Alister Cookie

Here in an ode to fine baking, high-brow English television, and the surreal visions of David Lynch, we have Alister Cookie presenting the strange and disturbing 'Twin Beaks'.

The History of Chinese American Food

Good to see Kinger's doing well ... Ahem.

In the following video lecture from the TED Talks series, Jennifer 8. Lee, author of 'The Fortune Cookie Chronicles', expounds on the history of Chinese American food. We are given the origins of chop suey, fortune cookies, and general Tso's (Cao's) chicken. A more detailed explaination of the general Tso's chicken story can be found at the fantastic food site Edible Geography.

Don't Drink and Derive

GI Joe was wrong when he said, "knowing is half the battle." Knowing is the problem, in fact. I went a wee ways too far last weekend. Consider this entry not about food, but food for thought. I was invited to my friend's country home for a night of curry, poker, and basically a thousand friendly beers. Unfortunately, for me (a little), and for my friends (a lot)--I shat the bed all over the place. Something happened after that 5th beer and a shot of Taiwanese Rice Liquor--more like paint thinner, that sent me on a night-long spin down Pampers Avenue. I am embarrassed still.

In short, I disappeared after my shot, and hid out on the roof for a while, till I had to be rescued, and brought down to safety, shivering over my luke warm curry. Once I had a little food down my empty stomach, we began to hit the paint thinner again, whereupon I began an endless rant of self-pity that lasted throughout the evening, and ended with me butting a live cigarette out in my hand, then announcing my departure--hitting the country road only to return, moping that no one came to my rescue yet again. I think I literally tried to bite the grass in the yard, and I said something about an epiphany of my becoming homeless in the future. Kay--ryste.

I woke in the morning with a mouthful of crow, and a head full of razor blades. Much deserved. With tail tucked into diaper, I managed to at least do some dishes. I guess the point of my little journal here is that the older I get, the more I am noticing the ill effects booze can have on me. Whereby the beast would only emerge once out of every hundred drunken evenings, I am finding myself arguing more and more (usually with my friends), and throughout the evening there is forever the sound of my own voice. Whether in humor, or in debate, neither matters. The fact is, I rarely can sit in the backseat of any drinking night. I must plant my ass right on the windshield and bronx myself and everyone else into oblivion. I could argue with a tree. I drink and derive much from little.

I probably won't stop drinking anytime soon, while I am quite ashamed at times of being what I thought was a Good Time Charly. I apologize to anyone I've offended on my little toots, and I look forward to hearing what you have to say in the future. I will come equipped with duct tape if need be. And I can be decoded with a blanket or something.

Don't get me wrong. This is not a continuation of my self-pity. I'm laughing about it right now, for what else can one do? I leave you with this short post as I head out to party with my friends on this full-moon Friday. Remember, Don't drink and Derive. You might step on your neighbors toes and bite their grass.

Sympathy for the Grilled Cheese or, If this Sam Needed a Bodygaurd, I'd be It.

There are days when I willingly spend hours in the kitchen, lovingly laboring over as many courses of food as I have ingredients in the fridge, and creativity in the mind box. But lately, my cooking frequency has been about as equal to the spare change amount of entries I've put up on the blog. I make no excuses, as I have none to conjure up. I have neither lost interest in cooking food, nor in writing about it. What have I been doing, you ask? I've been studying. I've spent the past few weeks pouring through a Restaurant Management textbook equal the size and weight of the Webster's Dictionary. And whilst doing this, I have been eating only grilled cheese sandwiches. Call it trashy, tell me to chuck some 'baloney' in there, make me a bet to see who can shotgun a can of Shlitz the quickest, hand me a coupon for a free mullet. Fine, I say. Just fine.

Yet, assuming you are not judgmental, and may be even wise, I will tell what it is--to me, of course--that makes this simple sanny my favorite default snack in the world. Let's put it this way: if our homes really did have teleporters that could whiz us off to anywhere in a second, or I could actually turn jelly beans into diamonds, you'd be instantly stoked.  You might be able to smack a couple grill-cheezers into the sentence, and lose none of its magic...and still be instantly stoked. That's right, give me a grilled cheese sandwich, and I will ask you if you'd rubbed some magic lamp somewhere, questioning how you could have so quickly and thoroughly satisfied me.

