Olympic athletes with serious la duzi and Beijing’s not so safe cha shao bao
I love eating cha shao bao, but after this was turned up by an investigative journalist, I’ll be a little more careful next time I eat cha shao bao here in Beijing:
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.
The report, aired late Wednesday on China Central Television, highlights the country’s problems with food safety despite government efforts to improve the situation.
This report came more or less around the same time that Zhang Xiaoyu, the former head of China’s Guojia Shipin Yaopin Jiandu Guanlij (National Food and Drug Bureau) was executed for corruption and poor oversight (if you haven’t read about it already, you can read about it here).
The CCP clearly fears that it’s losing face internationally over its inability to regulate and ensure the safety of not only its exports, but its domestic food and drug production. A pretty obvious indication of this fear is this bit of news:
Despite food safety problems, China says athletes, coaches and officials at the 2008 Beijing Olympics can be assured of healthy meals.
All the procedures involving Olympic food, including production, processing, packaging, storing and transporting will be closely monitored,” Sun Wenxu, an official with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said Tuesday.
According to The New York Times, however, it seems that American Olympic athletes won’t have to take any chances:
The U.S.O.C. is going B.Y.O. in Beijing: Bring Your Own Compound. American officials did not formulate a traveling training oasis in response to the China food scares, but back by popular Olympian demand, the U.S.O.C. will operate a high-performance center in Beijing.
The facility will tend to the special needs of United States athletes with specific fitness regimens and discerning diets.
“This is not a Plan B in any way,” Seibel said. “But we will be operating our high-performance center with a food-services provider. This is not a backup. It is something we have done before. This is not unique to China.”
Beijing officials would be mortified — and insulted — if it were.
Will American athletes be bringing back even more gold medals on account of other athletes’ la duzi?
It will be funny if US athletes perform not as well as the Chinese that –from what I heard– are going to eat a very special, fully natural (organic even) mushroom that’s going to boost their system. Americans have 200 year history or so. Chinese Tao of cooking … 3000+. Every one knows there have been bad problems. But some people in China also have self-respect and produce quality!
Anecdotal evidence speaks volumes to me. For five years living in China I had diarrhea constantly and rarely had a solid bm. Since moving back to the States a week ago I have had nothing but solid, consistent bms. Clearly my American guts just weren’t developed enough to handle thousands of years of culinary development, what with having just popped into existence from nowhere only two hundred years ago, eh, Eddy?
Don’t worry about the safety of Cha shao bao .That news was made up by a journalist to attract attention.