8 ms·

> Chinese don't eat raw foods at all, and especially not vegetables, which they correctly (by the standards of Chinatown produce) view as being unsanitary until

> Chinese don't eat raw foods at all, and especially not vegetables, which they correctly (by the standards of Chinatown produce) view as being unsanitary until thoroughly cooked. That's not strictly true. There are plenty of classical Chinese dishes - many of them family type dishes - that are composed of raw vegetables. Also pickling is pretty big in Chinese cuisine, but I guess that's not "raw" in the technical sense. Lastly, Chinese people love raw seafood - sushi, oysters, etc.

kkylin 9y ago
All this is true, but while we() used to shop regularly in Chinatown markets (back when we lived close to a Chinatown, anyway), we would not eat anything raw except for fruits. Any vegetables or meat to be eaten raw or undercooked, we would buy from an "American" market. () Chinese-American family.
metaphorm 9y ago
> Lastly, Chinese people love raw seafood - sushi, oysters, etc. Which Chinese people? There are approximately zero sushi restaurants in Manhattan Chinatown. There are a whole bunch of sushi restaurants in adjacent SoHo, which is filled with non-Chinese yuppies. anecdotal: took my Chinese co-worker to The Pokespot takeout for lunch and he immediately turned around and went somewhere else when he saw that the menu contained only raw fish.
- colmvp 9y ago
  I'd say the comment should be tweaked to Westernized Chinese (for lack of a better term... maybe Cosmopolitan?). My parents refuse to try raw seafood/meat. But having grown up in North America exposed to raw salads, meat, and seafood, I'm comfortable with it.
- derwiki 9y ago
  China is not Chinatown, and I think your sample size is a bit small considering how many Chinese exist.
  - stcredzero 9y ago
    China is not Chinatown Said dozens of times by my Chinese-born girlfriend in SF Chinatown: "I have no idea what this is." "This is weird."
    - mixmastamyk 9y ago
      Born where? I believe west coast Chinatowns were built by Cantonese and separated by 100+ years. See the recent post about american chinese food.
      - ithinkinstereo 9y ago
        That's correct. The first influx of Chinese immigrants were mostly from the south. After the CCP took over, immigration from the mainland basically ceased. During the 60s-80s most of the Chinese immigrants that were not from HK were from Taiwan. Immigration from the mainland started picking up after the Cultural Revolution in the late 70s / early 80s through now. "Chinese" food in the US is mostly Cantonese food. Only fairly recently have you seen an uptick of non-canton style food. The latest trend is Sichuan / Chongqing style of cuisine (spicy!). My favorite Chinese regional cuisine is Xinjiang cai (food of the uighurs, China's muslim minority group). Very tasty - lots of bbq meats, delicious noodles, and spicy. Also bonus that its halal/kosher.
        inferiorhuman 9y ago
        Chinese food in the US is fairly diverse (and has been for a while). Hunan food is, IIRC, quite common in New York and accounts for most of what New Yorkers think of when they conjure up images of Chinese food. Even in SF, places like Henry's Hunan have been around for a while (early 70s). If you go to the LA area you'll find a large proliferation of Taiwanese restaurants (which are relatively scarce in SF).
      - princeb 9y ago
        american chinese food is still quite similar to cantonese food. at least, much more similar to cantonese food than it is to northern chinese food, which in my (cantonese heritage) opinion look more like korean, given its extreme use of sour preserved vegetables and grains.
- ithinkinstereo 9y ago
  Sushi is quite popular with the Chinese, both in the states with ABCs as well as in the mainland. See this article for one datapoint: http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/Comment/analysis/norway-increases-salmon-exports-to-china http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/Comment/analysis/norway-...
  - metaphorm 9y ago
    interesting, and a very recent trend. the population of 1st generation Chinese immigrants in Chinatown have not developed a taste for sushi though.
    - jimbert 9y ago
      My father was born in China in 1940 and he refuses to eat raw food like sushi. He isn't particularly hygenic when it comes to food preparation (defrosts meat in the sink, flies are not a huge concern) but cooks everything well done.
  - et-al 9y ago
