Happy Chinese New Year to you! This is a time when the Chinese, especially for all of China, takes a long break and spends the holiday with family and friends. It's usually a two week holiday, which goes to show you that this is no small celebration. The Chinese love to eat, and this is the holiday in which you bring out all the stops. You serve chicken, duck, fish and pork among the other delicacies including noodles! These foods all symbolize something, or at least someone way back when made it more meaningful (and easy to remember) by putting together the associations. That was kind of smart...
If you can remember them.
The ones that I know of (and the American sites I looked at all have different explanations; I should have asked a Chinese friend from China, but alas, he/she is not sitting here) are that the fish symbolizes prosperity, because the old Chinese saying directly reflects it (Mandarin: nian nian yoh yuhr). And, you serve the fish whole. Usually the most senior person gets to eat the head. So, if you find yourself dining with a Chinese family, don't snag the head until the most senior person (and all those more senior than you) has indicated he/she would be better without it.
The other is noodles. Long noodles symbolize longevity. We typically make super long noodles and eat in a delicious broth. Our noodles are homemade, and I know that I have done a good job when they are super gummy. Yum!
Whether you are celebrating or not, it's a fun time to go to your Chinatown and check out any festivities that might be going on. People are typically very *happy* around this time!
Showing posts with label fish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fish. Show all posts
Friday, February 4, 2011
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Get to the Source
The lesson learned is to be curious about what is in your food, where it came from, how it was grown or raised, and ask whether your source is reputable and trustworthy.
Not the first time that anyone has heard about food contamination, but there was an article today about the high levels of contamination in imported seafood from precarious places including Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. In certain cases 40-50% of seafood testing comes out positive for drugs like chloramphenicol, nitrofurans and malachite green,which are banned from all food (I can't even pronounce them!). Seafood with the worst records of contamination: shrimp, catfish, crabmeat and tilapia.
I believe this goes back to the whole problem of fish/seafood farming. Yes, the demand for these foods have dramatically increased, there is high risk of overfishing the wild, but to farm them in sewage water or even the same water of the wild that shows ecosystem imbalance should not persist. The result time and time again is sick fish. Antibiotics is not an answer; the detrimental impact of drugs, antibiotics, hormone injections on humans defeats the purpose of food. Food is suppose to build your body up, not get more sick as a result.
And, by the way, I met three people over the weekend who don't know each other, and all of them had food poisoning of some sort. And, one was from calamari in Iowa.
Here's the article: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40198123
Not the first time that anyone has heard about food contamination, but there was an article today about the high levels of contamination in imported seafood from precarious places including Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. In certain cases 40-50% of seafood testing comes out positive for drugs like chloramphenicol, nitrofurans and malachite green,which are banned from all food (I can't even pronounce them!). Seafood with the worst records of contamination: shrimp, catfish, crabmeat and tilapia.
I believe this goes back to the whole problem of fish/seafood farming. Yes, the demand for these foods have dramatically increased, there is high risk of overfishing the wild, but to farm them in sewage water or even the same water of the wild that shows ecosystem imbalance should not persist. The result time and time again is sick fish. Antibiotics is not an answer; the detrimental impact of drugs, antibiotics, hormone injections on humans defeats the purpose of food. Food is suppose to build your body up, not get more sick as a result.
And, by the way, I met three people over the weekend who don't know each other, and all of them had food poisoning of some sort. And, one was from calamari in Iowa.
Here's the article: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40198123
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