At this point, some of you gourmand types are thinking how you could actually spruce up this sanny, adding some of this and that, using real cheese, that kind of thing. You could say, "Oh oh oh, the grilled cheese is the foundation to a palace." I would have to say yes and no, and still call you a wanker for saying palace. The whole magic of the thing is the fact that it takes two seconds, and uses otherwise not so healthy ingredients. In fact, the crappier and whiter the bread, the better. What other things exist in life like this? Where if you separated each ingredient, none would be desired--but when combined and fried in either butter or vegetable oil, you have--by alchemy--created a 5th element, so to speak. You've basically created a hot blue alien chick.  Could you mix poop, diarrhea, and camel piss together and pray for some miraculous stew? Could you wear your tevas over wool socks, a pair of white sweatpants and a drawstring belt, and not look like a nerd? Exactly....

You could tell me that eating too many grilled cheeses are not good for me. I might agree if they didn't give my mouth and tummy their own kinds of orgasms. Can't argue with happy belly. Your final challenge to me could be something about using an up-scale dipping sauce for my lovewich. Like, "Hey, why not use a balsamic drizzle?" Then I could always say, "fuck off and give me the katsup, donkey."

Food in the films of Wong Kar Wai

Nothing captures the particular flavour of Hong Kong coolness like the films of Wong Kar Wai. If you have ever wondered why someone would abandon North America for a life in Asia, watch Chungking Express and its pseudo-sequel Fallen Angels. Both of these films are early examples of the now formulaic structure of portraying the lives of several unconnected people whose paths cross in unexpected ways. Other examples of films that adopt this formula include Shortcuts by Robert Altman, Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson, Crash by Paul Haggis, and most recently, Babel by Allejendro Gonzalez Anarritu. Isn't it interesting that all of these films are of the highest quality. Perhaps this formula is suited to capturing the ungrounded isolation of the individual in the post-modern city, and how this collective isolation has become the defining trait of contemporary culture.

Both Chungking Express and Fallen Angels are masterpieces of late 20th century film. They are that rare species of film that can be watched over and over with new details and layers of meaning emerging with each viewing: The portraits of Hong Kong streets, buildings and interiors; the collection of subcultures and archetypes; the terse wit of the dialogue; the mix of languages; the costumes that drift into sexual fetish; the use of numerology; the soundtracks; and the groundbreaking cinematography of Christopher Doyle. One could write a thesis on any of these aspects of these two films. It is no surprise then, that even after repeated viewings, I failed to realize the thematic presence of food in both Chungking Express and Fallen Angels.

Much of Chungking Express takes place in a diner with a great segment of dialogue focusing on the boss convincing Tony Leung, playing a policeman, to buy both a club sandwich and a chef's salad for his girlfriend. He uses the reasoning that perhaps she would like the choice of something different. Leung later returns to the restaurant after being dumped by the girl in question, he notes that perhaps she really did like the choice of something different. Another two scenes have Faye Wong, playing a worker in the restaurant, interrupting Leung while eating his roadside lunch of charsui barbecued pork to help her carry a big basket of vegetables to the restaurant. She later breaks into his apartment and switches the labels on his canned food. Takeshi Kaneshiro plays a love-lorn detective that goes on a bizarre eating binge of canned pineapple, based solely on the expiry date of the cans. In each case, food is somehow connected to desire and loss.

Fallen Angels is even more focused on food. Scenes include Leon Lai (Li Ming), playing a hit man, eating a burger and fries in an empty 24hr McDonald's as Karen Mok, playing a half crazed woman with a blond wig, comes over, sits down and proceeds to pick him up. Not a word is spoken through the whole scene. This is by far the best advertisement for McDonald's ever made. Another scene has Michelle Reis eating noodles in a semi-stupor as a full out brawl goes on behind her. By far the most interesting and hilarious food scenes involve Takeshi Kaneshiro, as a mute petty thief, hassling people and amusing himself in a traditional market after closing time. Kaneshiro's silent slapstick recalls the comedic greatness of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. One scene has him giving a full massage to a pig carcass, in another he tries to force the sale of vegetables on an unsuspecting woman. He thrusts a skinny eggplant at the woman, and she evades the purchase by saying "I'm single, what would people think?" he then produces a massive melon instead. Later, he breaks into an ice-cream truck, kidnaps a man and forces him and his family to eat ice-cream as he happily drives around the city. We later find out that his mother was killed when she was hit by an ice-cream truck. This scene is neither sad nor maudlin, it is presented simply as part of the inexplicable course of events that make up our lives. In one of the final scenes, Leon Lai walks into a Japanese barbecue joint where Kaneshiro is now working. Kaneshiro's comedic genius shines again as he manages to make the act of cooking meat on a stick ridiculously funny.

