[Leica] Re: OT Chinese Food

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Sep 12, 2006, at 4:52 AM, Jayanand wrote:

> We all like what we are used to. After a lifetime eating Indian  
> Chinese
> food, I sometimes find it difficult to enjoy the authentic variety!!!

Chinese chefs are vary adaptable and darned good businessmen. They  
modify traditional recipes to fit the regional cuisine. During the  
late 1990s I was a consultant to Lever Bros and was asked to write a  
report on the attitudes toward cleanliness and personal hygiene of  
the various cultures in which the company had a marketing presence.  
Lever Bros wanted to sell soap to people who didn't believe in the  
germ theory of disease and cold cream to women who used yak butter as  
an emollient. Chinese food tasted different in every country I  
visited. Indian Chinese food was too spicy and barely  
indistinguishable from local curried dishes. No beef either.  English  
Chinese food was too sweet. In South America Chinese food was loaded  
with enough animal protein to feed a Chinese family for a month. In  
China, the local food at "authentic" restaurants was too greasy. The  
only Chinese food cooked to my taste was in the US and most of the  
dishes were unknown in China, having been invented by Chinese chefs  
during the gold rush. Even Chinese fortune cookies were first made in  
Brooklyn.

The report, incidentally, was a washout.

Larry Z