Food in China Part 1:

Trust me when I say that the food will have its own section. First, for the bad and the ugly, don’t read it with a full stomach if you are the queasy type.

A board mate Bluecat asked this question on OE last year during the Chinese product crisis in US, “How safe is Chinese food produced in China?”

This is my reply (I skipped the first 2 because it’s irrelevant to food) -

3. The only thing I drink in China are usually in bottles or cans, pop, juice, tea, coffee. When I go out, if we are having tea or coffee, it better be boiled and freshly made. Bottled waters are for green horns, because I never buy them unless it’s from a reputable store. As for home use, get the tankers or a really good filtering system.

4. Never eat street stall food. Never eat anything wrapped unless you know for sure what’s in it. If you can cook, that would be great. Instant Ramen are probably safer than a lot of pre-packaged food. Stay the F*ck away from Ma La Ton(s#*t on sticks dipped in spicy boiling broth). Meat on a stick is also a hit and a miss, so if you find a good restaurant, more power to you. Muslim restaurants run by real Muslims probably have decent lamb. Seafood is toilet heaven. Eat it at your own risk. Beijing was hit with a brain worm disease with a type of shell fish last year. Ebola also kicked around for a bit.

5. Wash your hands, wash your hands, and wash your hands!!! And don’t touch anything that you aren’t suppose to.

6. The only vegetable that you can make salad with are western style green housed organic farms or the much better version, Natural farms. Natural farms have no pesticides nor fertilizers. They wait until the soil retains enough nutrients on its own before growing stuff, and they use natural methods like sugar water traps, birds or other bugs eating bugs to contain the bug population.

As soon as Jack gives permission, I’ll also post some gems of his wisdom on food safety.