Last week CNN reported (and we posted about it) that food vendors in Bejing, China were selling steamed buns filled with a combination of "chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning."

On the heels of reports of contaminated toothpaste, dog food and frozen fish from China, news agencies from around the world were willing to believe these reports of tainted street food. However, it seems now that the story was fabricated by an employee at Bejing TV in order to get a ratings boost. I've heard of folks in the TV world taking extreme measures for ratings, but this seems to be a bit much.

Hey, we're not just talking about that take-out chow mein from the hole-in-the-wall on the corner that just tastes like cardboard.

Apparently, small, usually illegally-run operations across China have been cutting costs by using cheap ingredients, and in State TV's undercover investigation, sometimes substituting with things that aren't even food. In the Chaoyang district of Beijing, steamed buns called bao were filled with cardboard that had been softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning. The article over at CNN has more graphic details of how the cardboard is collected from the ground and "made" into the bao's filling.

Kind of makes you thankful for the regulations we have here in the US, huh?

There are many foods that are traditionally served during the Chinese New Year, all of which have some symbolic meaning, sometimes because of the ingredients, sometimes because of their physical characteristics, and sometimes because of the way they affect health. One of the most common things that we'll see this weekend during the celebration is the dumpling.

Dumplings are served because they represent good luck, fortune, and family togetherness. Often, families get together to make dumplings, which makes it a family affair. If you have it in you to make dumplings from scratch rather than stopping at the local Chinese restaurant to pick up a take-out order, food blog Plate of the Day has a recipe for jiaozi, made with pork (perfect for the year of the pig!) and leek. The most helpful part of the post is, of course, the pictures, which show how to fold and close the dumplings.

There's going to be a lot of rice cooking going on in the kitchen this weekend for Chinese New Year, and unless you've got the technique down to steam rice in a regular pot, you're better off using an electric rice cooker.

Rice cookers range from low to high-end, with prices going anywhere from $20 to over $100 for cookers that can be described with terms like "fuzzy logic," a technology by which the rice cooker can gauge temperature and type of rice to cook rice perfectly. However, the most sophisticated, luxurious rice cooker I have come across yet -- the Ferrari of rice cookers, if you will -- is the NJ-WS10 by Mitsubishi.

The machine is sleek and black, but it's not the design that makes it the ultimate rice cooking machine. The inner pot is 100% rock solid carbon, and though I have no idea what that means, I do know that it makes this rice cooker almost $1,000.

Quite a lump of change for the perfect bowl of rice!

If you're planning a fantastic Chinese feast this weekend for Chinese New Year, don't fret one bit if you're a little (or a lot) rusty with chopsticks. You could, of course, go the way of stabbing your dumplings and winding your noodles of long life with a fork, but we have a better idea. How about some chopsticks are a little easier to use?

Now, if you're a already a professional, then you might just need your own personal set of portable chopsticks. These aluminum chopsticks slide out of a fabric pouch and snap together. Not only are they pretty, but this keeps away the problem of disposable chopsticks creating waste! ThinkGeek also has a pair that screw together.

For an even more "green" Far East feast, the Bird's Eye Maple chopsticks are perfect, which are also fastened together with their very own chopstick rest. They are available from Porterhouse Crafts for $23 for two pairs.

If ever you go for dim sum on a weekend late morning or early afternoon, you might come across these tiny, ruffled dumplings. At first glance they look like every other dumpling, but when you bite into them, you know that there's something special going on inside. Xiao long bao are "juicy dumplings," which are filled with not only a regular meat and vegetable stuffing, but with broth. How does the both get inside the dumpling?!?!

Kuidaore enlightens us by trying her hand at xiao long bao at home. The key is a broth made with pork rind, which "is a miraculous thing extremely rich in albumen and collagen." When the pork rind is simmered in water, it converts into a gelatine that can be cut and added to the dumpling filling. When the dumplings are steamed, they "melt" back into broth.

Pizza?!?! He's taking you out to grab a slice of pizza?!?! Forget it. What kind of cheapskate/Peter Pan/unimaginative guy is he!??! Drop him!

Don't pretend like you haven't done it before -- judged a guy (or girl) before you've even met, based on where they want to go on the first date. Fancy expensive reservations-30-days-in-advance-only and you're impressed, right? KFC drive-thru and...well, you get the picture.

