Of Personal Interest

First: Michael Pollan's recent piece for the NY Times magazine. It's an open letter of sorts, to the next president, advising him on food policy. I think that it is true to form for Pollan in that it is insightful, timely, and rather dry. He illustrates, convincingly, the environmental and health problems resulting from our rather anti-free-market agricultural system. If, like me, you have in interest in the absurdity of the US food system and policy related to it, this article is definitely worth a look. I think it's going to be tough for any politician to substantially fix our farming/ food system, because ending the subsidies that keep it afloat would be tantamount to political suicide. Even though the main beneficiaries of the current policies are giants like ADM and Cargill, changing/ ending farm subsidies can always be spun to seem like a politician is crushing the non-existent Jeffersonian ideal of an American farmer. What's more, truly "fixing" our food system as Pollan has suggested here, would take more than just a change in government policy. What he recommends could take many years, and would involve a shift in Americans' dietary habits, which are a big part of our culture. What will be necessary and unavoidable is weaning American agriculture off of petroleum products. Expect changes.

Second: I read an article in last week's Economist about the money that the music industry has been making from music based video games like Guitar Hero and others. I figured some money was going to the artists and record companies for these games, but I had no idea how much. Apparently, I underestimated the games' popularity, as the article mentions that: "Aerosmith have made more money from “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith”... than from any of their albums." To me, that's just incredible.

That's all I got.

Nighttime Street Food in Shanghai

Fried Rice, Fried Noodles, and all the Fixins

Ever since my first trip over here, one of my favorite aspects of Chinese city life is the street food. It’s usually small, quick, cheap, and really 地道 (didao, authentic). One of the best things about street food in China is the variety, especially at night, when people do their greasiest post-bar eating (and some men make the trip [or are sent] from apartment to the local grill for seared lamb and chicken testicles, two examples of the many substances that are said to make one ‘strong’, as in viagra strong). Staples of nighttime street food in most Chinese cities include: fried rice and noodles; fried dumplings; 麻辣汤 (malatang), a soup with your choice of noodles, fresh veggies, meat, and spiciness, all cooked in a communal pot; and finally chuan’r, the nearly ubiquitous kebabs of various meats and veggies grilled (most often by a Uyghur or Hui person) and then dusted in spices.

Regularly these various street foods are found at different shops and stalls, spread throughout one’s neighborhood and found by wandering around. Many of the mobile fried rice and chuan’r guys will have a usual corner on which you can find them most nights. However, if you luck out like me, you could find that you have a little night market in you neighborhood.

Notice the long Chuan'r grill in the foreground

Unfortunately these places, and many street food vendors in general, are slowly being shut down. Times were I knew three places in my neighborhood where I could have live poultry slaughtered while I watched (never have actually tried this), now I only know of one. Regardless, I still have a little night market by me, at a busy intersection in front of the Shanghai friendship store and next to a KFC, but busier.

At least once a week, I’ll go there for some green bean, mushroom, eggplant, and lamb chuan’r, or the occasional flat top grilled squid. Last week I tried a new and delicious item, grilled shellfish. A few guys from Jiangsu province grill oysters, scallops, and large, attention-grabbing blue mussels.

My local shellfish griller, from Jiangsu province

As they cook, they add chopped garlic, sauce, tiny rice noodles, chives, and for the oysters a substance best described as a Chinese salsa.

Topping them with the rice noodles

The noodles kind of soak up the juices, making it easier to eat the whole deal with chopsticks. The smell of them cooking, as the garlic mixes with the boiling juices, is fantastic. The shellfish are of unknown provenance, but look, taste, and smell very fresh. This is a new favorite of mine, which at 5 kuai (RMB) a pop are not cheap, at least for street food, but well worth it.

Almost done, we've got oysters in front, a blue mussel, then scallops in back

Delicious Xinjiang Food

Last night my brother, a friend, and I went out for Xinjiang food. Xinjiang, the vast, relatively sparsely populated province in China’s northwest, is home to the Uyghur people. Xinjiang food is distinctly Central Asian, and doesn’t share much with other styles of food found in China. There is a lot of meat, in big chunks, often skewered and roasted on an long open grill. They do bread exceptionally well, and everything is liberally dusted with a ubiquitous mix of spices. Also, there is no pork, the staple meat of Chinese food, to be found here, as the Uyghurs are a Muslim people. It is a delicious, and occasionally necessary break from traditional Chinese food--in ways that lunch at McDonald’s can’t compare to.


In the picture you can see most of our meal. There’s the mutton fried rice with roasted carrots, which I think must have been cooked in lamb fat. The thinly sliced red meat is cold venison, which was delicious and sort of similar in flavor to cold brisket. Then there is roasted lamb ribs. The skewers are called 羊肉串, or chuan (r), commonly pronounced with an ‘r’ ending in Beijing. The lamb meat is skewered with bits of fat that melt into the meat during grilling. Not pictured is the lamb heart skewer, which I ate too quickly to photograph. We also had fried eggplant slices, dusted in spices; and a dish consisting of chopped up lamb meat with carrots and hot peppers that was placed into fresh tortilla-like pancakes.

A necessary accompaniment to Xinjiang food is Xinjiang Black Beer. It is possibly my favorite brand of beer in China. It has all the flavor, body, and alcohol that beers like Qingdao and Yanjing lack.