Why the persistent references to food? As with the other aspects of life that Wong delightfully and poetically records, food is a reflection of culture. Food is as much a reflection of who we are as the buildings around us or the clothes we wear. And just as Wong's characters are romantic archetypes of film and culture: the policeman, the waitress, the hit man, the stewardess, the restaurant owner, the petty thief. So are the items of food that are depicted: the club sandwich, the chef's salad, barbecued pork, burger and fries, ice-cream. These are not so much specific items as food, as they are archetypes of food. Like Wong himself, they are ultimately romantic.

The Ginsu

Kinger enlightened us on the ins and outs of buying knives in an earlier post. Funny he never mentioned the Hotari Hanzo of cooking knives. Thousands of years of samurai culture and craftsmanship distilled into a single all powerful blade (and a few precision steak knives). Meet The Ginsu.

Five Easy Pieces: Tomatoes instead of Potatoes

Funny. In my hot-headed youth, I put a ban on a restaurant in Montreal (the name of which now escapes me ... Duffy's?) for the exact same thing, refusing to substitute potatoes for tomatoes with my cheese omelette. I don't believe I stormed out of the place with the same degree of poetic wit that Jack displays here.

Authentic buffalo wings

Taichung restaurateur, Patty Coultard weighs in on the trials and tribulations of dealing with employees in a foreign land.

 

One of the misconceptions about the restaurant business is that you just make good food and everything will fall into place.  Most restaurants don’t close due to losing too much money. They close because of flat out exhaustion. One of the elements that will bring you to your breaking point is employees.  It is rare that a person that is working for you is going to care about your business as much as you will.  It is up to you as an owner to build care.  It won’t happen overnight and it will monopolize your time like no other facet of the business. 

A friend of mine came home from Subway complaining to anyone who’d listen that he was served up a mustard sandwich.  The subway artist was a new artist and she hadn’t perfected her craft and basically drowned his sub in the tasty but strong condiment.  Immediately I had sourced the problem. Years ago in my first restaurant a new staff member came into the kitchen and saw some ground beef in a bowl and asked me and my assistant if that’s what we made the Buffalo wings with.  We were on the floor laughing at the time but the following day it began a journey of learning for me that has no end in sight.

I realized that things that seem to be common sense about food to some people are just not there in others.  The chance of someone starting a job in a Subway in Canada without ever eating a sandwich is the same as me winning the NBA slam dunk contest. In Taiwan it’s probably in the 50% range. Even if they have, it’s usually from subway. They ask for everything on it because they are getting more bang for their buck. Screw the taste.  So this girl who made my friend this sandwich was a blank slate.  The manager at the time was probably busy with something else or in the worse case scenario has hit the wall. He’s starting to think that it doesn’t matter what he teaches this new person because she’ll quit anyway.

To this problem a lot of people will just say hire someone with restaurant experience.

That just doesn’t work. More often than not you’ve just hired a bundle of bad habits. It’s harder to break bad habits than to teach new ones.  Another one is that you need to pay the person more.  Pay them more for what? Until they have the skills and the knowledge there is no reason to pay them more. This is the same reason why a lot of foreign teachers in Taiwan don’t know the first thing about teaching. Whether you’ve been teaching for one day or fifty years the pay is about the same. Unless the person either loves to teach or comes across a school that has a proper training program they could be left in the dark for years.

No matter what system you set up to train employees your failure rate will be higher than the successes.   People come in all shapes and sizes and their reasons for landing on your door step for a job is varied.  The key to the whole process is attitude. The employee needs to be hard working, friendly and first and foremost have a tough outer skin.  It also has to do with your attitude.  You have to realize not to blame them if things don’t work out and instead look to see what you could have done better and begin to test your new theory.  When I was running Papas, people would tell me how lucky I was to be out of teaching. I would just nod my head and look toward the exit. In the restaurant business you never stop teaching and hopefully learning.

Japan's Dark Secrets Revealed in "The Cove"

If you haven't seen this movie, you should. There are some documentaries that are meant to rock our little worlds of selective understanding and empathy. This is probably one of the hardest hitting of them all. I will not give away too much, because it wouldn't make any difference if I did, considering the shock value of this very important film. I will only suggest it in the same way a friend did for me a few days ago. "Just watch it," he said, with a look on his face both haunted and enlightened by what he saw. I will  say this, while Japan has embraced a rather docile outer layer of their social onion since World War Two, there still lies underneath--in places--some of the same inexplicable and cruel imperialistic actions once publicly known. This film, while focusing its naked lens on a tiny part of Japan, manages to strip bare horrors supported in the name of tradition, while much of Japan remains ignorant of its own dirty secrets.