    To clarify, sushi is a recent development in mainland China. The article linked to agrees with that. However, rewind to pre-2000 China, and it'd be rare to find a sushi joint outside of a high-end hotel.
    - qiqing 9y ago
      Rewind to Tang Dynasty China, and sushi would be very commonplace.
      - vecinu 9y ago
        "Records exist about the consumption of long slices of raw fish as early as 500 BCE. Many others indicate that long before the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 CE), people with economic where-with-all ate many raw foods, not only raw fruits and vegetables, but also raw fish and raw meat." - http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=400 http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=40...
- rifung 9y ago
  Since sushi is Japanese, doesn't it make sense that it would be found in Little Tokyo instead of Chinatown? Maybe there are lots of Chinese people eating it outside of Chinatown?
  - metaphorm 9y ago
    there's a huge number of sushi restaurants all over New York and a lot of them are not authentically Japanese nor are they owned or operated by Japanese Americans. Sushi is very popular in New York, much more popular than the Japanese population alone would support. There are sushi restaurants in neighborhoods where the residents enjoy sushi. The absence of them in Chinatown is an indicator that the residents there (> 90% Chinese immigrants) don't like sushi.
    - ithinkinstereo 9y ago
      Your observations basically boil down to "my co-worker, who is Chinese, does not like raw fish, therefore..." There are plenty of sushi restaurants in Chinatown: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=sushi&start=0&l=p:NY:New_York:Manhattan:Chinatown https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=sushi&start=0&l=p:NY:N... There are also traditional - and popular - Chinese dishes that involve raw fish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusheng https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusheng You have to understand that Chinese people are huge gluttons (I say this without any judgement). They love to eat.. there are even idioms about it! 1) http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/they_eat_anything_with_legs_except_a_table_and_anything_with_wings_except_a http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/they...
      - et-al 9y ago
        re: Yunsheng > Place of origin: Singapore Generally, when we say Chinese, we refer to mainland China and Taiwan, not the Chinese Diaspora. This would be like saying Indian people love chicken tikka masala.
        ithinkinstereo 9y ago
- zhte415 9y ago
  Fair question. Easiest answer is "China is a big country" but that isn't the best answer. Raw seafood is pretty popular in coastal areas of Shandong and Liaoning. Cold seas and pretty easy to identify as fresh or not. Raw veg in the Northeast in general is fine depending on what it is. Spinach should be cooked because of the way its grown (nightsoil not uncommon) but peppers/radishes OK raw (hanging fruit). Simply pragmatic food culture responses to how food is sourced, and habits of what's OK or not. A Guangzhou person is unlikely to be OK with raw crawling shrimp in a salad in Panjin, and a Panjin person complains about how seafood in Guangdong is tasteless as the sea is too hot so the seafood grows too fast (despite these conditions making it plentiful).
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    Did you mean to classify radishes as a hanging fruit? They are very clearly root vegetables, and you should literally wash the shit out of them before even thinking about eating one raw.
    - DanBC 9y ago
      Some radishes are grown for their seedpods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radish#Seed_pod_varieties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radish#Seed_pod_varieties > The seeds of radishes grow in siliques (widely referred to as "pods"), following flowering that happens when left to grow past their normal harvesting period. The seeds are edible, and are sometimes used as a crunchy, sharp addition to salads.[13] Some varieties are grown specifically for their seeds or seed pods, rather than their roots. The rat-tailed radish, an old European variety thought to have come from East Asia centuries ago, has long, thin, curly pods which can exceed 20 cm (8 in) in length. In the 17th century, the pods were often pickled and served with meat.[13] The 'München Bier' variety supplies seed pods that are sometimes served raw as an accompaniment to beer in Germany.[22] (I hadn't heard of this until I looked. I firmly think of radishes as root vegetables.)

