Guest guest Posted July 14, 2003 Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 Thanks all for the replies to the China Project. Next time it comes up here or elsewhere in debate (as it surely will) I will know where to turn in the archives for support. -- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 14, 2003 Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 Heidi Schuppenhauer wrote: > I keep hearing that bit about the Asian diets being > low-fat too, but the cookbooks sure are not. Lots > of deep-fried stuff. I don't think their traditional diet included deep-fried stuff because it takes a lot of fat/oil, and I can't imagine they had enough to waste on deep-frying. On the other hand, they could've reused fat/oil. Roman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 14, 2003 Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 Roman- Perhaps they didn't do much deep-frying, but pigs (heirloom strains and breeds, anyway) can put on enormous amounts of fat pretty easily, so country peasants could have had abundant fat. >I don't think their traditional diet included deep-fried stuff because >it takes a lot of fat/oil, and I can't imagine they had enough to waste >on deep-frying. On the other hand, they could've reused fat/oil. - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 14, 2003 Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 Re: Re: The China Project I've been to a couple of third-world countries, and I've seen lots of deep-fat fried foods. Usually what they do is fill a huge cast-iron pot with oil and keep it hot all day. When a customer orders something, it goes ithe fat for a minute and then goes on the plate. I don't think the fat goes rancid very fast. It always tasted fine, everything I tried. (and I tried nearly everything). Also, Ive been invited to the homes of a few americans of japanese ancestry, and I've had tempura (homemeade) which is deep-fried, several times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 14, 2003 Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 Heidi, >Seriously? I always liked Buddhism as a religion but there >is no way I'd give up meat. In a bit about Japan it mentioned >they didn't eat beef much traditionally because it wasn't >allowed under Buddhists beliefs, but that didn't stop them >from eating fish and eggs (and bugs, I suppose). Quite a few years ago friends visited India. The husband wanted to eat an egg as he couldn't go without protein any longer. People where he was staying let him but he had to walk a mile out of town before he could eat the egg. Guess that was where they felt their boundary was in respect to their religious beliefs. Wanita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 14, 2003 Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 In a message dated 7/14/03 9:46:25 PM Eastern Daylight Time, romeml@... writes: > This makes me think about if deep-frying is really as bad as some health > practitioners say it is. Maybe it's OK as a part of a balanced (whatever > it means) meal system? Same thing with cooking over an open flame-- Price found quite a lot of that, disavowed as it is by modern health folks. OTOH, just because Asians traditionally did/do whatever doesn't make it healthy. I personally do a lot of *light* frying, and don't have any problem doing occasional deep frying, but I also eat plenty of *raw* foods. I'm going to get around to making donuts one of these days! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 14, 2003 Report Share Posted July 14, 2003 > > > I keep hearing that bit about the Asian diets being > > low-fat too, but the cookbooks sure are not. Lots > > of deep-fried stuff. > Meals I had at people's homes sure were fried. In fact at one pint when I was sick I was trying my darnest to get something steamed and all I could get was broth...which btw was very tasty leading me. Cambell's soup hasn't spread everywhere yet! People tend to fry on a grill with the same oil...but it doesn't taste rancid and the food is delicious. I think most they were using lard where I was travelling. The only times I got sick on food was from bad water. That's is a disaster and I think the cause of most stomach problems. Lynn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2003 Report Share Posted July 15, 2003 Powelson wrote: > I've been to a couple of third-world countries, and I've seen lots of deep-fat fried foods. Usually what they do is fill a huge cast-iron pot with oil and keep it hot all day. When a customer orders something, it goes ithe fat for a minute and then goes on the plate. I don't think the fat goes rancid very fast. It always tasted fine, everything I tried. (and I tried nearly everything). Also, Ive been invited to the homes of a few americans of japanese ancestry, and I've had tempura (homemeade) which is deep-fried, several times. I've been picturing deep-fry containers that are used in fast food joint; that's why I thought deep-frying wasn't probably in those countries. But your description makes it possible, especially if they recycle oil all day long. Maybe it's true that some fats (of animal origin, in particular) are very stable, which makes it OK to reuse them. So, a few pounds of pork fat can last them for a long time. This makes me think about if deep-frying is really as bad as some health practitioners say it is. Maybe it's OK as a part of a balanced (whatever it means) meal system? Roman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2003 Report Share Posted July 15, 2003 >Quite a few years ago friends visited India. The husband wanted to eat an egg >as he couldn't go without protein any longer. People where he was staying let >him but he had to walk a mile out of town before he could eat the egg. Guess >that