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> I've been told from my Chinese friends they find our penchant for salads and raw food to be barbaric I'm no expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong. My un
by bmm6o 11y ago
> I've been told from my Chinese friends they find our penchant for salads and raw food to be barbaric
I'm no expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding is that they need to cook their vegetables in China to make sure they are safe to eat. Tap water isn't generally potable there, or is that just in cities?
- drumdance 11y agoThey use a lot of vinegar too, depending on the region. My ex is Chinese and she made a lot of what they called cold dishes. Sometimes raw veggies but also cooked noodles that had been cooled, with sauces added in.
- fizgig 11y agoAs I understand it, safe water was historically a problem, which led to the prevalence of hot tea for drinking. I guess culture in Asia tended towards boiling water, as opposed to Europe's tendency to ferment beverages to make them safer? I forget the source where I read this, but there were supposedly vendors who only sold hot water. Water is a really cheap commodity, so the currency reflected that. Those lightweight, fractional-cent coins with the holes in them were kept on a string by the water vendors to easily take/dispense for selling hot water. It's been years since I read this, so I may be totally off base with my recollection. But it makes sense given the problems associated with very dense populations and potable water in pre-industrial times.
- DanBC 11y agoSome people say the "alcohol was safer than water" thing is a myth. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9031856 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9031856 Some people aren't convinced. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7798470 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7798470