Though they don't have an opinion about pizza, AOL has put together a short feature about what his restaurant/cuisine choice could say about him. If you don't have the time to read through it, here's the lowdown:

• Tapas - "don't expect a commitment from this professional dabbler anytime soon"
• Seafood - "it's nice to spend time with somebody who believes money is no object, but if he never lets you forget it..."
• Pancake house - "a guy who knows what he wants, and exactly where to go to get it"
• Sushi - "an eclectic lifestyle, so he wants to try everything"
• Mexican - "hot and spicy guy is the kind that will dance the night away"
• Chinese - "he needs a little motivation"
• Steakhouse - "since he won't stray too far from the norm, he could be a huge bore"
• Italian - "you've got a serious romantic on your hands"
• Burgers and fries - "likes it straight, so he can save himself for the BMX race he's in"

We're familiar with chives, the long, thin green blades that are most often used as a mild onion-flavored ingredient in cooking. Garlic chives, however, are similar to regular chives, but have a flat, rather than hollow, tubular blade. As the name indicates, they have a garlic flavor.

I rarely see regular garlic chives outside Asian cooking. Koreans pickle the blades in a seasoning similar to kimchee, producing what is called "boo-choo kimchee." However, only recently have I tasted yellow chives, thanks to my Chinese brother-in-law and his family. Yellow chives are "blanched" by shielding them from sunlight as they grow, the same way white asparagus are grown. These albino chives still have a mild garlic flavor and are one of my new favorite dishes when they are stir-fried with beef or pork. I only have to wonder if they have any nutrients.

As we already know, the Chinese New Year is steeped with tradition, and lucky for us at Slashfood, many of those traditions are associated with food. If you plan to celebrate this weekend (we wag in the Year of the Dog this Sunday, January 29, 2006), or want to learn a little bit more about the culture, here are what some of the traditional New Year foods symbolize, mostly health, wealth, and togetherness, based on some research I've done around the web:

• Dumplings - Good luck, fortune, and family togetherness
• Lettuce - Prosperity
• Noodles - When noodles are served, they are never cut because long noodles represent long-life.
• Oysters - Receptivity to good fortune
• Seaweed - Specifically, the black moss seaweed is the Chinese word for it also means "wealth"
• Whole fish - The Chinese word for fish "yu," is the same word for "success" or "abundance." Serving the fish whole is a symbol of togetherness of the family.
• Turnips  - "Cai tou," the word for turnip, also means "good omen."
• Meat balls - Symbolize reunion because the Chinese word "rou wan" is the same for both 
• Chicken - Like fish, chickens are served whole to symbolizing togetherness of the family.
• Lotus seed - Is a symbol (or wish) of having many male offspring
• Ginkgo nuts - Represent wealth
• Dried bean curd - Like many of the foods that are served because the Chinese word for it also means something else, dried bean curd (tofu) symbolizes wealth and happiness
• Bamboo shoots - The word for bamboo shoots also sounds like the phrase for "wishing that everything would be well"
• Garlic chives - Symbolize "everlasting"
• Prawns - Stand for liveliness and happiness
• Mixed vegetables - Represent family harmony
• Oranges - We've already mentioned how they stand for abundance and sweetness of the New Year. 

With the Chinese New Year goings on around the world this weekend, it's no better time to stock your kitchen with commonly used Asian ingredients both in the pantry and in the refrigerator (right after you've purged it of all those useless gadgets). A lot of Asian foods are healthy and delicious, so if you haven't done much Asian cooking at home, let the new Year of the Dog be the year you try it.

I do a lot of Asian cooking at home, so these are a few things I like to have on hand:

• Soy sauce - I actually have a giant 1-gallon container in my refrigerator. Yes, keep soy sauce in the refrigerator. Also, if you are wary of gluten or carbs, there is wheat in soy sauce (who knew?)
• Sesame seeds - I have both regular and black sesame seeds. They taste the same to me, but the black ones add some contrast for presentation. However, there is a difference in taste between regular and toasted sesame seeds. If you buy regular sesame seeds, toast them yourself in a dry pan over medium high heat.
• Sesame oil - It's rarely used as a cooking oil, but rather, as a seasoning in marinades or added to a dish like a condiment just before serving for its fragrance.
• Rice - Short grain rice that is "sticky" when it is steamed.