Meat without animals

Image source: Popular Mechanics

Discussing the difference between free-range and factory farmed chicken in this previous post, prompted me to consider several philosophical questions. As discussed in this excerpt from Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, the chicken McNugget is produced from a breed of chicken known as the "Mr McDonald". The breed has been engineered to have unusually large breasts. They are slaughtered in approximately 45 days while a normal chicken would mature in 3-5 months. Urban myths have circulated on the net of chickens engineered to be without feathers, beaks or feet. These stories have been proven false as science has apparently not reached this stage of 'advancement'. But lets consider if this kind of drastic genetic engineering were in fact possible. Leaving aside the true feasibility of this supposition, what if chickens or pigs or cows could be engineered without the sentient part of their brains or without brains at all. Would they still be 'animals'? If an 'animal' was without awareness and could not experience pain or even self-induced controlled movement, could it still be considered cruel to confine it to a restrictive pen. Furthermore, could it still be considered unethical to kill and eat this 'animal' any more than doing the same to a head of lettuce? Let's also imagine that this method could produce healthy, disease free 'meat'. Perhaps the fruitarians of this world could persist with a viable ethical argument against eating this product, but it would seem to resolve the meat is murder argument of most vegetarians.

This discussion may seem far fetched, but advancements in the field of bioengineering have already successfully produced edible engineered 'meat' in the laboratory. Here is a description of this product known as 'in vitro' meat or 'cultured' meat, from the non-profit "advanced meat substitutes" organization, New Harvest:

Cultured meat is meat produced in vitro, in a cell culture, rather than from an animal. The production of cultured meat begins by taking a number of cells from a farm animal and proliferating them in a nutrient-rich medium. Cells are capable of multiplying so many times in culture that, in theory, a single cell could be used to produce enough meat to feed the global population for a year. After the cells are multiplied, they are attached to a sponge-like "scaffold" and soaked with nutrients. They may also be mechanically stretched to increase their size and protein content. The resulting cells can then be harvested, seasoned, cooked, and consumed as a boneless, processed meat, such as sausage, hamburger, or chicken nuggets.

Appetizing, isn't it? Related to this product, advancements have been made in the field of human organ production. Human bladders have successful been grown in a laboratory environment and transplanted into patients. An article from Popular Mechanics describes how this is done:

Doctors led by Retik, chief of urology at the Children's Hospital in Boston, took bladder biopsies from patients. The urothelial cells of the inner layer were separated from cells of the outer layer of muscle, and cultured. Then, researchers plaited the cells onto a spongelike biodegradable scaffold, made of a synthetic polymer and collagen, in the shape of a bladder. After a seven-week incubation period, surgeons grafted the new bladder/scaffold segments onto the patients' damaged bladders. All seven patients improved — and are continuing to thrive.

So clearly, if it were desired, the mutant chickens described earlier could be produced using the same method. But considering the popularity of processed meats, this step would appear unnecessary. The thought of lab produced meat may not be appetizing, but compared to the questionable practices used by the meat industry, including the cruel treatment of animals, and the use of antibiotics, growth hormone, nitrates and ammonia, the lab produced meat begins to sound more and more tasty. Furthermore, engineered meat can be designed specifically for human health, animal fats could be replaced by healthy omega 3 fats. Considering the likelihood of reduced agricultural production in the future, and a related global food shortage, engineered meat would seem to be a viable method of feeding humans in the future.

Chinese film in the 21st century

 Still from Unknown Pleasures by Jia Zhangke

It is unfortunate that so much of the information we receive about China is in the form of critical news articles. Take a look at the donkey's quick links and you'll find a good collection of these. Of course, the majority of these negative headlines are directed at the Chinese Communist Party. A more holistic understanding of the complexity of contemporary Chinese culture can be gained by familiarizing oneself with the wide-range of excellent Chinese films that have been produced over the last ten years.

dGenerate Films recently released the results of a readers poll of the best Chinese language films of the 21st century. Wong Kar-wai's masterpiece In the Mood for Love comes in first, giving a pretty good indication of the quality of the list. Jia Zhangke's movies also feature prominently as do those of Taiwanese directors Tsai Ming-liang and Edward Yang. Happily, the list includes films that only got one or two votes, including the toe-curling satire Dumplings by Fruit Chan (Cinematography by the great Christopher Doyle) and Wang Kar-wai's epic 2046. Interestingly, the amusing but mediocre, Spring Scream inspired Cape No. 7 only got one vote, despite nearly sweeping the 2008 Golden Horse Awards. 


Many of these films are readily available for download online, some of the more obscure films can be rented or purchased in Taichung at 8 1/2 Cinema, 592, Hueiwen Rd. If you've never been by, it's a cafe downstairs with a massive collection of classic and alternative DVDs upstairs. It's best to bring along a list of the films you're looking for.













