back on a famous product. The name brand put a lot of work into the brand that they've built. Like it or hate it, I think a company should profit on its own merits. Good luck, Ferrero Rocher.
For the folks at The Honest Kitchen, quality control means tasting your own product - even though it's marketed for the four-legged crowd.
The company's employees attend weekly meetings - often with their dogs poised by their sides - where both humans and animals carefully taste both individual dehydrated bits of the organic dog and cat food mixture, as well as the final product, to make sure the pets are getting nothing but the best.
The company got the OK from the FDA to use the term "Human grade pet food" on all of its labels. According to a rep from the company, the food is "probably a little bland by most human standards," but compared to what they imagine ordinary pet food to taste like, "really quite delicious!" (That answers the next obvious question: do the testers taste their competitors' food, too?)
Even the packaging is appealing and atypical for animal food - multicolored boxes with enticing names like "verve," "force," and "embark" that aren't a far reach from the packaged granola available for humans. They also make treats and supplements.
I'll admit, it sounds a bit odd at first, but after the recent horrific incidents of dogs becoming ill from tainted dog food, it's nice that a company takes this much care in producing a quality, safe product for their best buds.
The flattopeach has been growing in China and across Asia for thousands of years. In fact it is supposedly one of the oldest varieties of the fruit. It has a flat bottom and flat top, so it's not round like to variety of peach that I'm used to. The flatto also is said to have a superior flavor and juiciness. That sounds great!
The grower, Kevin Paulin, says he's never had this much interest before. Apparently people have been been seeking him out to ask about his new crop. No word yet if this will reach American markets. The peaches have barely begun appearing in New Zealand stores. It's still pretty new outside of Asia, so it may take a while. Does anyone know about this variety of peach, and if it is available outside of China and New Zealand?
Have you ever had a craving for a nice Big Mac and those tasty french fries, but were too busy to go to McDonald's (or its drive though)? If you live in Shanghai, China then you don't have to wait much longer. The Big Mac giant will soon be taking orders for delivery.
In an effort to compete with Yum! Brands', which has twice as many restaurants in China (Pizza Hut, KFC), McDonald's in Shanghai has been building up a supply of 300 scooters. That will help the burger chain deliver to about half of the city's 14 million residents.
That's a good start, but the company really wants to expand. This year will see about 125 new franchises and probably 150 next year. First they'll catch up with Yum! Brands, then surpass them. McDonald's will start slowly with China, then take over the world! Mwa ha ha ha! Oh, wait, haven't they already done that?
If you thought we were going to get through this candy-giving holiday unscathed, sadly, you were mistaken. Sherwood Brands of Maryland, which imported the candy from China, says that it is recalling all of its Pokemon Valentine Cards and Pops, because a couple of pops have been found to contain metal pieces (a staple and part of a razor blade). While the metal fragments have only been found in Central Florida, the pops have been pulled off shelves nationwide.
So far the tainted pops have all been purchased at Dollar General stores. Officials say that they do not appear to have been tampered with and that the metal fragments were baked into the candies when they were first made. Thankfully, there have been no reports of injuries.
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.
Yeah, so an American retail chain is expanding overseas. So, why would you need a passport?
Because the Dunkin Donuts in China, along with the regular menu items like, oh, coffee and doughnuts, will serve special fare that is tailored to the local Chinese tastes, which we won't get here. That means Chinese customers can get things like honeydew melon doughnuts and mochi rings.
Apple juice has gained in popularity over the last few years. I know I have always enjoyed it. However, a lot more people turned to apple juice when orange juice prices began to go up dramatically. It seems that perhaps some other fruit juice (and that fruits growers) are about to be bumped up in the ranks, at least temporarily.
China, as in so many other areas, has become the worlds supplier of apples. Due to a late frost and bad weather there, and in Poland which is also a big apple producer, the apple crop is about 10% lower for 2007 than the previous year. This means that supply is low while demand is high. British supermarket giant Tesco has already admitted that it's seen purchase prices go up, but hasn't made any decisions on what the retail prices will do.
Personally, I love apple juice. I recently found out that it is also a good source of vitamin C. No wonder so many people turned to it from orange juice (which I also enjoy enthusiastically). Hopefully this will be a fluke year and the prices won't go up too much or for a prolonged period of time. I think, though, that I'm going to stock up while the prices are good.
With all the legislation and lobbying we have here in the United States to get cigarette smokers out of all public areas, you'd never think that banning cigarettes from a restaurant would actually be a bad thing.
That's because we're not talking about the United States, where entire states like California have banned smoking not just from restaurants but in public areas.
We're dining out in China.
In Beijing, customers deserted the city's first smoke-free restaurant chain, Meizhou Dongpo, leaving it with the possibility of going out of business. Apparently, the Chinese are the world's most smoking-est people. This is great news for cigarette companies, but a problem for Chinese authorities that want to "clean up" China's reputation in international eyes.
I don't know about anyone else, but even when I was a smoker a long time ago, I never appreciated second-hand smoke in a restaurant where I was dining.
Let's hope they get it together, since much of the world has to turn to China's land-based fish farms as ocean waters become increasingly depleted by overfishing.
Soups and stocks are some of the easiest and tastiest ways to get into the world of cooking, but there are still tips that can make the experience even easier.
There is a huge piracy problem in China. Lots of western companies find that they can't sell their product in China because there is already a Chinese clone of the product. This was a 
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Have you ever had a craving for a nice Big Mac and those tasty french fries, but were too busy to go to McDonald's (or its drive though)? If you live in Shanghai, 
Get your passports updated, Slashfoodies.
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Cheese Course: Brebis Pardou
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