Appooppanthaadi -28

There are more reasons for the flat belly and fit body. The Chinese mostly eat semi cooked vegetables and meat. They use less oil and more sausages.


Almost all food items are cooked and many other meat based dishes are fried directly over the fire. This probably avoids a lot of fat getting accumulated

Another interesting thing  about the Chinese food habit is that they take supper as early a six in the evening. By six in the evening all eateries will be full with customers. They sit out on the walkways in groups to have their dinner.


At home too, the dinner will be over before seven o clock. It is a common sight on Chinese roads scores of people sitting on the foot paths and having their dinner on summer days.  Intake of food much before they go to sleep help digest the food before all the organs slow down during sleep.


They eat rice with every meal. Chiense rice, unlike ours becomes sticky while boiling. Boiled rice comes off to the chop-sticks like lumps that is put into mouth with ease.


Most of the Indians living in China mastered the art of using the sticks. I was a miserable failure however. Till the end of my stay there, I had to depend on fork and spoon. Many of the ordinary restaurants never keep spoons, fork or knife. They serve only sticks with the meals.


Every meal is accompanied by a few bottles of beer. Everyone takes it over their food. Beer is cheaper than water, it looks. A 4% concentration beer has a price of 1.8 yuans for a 380ml bottle. A water bottle of same volume costs a little more than this


There is another interesting story to tell about food. Last time I happened to read The China Daily, an English News Paper that is rarely seen in China. There were two prominant articles in the daily. One was about killing dogs for meat. In some parts of China, dog meat is widely used as a delicate food. Now animal activists are campaigning against this traditional food in China.


The another article was about gutter oil. It was reported in the newspaper that, used oil in restaurants are collected by some people, recycled and then reused in restaurants. This oil is called gutter oil. Authorities are taking strong measures to force restaurants to let the used oil down the drain.


One of the Chinese engineers I met during my stay there told me that he never gave the local milk to his baby for fear that it may be synthetic. There are many cases of milk being adulterated. He buys milk that is imported from Europe. Though the imported milk is much expensive, he wanted to avoid risk