The List
1. In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai (28 mentions)
2. Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks, Wang Bing (25)
3.  Platform, Jia Zhangke (24)
4. Yi Yi, Edward Yang(23)
5. Still Life, Jia Zhangke (18)
6. Devils on the Doorstep, Jiang Wen (12)
7. Oxhide, Liu Jiayin (11)
(tie) Summer Palace, Lou Ye (11)
(tie) The World, Jia Zhangke (11)
10. Blind Shaft, Li Yang (10)
(tie) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee (10)
Top Directors (based on mentions of their films among all top ten ballots):
1. Jia Zhangke (63 mentions)
2. Wong Kar Wai (34)
3. Tsai Ming-liang (28)
4. Wang Bing (26)
5. Lou Ye (25)
6. Edward Yang (23)
7. Ang Lee (17)
8. Liu Jiayin (15)
9. Hou Hsiao-hsien (14)
10 Jiang Wen (13)
The rest of the results from the poll of Chinese-language films:
12. Goodbye Dragon Inn, Tsai Ming-liang (9)
13. Three Times, Hou Hsiao-hsien (8)
(tie) Suzhou River, Lou Ye (8)
(tie) What Time Is It There? Tsai Ming-liang (8)
16. Infernal Affairs, Andrew Lau & Alan Mak (7)
(tie) Lust, Caution Ang Lee (7)
(tie) Petition, Zhao Liang (7)
(tie) Unknown Pleasures Jia Zhangke (7)
20. Millennium Mambo, Hou Hsiao-hsien (6)
(tie) Spring Fever, Lou Ye (6)
22. Bing Ai, Feng Yan (5)
Hero, Zhang Yimou (5)
(tie) Wayward Cloud, The Tsai Ming-liang (5)
25. Nine films tied with four mentions:
Kung Fu Hustle, Steven Chow
Peacock, Gu Changwei
Oxhide 2, Liu Jiayin
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, Lu Chuan
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Tsai Ming-liang
Orphan of Anyang, The Wang Chao
2046, Wong Kar-wai
Other Half, The, Ying Liang
Survival Song, Yu Guangyi
34. Nine films tied with three mentions:
Along the Railway, Du Haibin
Crime and Punishment, Zhao Liang
Dr. Ma’s Country Clinic, Cong Feng
Though I Am Gone, Hu Jie
Delamu, Tian Zhuangzhuang
Looking for Lin Zhao’s Soul, Hu Jie
My Life as McDull, Toe Yuen
Beijing Bicycle, Wang Xiaoshuai
Timber Gang aka Last Lumberjacks, Yu Guangyi
43. 26 films tied with two mentions:
1428,Du Haibin
Before the Flood, Li Yifan and Yan Yu
Blind Mountain, Li Yang
Blue Gate Crossing, Yee Chin-yen
Buried, Wang Libo
Chinese Villagers’ Documentary Project, Wu Wenguang
Classmates, Lin Xin
Durian, Durian, Fruit Chan
Face, Tsai Ming-liang
Fuck Cinema, Wu Wenguang
Ghost Town, Zhao Dayong
Good Cats, Ying Liang
Grain in Ear, Zhang Lu
Jalainur, Zhao Ye
Little Moth, Peng Tao
Night Train, Diao Yi’nan
Outside, Wang Wo
PTU, Johnnie To
Quitting, Zhang Yang
Search, The,Wanma Caidan
Seafood, Zhu Wen
Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, Yang Fudong
Springtime in a Small Town, Tian Zhuangzhuang
Taking Father Home, Ying Liang
Uniform, Diao Yinan
Wheat Harvest, Xu Tong
69. 84 films tied with 1 mention:
24 City, Jia Zhangke
And the Spring Comes, Gu Changwei
Aoluguya, Gu Tao
Ashes of Time Redux, Wong Kar-wai
Assembly, Feng Xiaogang
Bamboo Shoots, Jian Yi
Baober in Love, Li Shaohong
Betelnut, Yang Heng
Big Shot’s Funeral, Feng Xiaogang
Bimo Records, The, Yang Rui
Black and White Milk Cow, Yang Jin
Bodyguards and Assassins, Chen Desen
Breaking News, Johnnie To
Butterfly, Yan Yan Mak
Cape No. 7, Wei Desheng
Chicken Poets, Meng Jinghui
Chinese Odyssey 2002, Jeff Lau
Chongqing, Zhang Lu
City of Life and Death, Lu Chuan
Condolences, Ying Liang
Conjugation, Emily Tang
Cry Woman, Liu Bingjian
Dam Street, Li Yu
Destination Shanghai, Andrew Y-S Cheng
Disorder, Huang Weikai
Dong, Jia Zhangke
Dr. Zhang, Huang Ruxiang
Dumplings, Fruit Chan
DV China, Zheng Desheng
Everlasting Regret, Stanley Kwan
Exiled, Johnnie To
Extras, Zhu Chuanming
Fengming: A Chinese Memoir, Wang Bing
Floating Dust, Huang Wenhai
Fortune Teller, Xu Tong
Green Hat, Liu Fendou
History of Chemistry 2, Lu Chunsheng
How Are You, Gongliao, Cui Suxin
How Is Your Fish Today, Guo Xiaolu
I Love Beijing, Ning Ying
In Public, Jia Zhangke
Incense, Ning Hao
Infernal Affairs Trilogy, Andrew Lau and Alan Mak
Iri, Zhang Lu
Isabella, Pang Ho-Cheung
Juliet in Love, Wilson Yip
Karamay, Anonymous
KJ, Cheung King-wai
Lan Yu, Stanley Kwan
McDull, Prince de la Bun, Toe Yuen
Mid-Afternoon Barks, Zhang Yuedong
My Blueberry Nights, Wong Kar-Wai
Narrow Path, The, Cui Zi’en
Novel, Lu Le
Pangyau, Amir Muhammad
Perfect Life, Emily Tang
Perpetual Motion, Ning Ying
Pirated Copy, He Jianjun
Raised from Dust, Gan Xiao’er
Red Cliff, John Woo
Red Flag Files, The, Zhou Hongxiang
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, Zhang Yimou
River People, He Jianjun
Road, The, Zhang Jiarui
Rumination, Xu Ruotao
San Li Dong, Lin Xin
Shanghai Panic, Andrew Y.S. Cheng
Shaolin Soccer, Stephen Chow
Silent Holy Stones, Wanma Caidan
Sparrow, Johnnie To
Strange Heaven, Yang Fudong
Sun Also Rises, The, Jiang Wen
Sweet Food City, Gao Wendong
Tang Poetry, Zhang Lu
This Happy Life, Jiang Yue
Three Guns / A Simple Noodle Story, Zhang Yimou
To Live Is Better Than to Die, Chen Weijun
Trivial Matters, Peng Haoxiang
Triangle, Johnnie To, Tsui hark, Ringo Lam
Two Seasons, Zhou Xun
Us Two, Ma Liwen
Using, Zhou Hao
Warlords, The, Peter Chan
You Shoot, I Shoot, Pang Ho-cheung

