Rant, I guess. I live in China. I choose to live here. No one put a gun to my head and said, “You will now live in China.” It was clearly a choice. Living here is not an easy thing as this country is one of the most anti-foreign (foreigner) places on the planet. It’s not always so friendly, peaceful or welcoming, but despite this, I have planted myself right in the middle of 1.4 billion people with a lot of issues. Some are rich and happy. Some are rich and aggressive. Some are over-educated and pissed because their salaries are too low. Some are just poor and desperate. A daily encounter with hate is not uncommon, but like I said, I made a choice and I am here. Concerning food, the food I have experienced here is undoubtedly some of the best in the world. There are thousands and thousands of dishes spanning the entirety of the place, and the reward of living here certainly comes in the form of culinary masterpieces. But, that’s not to say that there are no problems with food. There is a term in China referring to food that is prepared with dirty, recycled, filtered oils from trash cans called gutter oil. It’s a huge industry and the gutter oil trucks are often seen pulling into the medium sized and small sized restaurants to actually take the entire trash cans away in order to salvage the used oil within the cans regardless of whatever other possible hazardous material might be mixed into the trash (cigarettes, spit, urine, shit, tampons, etc.). So as I have lived here longer and longer, I make a point to try to avoid little shit restaurants, because I know there is the possibility of poison and Hepatitis waiting for me there. The more expensive places have a higher level of quality control despite the lack of an active FDA here. There are laws, but unlike in the USA, they are largely unenforced so restaurants can have their way with their paying customers/victims. As I mentioned living here is not easy for numerous reasons, but I chose it, and where food is involved, I have tried to make smarter decisions, whether eating and cooking at home or by eating food that has a higher chance of being murder-free. Today was a long day. I am tired. I am aching from the long hours of work. Sometimes on these days I just want something simple and safe. So I asked my wife to order my cheeseburger, fries and sprite from the health food restaurant known as McDonald’s, and I promise you, they are health food compared to some of the poison and crap being served up in some of these tiny, FU for coming, so-called restaurants. Sometimes, a simple cheeseburger and fries can ease the gut and relax the stress of living in the land of rice and noodles so far away from the land I once knew and loved. For the record, I think McDonald’s is crap, but somehow it comforts me during stressful times. Tonight, I was informed by my wife that McDonald’s was out of cheeseburgers, so she took the liberty of ordering me one of their fish sandwiches. You know the Mcfish? It’s a tiny fried cod or something on a bun drowned in disgusting tartar sauce. I flipped. I flipped for more than one reason. 1. I flipped because I hate freaking McDonald’s, but require it to escape poison and disease every now and then. 2. I hate McDonald’s fish sandwiches. 3. I wanted a goddamned cheeseburger to escape rice and noodles. 4. It’s been a very long, difficult day. 4. Chinese hate foreigners. 5. I just want to stay home and not go out and risk my life in death-defying traffic and discourtesy to avoid possibly acquiring a poisonous meal. 6. How the Hell is McDonald’s out of hamburgers? They are a goddamned hamburger restaurant. Long story short – I am at my wit’s end. Bali is calling. Sheesh.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 13:29:28 +0000
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