D. Armenta
PlagmanChina Restaurant Using Cardboard as Main Ingredient: Still Healthiest Restaurant in China
The quality of Chinese products has been providing the major news networks with punchline after punchline for over a week. CNN, MSNBC, The Daily Show, and even fake news shows such as Fox News have had no choice but to present the condemning truth. So much material is available that despite the high probability that they will be executed for doing so, China Central Television (CCT) joined in on the fun, presenting a report about a restaurant in Beijing that was using cardboard to make their food.
Countless mom-and-pop restaurants across China attempt to maximize profits by using inexpensive ingredients or objectionable substitutes. Granted, the situation is still better than it was two years ago when asbestos was the nation’s most commonly-used seasoning. Nevertheless, outfits such as these are nearly impossible to regulate, making it understandable why the Chinese government doesn’t even bother.
The undercover CCT report shows what goes on in the kitchen of a neighborhood Beijing restaurant. A reporter with a hidden camera is taken to a rundown building where the steamers are located, filled with the fluffy white buns of the baozi, a snack that is common in China. Typically, baozi have an outer skin made from wheat or rice flour, and are filled with sliced pork. The operation being investigated uses a slightly different method.
The steamers in the aforementioned shack are surrounded by ‘filth’, or as it is known in China, “adequate sanitation standards.” The area is covered with water puddles, and piles of old furniture and cardboard lying on the ground. As the reporter asks what is in the baozi recipe, he responds, “six to four.”
“You mean 60% cardboard? What is the other 40%?” The reporter asks. The response: fatty meat. A demonstration is then given.
First, squares of cardboard are soaked to a pulp by a chemical known as caustic soda, which is used in the manufacturing of paper and soap. The cardboard, which has been broken down to a pulp, is chopped up into tiny pieces; fatty pork and seasonings are then stirred in.
After they have been steamed, the reporter, risking his life for a story, takes a bite. “This baozi filling is kind of tough. Not much taste. Can other people taste the difference?”
Replied the chef, “most people can’t. It fools the average person. I don’t eat them myself.”
The police showed up eventually and shut down the operation after the owner’s failed attempt at bribing them with fresh-baked baozi. The owner would later testify at his execution the next day that he was using Grade-A cardboard, which is actually one grade higher than what the state’s health inspectors require. Had this information been presented during his case it may have swayed the opinion of the court, but unfortunately speaking during a trial is grounds for execution. The next day he would attempt once again to clear the air just before his execution, but trying to appeal a court’s decision is also punishable by execution.
Ver batim from the Associated Press: “Chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning, is a main ingredient in batches of steamed buns sold in one Beijing neighborhood, state television said.”
Countless mom-and-pop restaurants across China attempt to maximize profits by using inexpensive ingredients or objectionable substitutes. Granted, the situation is still better than it was two years ago when asbestos was the nation’s most commonly-used seasoning. Nevertheless, outfits such as these are nearly impossible to regulate, making it understandable why the Chinese government doesn’t even bother.
The undercover CCT report shows what goes on in the kitchen of a neighborhood Beijing restaurant. A reporter with a hidden camera is taken to a rundown building where the steamers are located, filled with the fluffy white buns of the baozi, a snack that is common in China. Typically, baozi have an outer skin made from wheat or rice flour, and are filled with sliced pork. The operation being investigated uses a slightly different method.
The steamers in the aforementioned shack are surrounded by ‘filth’, or as it is known in China, “adequate sanitation standards.” The area is covered with water puddles, and piles of old furniture and cardboard lying on the ground. As the reporter asks what is in the baozi recipe, he responds, “six to four.”
“You mean 60% cardboard? What is the other 40%?” The reporter asks. The response: fatty meat. A demonstration is then given.
First, squares of cardboard are soaked to a pulp by a chemical known as caustic soda, which is used in the manufacturing of paper and soap. The cardboard, which has been broken down to a pulp, is chopped up into tiny pieces; fatty pork and seasonings are then stirred in.
After they have been steamed, the reporter, risking his life for a story, takes a bite. “This baozi filling is kind of tough. Not much taste. Can other people taste the difference?”
Replied the chef, “most people can’t. It fools the average person. I don’t eat them myself.”
The police showed up eventually and shut down the operation after the owner’s failed attempt at bribing them with fresh-baked baozi. The owner would later testify at his execution the next day that he was using Grade-A cardboard, which is actually one grade higher than what the state’s health inspectors require. Had this information been presented during his case it may have swayed the opinion of the court, but unfortunately speaking during a trial is grounds for execution. The next day he would attempt once again to clear the air just before his execution, but trying to appeal a court’s decision is also punishable by execution.
Ver batim from the Associated Press: “Chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning, is a main ingredient in batches of steamed buns sold in one Beijing neighborhood, state television said.”
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