The future of the magazine

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

The future of the magazine from Berg, a design consultancy firm out of London. Kinda makes the donkey look a tad dinky, doesn't it.

Free Range Chicken: A Tough Choice

Last week I happened to eat chicken on two occasions. On the first, Tea Andy and I purchased some 'free-range' chicken at the local grocery store. On the second, I ordered up some deep fried chicken chunks from a street stall. While I admit to enjoying both versions, they were so distinct in flavour and texture that it was hard to imagine them coming from the same species of animal. While I am always suspect of labels such as 'free-range' or 'organic', it was clear from the stringy and flavourful texture of the first meat, that the animal had exercised and had most likely eaten a mixed diet comprised of local insects and herbs in addition to engineered feed product. The extreme tenderness and lack of flavour of the second meat was clearly a result of factory farming. To leave the moral issue of factory farming aside, lets consider for a moment the implications of this disparity in texture.  

Toughness or chewiness is a sure sign of wild or free-range meat. Tough meat forces one to chew more, this promotes the flow of digestive juices that break down proteins and send nutrients into the blood. Aside from this, chewing slows down the process of eating and encourages one to eat less. It is interesting that the word 'tender' is probably the most common adjective used to describe meat in advertising. Perhaps in the future, as more people become aware of the distinctive texture and health benefits of free-range meat, the word 'tough' will one day be a more effective selling point for meat.  