kkylin 9y ago

All this is true, but while we() used to shop regularly in Chinatown markets (back when we lived close to a Chinatown, anyway), we would not eat anything raw except for fruits. Any vegetables or meat to be eaten raw or undercooked, we would buy from an "American" market. () Chinese-American family.

metaphorm 9y ago

> Lastly, Chinese people love raw seafood - sushi, oysters, etc. Which Chinese people? There are approximately zero sushi restaurants in Manhattan Chinatown. There are a whole bunch of sushi restaurants in adjacent SoHo, which is filled with non-Chinese yuppies. anecdotal: took my Chinese co-worker to The Pokespot takeout for lunch and he immediately turned around and went somewhere else when he saw that the menu contained only raw fish.

colmvp 9y ago
I'd say the comment should be tweaked to Westernized Chinese (for lack of a better term... maybe Cosmopolitan?). My parents refuse to try raw seafood/meat. But having grown up in North America exposed to raw salads, meat, and seafood, I'm comfortable with it.
derwiki 9y ago
China is not Chinatown, and I think your sample size is a bit small considering how many Chinese exist.
- stcredzero 9y ago
  China is not Chinatown Said dozens of times by my Chinese-born girlfriend in SF Chinatown: "I have no idea what this is." "This is weird."
  - mixmastamyk 9y ago
    Born where? I believe west coast Chinatowns were built by Cantonese and separated by 100+ years. See the recent post about american chinese food.
    - ithinkinstereo 9y ago
      That's correct. The first influx of Chinese immigrants were mostly from the south. After the CCP took over, immigration from the mainland basically ceased. During the 60s-80s most of the Chinese immigrants that were not from HK were from Taiwan. Immigration from the mainland started picking up after the Cultural Revolution in the late 70s / early 80s through now. "Chinese" food in the US is mostly Cantonese food. Only fairly recently have you seen an uptick of non-canton style food. The latest trend is Sichuan / Chongqing style of cuisine (spicy!). My favorite Chinese regional cuisine is Xinjiang cai (food of the uighurs, China's muslim minority group). Very tasty - lots of bbq meats, delicious noodles, and spicy. Also bonus that its halal/kosher.
      - inferiorhuman 9y ago
        Chinese food in the US is fairly diverse (and has been for a while). Hunan food is, IIRC, quite common in New York and accounts for most of what New Yorkers think of when they conjure up images of Chinese food. Even in SF, places like Henry's Hunan have been around for a while (early 70s). If you go to the LA area you'll find a large proliferation of Taiwanese restaurants (which are relatively scarce in SF).
    - princeb 9y ago
      american chinese food is still quite similar to cantonese food. at least, much more similar to cantonese food than it is to northern chinese food, which in my (cantonese heritage) opinion look more like korean, given its extreme use of sour preserved vegetables and grains.
ithinkinstereo 9y ago
Sushi is quite popular with the Chinese, both in the states with ABCs as well as in the mainland. See this article for one datapoint: http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/Comment/analysis/norway-increases-salmon-exports-to-china http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/Comment/analysis/norway-...
- metaphorm 9y ago
  interesting, and a very recent trend. the population of 1st generation Chinese immigrants in Chinatown have not developed a taste for sushi though.
  - jimbert 9y ago
    My father was born in China in 1940 and he refuses to eat raw food like sushi. He isn't particularly hygenic when it comes to food preparation (defrosts meat in the sink, flies are not a huge concern) but cooks everything well done.
- et-al 9y ago
  To clarify, sushi is a recent development in mainland China. The article linked to agrees with that. However, rewind to pre-2000 China, and it'd be rare to find a sushi joint outside of a high-end hotel.
  - qiqing 9y ago
    Rewind to Tang Dynasty China, and sushi would be very commonplace.
    - vecinu 9y ago
      "Records exist about the consumption of long slices of raw fish as early as 500 BCE. Many others indicate that long before the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 CE), people with economic where-with-all ate many raw foods, not only raw fruits and vegetables, but also raw fish and raw meat." - http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=400 http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=40...
rifung 9y ago
Since sushi is Japanese, doesn't it make sense that it would be found in Little Tokyo instead of Chinatown? Maybe there are lots of Chinese people eating it outside of Chinatown?
- metaphorm 9y ago
  there's a huge number of sushi restaurants all over New York and a lot of them are not authentically Japanese nor are they owned or operated by Japanese Americans. Sushi is very popular in New York, much more popular than the Japanese population alone would support. There are sushi restaurants in neighborhoods where the residents enjoy sushi. The absence of them in Chinatown is an indicator that the residents there (> 90% Chinese immigrants) don't like sushi.
  - ithinkinstereo 9y ago
    Your observations basically boil down to "my co-worker, who is Chinese, does not like raw fish, therefore..." There are plenty of sushi restaurants in Chinatown: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=sushi&start=0&l=p:NY:New_York:Manhattan:Chinatown https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=sushi&start=0&l=p:NY:N... There are also traditional - and popular - Chinese dishes that involve raw fish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusheng https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusheng You have to understand that Chinese people are huge gluttons (I say this without any judgement). They love to eat.. there are even idioms about it! 1) http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/they_eat_anything_with_legs_except_a_table_and_anything_with_wings_except_a http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/they...
    - et-al 9y ago
      re: Yunsheng > Place of origin: Singapore Generally, when we say Chinese, we refer to mainland China and Taiwan, not the Chinese Diaspora. This would be like saying Indian people love chicken tikka masala.
      - ithinkinstereo 9y ago
zhte415 9y ago
Fair question. Easiest answer is "China is a big country" but that isn't the best answer. Raw seafood is pretty popular in coastal areas of Shandong and Liaoning. Cold seas and pretty easy to identify as fresh or not. Raw veg in the Northeast in general is fine depending on what it is. Spinach should be cooked because of the way its grown (nightsoil not uncommon) but peppers/radishes OK raw (hanging fruit). Simply pragmatic food culture responses to how food is sourced, and habits of what's OK or not. A Guangzhou person is unlikely to be OK with raw crawling shrimp in a salad in Panjin, and a Panjin person complains about how seafood in Guangdong is tasteless as the sea is too hot so the seafood grows too fast (despite these conditions making it plentiful).
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  Did you mean to classify radishes as a hanging fruit? They are very clearly root vegetables, and you should literally wash the shit out of them before even thinking about eating one raw.
  - DanBC 9y ago
    Some radishes are grown for their seedpods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radish#Seed_pod_varieties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radish#Seed_pod_varieties > The seeds of radishes grow in siliques (widely referred to as "pods"), following flowering that happens when left to grow past their normal harvesting period. The seeds are edible, and are sometimes used as a crunchy, sharp addition to salads.[13] Some varieties are grown specifically for their seeds or seed pods, rather than their roots. The rat-tailed radish, an old European variety thought to have come from East Asia centuries ago, has long, thin, curly pods which can exceed 20 cm (8 in) in length. In the 17th century, the pods were often pickled and served with meat.[13] The 'München Bier' variety supplies seed pods that are sometimes served raw as an accompaniment to beer in Germany.[22] (I hadn't heard of this until I looked. I firmly think of radishes as root vegetables.)