I found this fascinating excerpt from the Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, on the role of the McDonald's chicken McNugget in the evolution of the poultry industry. It documents how a single company was responsible for not only restructuring the American poultry industry and dramatically changing the eating habits of a large portion of the world, but also for essentially re-engineering the chicken as an animal. The following is an except from this article:

"I have an idea," Fred Turner, the chairman of McDonald's, told one of his suppliers in 1979. "I want a chicken finger-food without bones, about the size of your thumb. Can you do it?" The supplier, an executive at Keystone Foods, ordered a group of technicians to get to work in the lab, where they were soon joined by food scientists from McDonald's. Poultry consumption in the United States was growing, a trend with alarming implications for a fast food chain that only sold hamburgers. The nation's chicken meat had traditionally been provided by hens that were too old to lay eggs; after World War II a new poultry industry based in Delaware and Virginia lowered the cost of raising chicken, while medical research touted the health benefits of eating it. Fred Turner wanted McDonald's to sell a chicken dish that wouldn't clash with the chain's sensibility. After six months of intensive research, the Keystone lab developed new technology for the manufacture of McNuggets — small pieces of reconstituted chicken, composed mainly of white meat, that were held together by stabilizers, breaded, fried, frozen, then reheated. The initial test-marketing of McNuggets was so successful that McDonald's enlisted another company, Tyson Foods, to guarantee an adequate supply. Based in Arkansas, Tyson was one of the nation's leading chicken processors, and it soon developed a new breed of chicken to facilitate the production of McNuggets. Dubbed "Mr. McDonald," the new breed had unusually large breasts. 

Chicken McNuggets were introduced nationwide in 1983. Within one month of their launch, the McDonald's Corporation had become the second-largest purchaser of chicken in the United States, surpassed only by KFC. McNuggets tasted good, they were easy to chew, and they appeared to be healthier than other items on the menu at McDonald's. After all, they were made out of chicken. But their health benefits were illusory. A chemical analysis of McNuggets by a researcher at Harvard Medical School found that their "fatty acid profile" more closely resembled beef than poultry. They were cooked in beef tallow, like McDonald's fries. The chain soon switched to vegetable oil, adding "beef extract" to McNuggets during the manufacturing process in order to retain their familiar taste. Chicken McNuggets, which became wildly popular among young children, still derive much of their flavor from beef additives — and contain twice as much fat per ounce as a hamburger.
 
The McNuggets helped change not only the American diet but also its system for raising and processing poultry. "The impact of McNuggets was so huge that it changed the industry," the president of ConAgra Poultry, the nation's third-largest chicken processor, later acknowledged. Twenty years ago, most chicken was sold whole; today about 90 percent of the chicken sold in the United States has been cut into pieces, cutlets, or nuggets. In 1992 American consumption of chicken for the first time surpassed the consumption of beef. Gaining the McNuggets contract helped turn Tyson Foods into the world's largest chicken processor. Tyson now manufactures about half of the nation's McNuggets and sells chicken to ninety of the one hundred largest restaurant chains. It is a vertically integrated company that breeds, slaughters, and processes chicken. It does not, however, raise the birds. It leaves the capital expenditures and the financial risks of that task to thousands of "independent contractors."

Free range chicken is available in most supermarkets in Taiwan. Look for the cuts that are roughly twice as expensive. Or go down to your local market and pick up one of those bad boys in the picture. If you've never seen your meat killed in front of you, think of it as an educational adventure in a more humane and healthier way to eat.

The circus continues

Just to catch you up on some of the latest goings on...

It looks like the U.S. beef imports circus is going to continue. After a dancing donkey and poodle act, it appears the issue will go to a referendum. The only thing more ridiculous than letting the beef industry sway U.S. foreign policy, is the idea that the average Taiwanese person is informed enough to decide Taiwan's domestic policy. While the ruling KMT has used the beef debacle to give a thorough demonstration of their ineptness, the opposition DPP has proven to be merely vacuous and opportunistic. Along with pushing for the referendum and the cost and distraction it would entail, they were quick to point out that it should be held during other elections to ensure the minimum turnout is achieved. In other words, they know nobody cares enough about this issue to actually turn up and vote on it.

On the other side of the coin, the New York Times recently published an article exposing the questionable practices used by the U.S. beef industry in hamburger processing. In recent years processed hamburger has included a product that is created from 'fatty trimmings' that in the past were not considered safe enough to be allowed for human consumption and were only used in pet foods. This 'jelly' is created from the eyes, tonsils, ganglia and other undesirable parts of the cow. These 'trimmings' are highly prone to ecoli and salmonella contamination. A company called Beef Products inc. came up with a novel method whereby the jelly created from these parts is gassed with ammonia to kill the bacteria. The USDA allowed this product to be included in hamburger based only on the findings of studies funded by the company in question. For some reason, ammonia is not listed as an ingredient, despite the fact that handlers of this product have detected a strong odor of ammonia emanating from the jelly even when frozen and have returned the product as unfit for consumption. On top of this, contamination has been detected on several occasions in their product and large-scale outbreaks of food poisoning have been linked to it as well. Several scientists working for the USDA were in disagreement of their employer's decision to approve the product.

Carl S. Custer, a former U.S.D.A. microbiologist, said he and other scientists were concerned that the department had approved the treated beef for sale without obtaining independent validation of the potential safety risk. Another department microbiologist, Gerald Zirnstein, called the processed beef "pink slime" in a 2002 e-mail message to colleagues and said, “I do not consider the stuff to be ground beef, and I consider allowing it in ground beef to be a form of fraudulent labeling.”

This product is used in the hamburger of fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King. It is also used in the school lunch program in the U.S. as it reduces their hamburger budget by a million dollars a year.

And while we happen to be on the issue of the U.S. school lunch program. This article from Washington Monthly outlines the kind of questionable practices that are carried out by this program under the approval of the USDA. KFC and Subway are allowed to set up shop in schools throughout the country, while the quality of meals produced by the program itself is equally unhealthy. Revenue from soda and junk food vending machines now provides a vital portion of funding for most schools. State governments also benefit from the sale of these products in schools as most have now instituted a tax on sugared beverages based on the logic that they are unhealthy. The Donkey went on a rant about this obvious hypocritical conflict of interest in an earlier post.

But to return to the circus in Taiwan, the U.S. government has recently shown they will not let offal interfere with their geopolitical agenda by approving the sale of 'Patriot' missiles to Taiwan by Lockheed Martin. The missiles could theoretically be used to shoot down short-range missiles launched against Taiwan by China. I guess we should be thankful that the interests of Lockheed Martin balance out the interests of Beef Products Inc. in the U.S. Congress. I feel safer already.

Chaplin eats his shoe

Donkey ingenuity in leaner times.

Animal House - Cafeteria

An inspiration to donkeys everywhere. Whatever happened to comedy?

Meat for Jesus

In a rare reunion of the Taipei and Taichung ends of the Donkey, the Christmas season proved to hold several spectacular culinary experiences. Kinger and I began the festivities with a Christmas feast at the home of Wade Davis and family. Davis outdid himself as per usual, this time by not only roasting up a healthy sized turkey, but also serving up a full leg (cloven hoof and all) of one of Taiwan's famously succulent black mountain pigs. And I'm not talking some puny suckling piglet. This was a full-grown beast of the mountains--think Lord of the Flies. This limb must have weighed in at around 10 kg and was close to 3 feet in length. Due to these mammoth proportions, home cooking was out of the question. Unperturbed, Davis hauled this obscene hunk of flesh down to the local Peking Duck joint and had them roast it up in one of the oil drums they use for the ducks. It was a sight for sore eyes, believe you me. This spread was fit for the table of Henry the 8th, Genghis Kahn, or John Candy. The flesh from these two creatures could have easily fed 100 men. When Kinger entered the threshold and saw the bounty before him, he was overcome and swooned. Luckily he was caught in the strong embrace of his life-partner, Sabrina, saving him from a nasty fall. We quickly revived him by waving a chunk of pork fat under his nose. The ensuing feast was properly gluttonous. The meat was so delicious and plentiful that several of the guests went into a meat frenzy and took leave of their senses. They started attacking the food like Friar Tuck and making guttural noises like Helen Keller. We had to restrain them in chairs and feed them by spoon until they'd regained their sense of decorum. 

Boxing day proved to be equally exhilarating on the culinary front. We took a field trip down to the Zhong Hua night market for some special holiday snacks. Me and Kinger quickly separated from the group and made a bee-line straight for the offal. On the menu were testicles of rooster and small intestine of pig. If you've never had rooster testes, you might imagine them to be dense and rubbery. How wrong you would be. The rooster testicle, much like pig's brain, can be most closely compared with a semi-soft tofu, in both taste and texture. This was the second time I had sampled this delicacy and it was prepared differently both times. The first time they were cooked in a kind of gravy with mushrooms. As with many Chinese dishes, the ingredients mimicked each other in size, shape and colour. Thus one could never be sure if one was raising a mushroom or a testicle to one's lips until actually biting down. If one was lucky enough to hit a testicle, it was like a happy surprise as the delicate juices burst forth. At the night market, the testes were prepared with an indigenous mountain vegetable of Taiwan called 'chuan chi', along with large slices of ginger, and sesame oil. It was a perfect harmony of flavours and textures. Chuan chi is a spade shaped vine leaf, similar to spinach but with more girth and a smoother texture. It has a rich but mellow flavour that complemented the creamy taste and texture of the testicles. The ginger contributed the sharper staccato notes while the sesame oil provided the smooth underlying nuttiness.

I'll leave you now to ponder the wonder of rooster testicles. Next up: the skinny on pig intestine.