was where they felt their boundary was in respect to their religious >beliefs. > >Wanita OK, so I went and bought the Dummies Guide to Buddhism ... we'll see if they are ALL vegetarians. -- Heidi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2003 Report Share Posted July 15, 2003 before the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan [middle of 16th century], the Japanese had what could be termed a 'water-cuisine'. .. there was not much frying to speak of, most food was either cooked in liquid, steamed, pickled etc.... dishes like Tempura came into being due to Portuguese influence. Dedy Re: Re: The China Project Heidi Schuppenhauer wrote: > I keep hearing that bit about the Asian diets being > low-fat too, but the cookbooks sure are not. Lots > of deep-fried stuff. I don't think their traditional diet included deep-fried stuff because it takes a lot of fat/oil, and I can't imagine they had enough to waste on deep-frying. On the other hand, they could've reused fat/oil. Roman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 15, 2003 Report Share Posted July 15, 2003 >>>>I've been picturing deep-fry containers that are used in fast food joint; that's why I thought deep-frying wasn't probably in those countries. But your description makes it possible, especially if they recycle oil all day long. Maybe it's true that some fats (of animal origin, in particular) are very stable, which makes it OK to reuse them. So, a few pounds of pork fat can last them for a long time. ------>who says the reused oil is stable and OK to use? ;-) when i was in nepal in the mid '80s i was told that it was common to reuse frying oil and also not uncommon to fry in petrol oil. i don't know what type of frying oil was used though. i have no idea if that's true about the petrol oil either. but the night i ate fried somasas at some curbside dive, i was violently ill shortly after and eventually developed salmonella poisoning and typhoid fever. i don't know if my illness was related to the cooking oil, but i bet the excruciating stomach pain that i had shortly after eating the samosas did. maybe traditionally people in nepal used healthier oils, and by the time i was in kathmandu, they used whatever. nepal has a large tibetan buddhist community. i chose to learn nepali language over the tibetan language so didn't live with a tibetan family. my nepali family was poor and only ate rice and lentils. i had a friend who was more prosperous and when i went to visit at his house they served chicken among other things. when i went to a wedding in the mountains (nepali hindu, i think), they killed a chicken for the feast. but water buffalo meat was widely consumed and considering the number of shops with goat heads and hunks of goat meat sitting out on straw mats, i'd guess lots of goat was also consumed. it was clear to me that meat consumption had everything to do with income level - those who could afford it, ate it. it was also common to sacrifice animals for religious ceremonies. the director of my program told us he went to some kind of religious ceremony where they drank the blood of various animals. i also spent a week in a village in the foothills of the himalayas that might have had a tibetan population. we were conducting a study of the village and my partner and i went to interview the village council. when we got there they gave us the classic tibetan tea with ghee in it. i probably insulted them by not drinking it, but had had it before and couldn't stand it. i bet i'd like it now. in any case, the ghee probably came from yak butter. if their national drink has ghee in it, i doubt they are vegetarian ;-) nepal would've been a great place to study native diets because they didn't allow anyone from the west to enter the country until something like 1957. however, i don't know if they allowed imported foods, which could've eliminated them from price's criteria. although i bet some of the more isolated mountain villages had little to no contact with the outside world during price's time. i have no idea what their health status was then, but barring famine, i'd imagine it was pretty good. we're talking land of the hardy sherpas and famous gorkha warriors, after all :-) Suze Fisher Lapdog Design, Inc. Web Design & Development http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg/ mailto:s.fisher22@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 16, 2003 Report Share Posted July 16, 2003 If they had no refrigeration wouldn't the animal fat go rancid.That would make you sick. Ch On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 07:40:38 -0400 " Suze Fisher " <s.fisher22@...> writes: > >>>>I've been picturing deep-fry containers that are used in fast > food > joint; that's why I thought deep-frying wasn't probably in those > countries. But your description makes it possible, especially if > they > recycle oil all day long. Maybe it's true that some fats (of animal > origin, in particular) are very stable, which makes it OK to reuse > them. > So, a few pounds of pork fat can last them for a long time. > > ------>who says the reused oil is stable and OK to use? ;-) when i > was in > nepal in the mid '80s i was told that it was common to reuse frying > oil and > also not uncommon to fry in petrol oil. i don't know what type of > frying oil > was used though. i have no idea if that's true about the petrol oil > either. > but the night i ate fried somasas at some curbside dive, i was > violently ill > shortly after and eventually developed salmonella poisoning and > typhoid > fever. i don't know if my illness was related to the cooking oil, > but i bet > the excruciating stomach pain that i had shortly after eating the > samosas > did. > > maybe traditionally people in nepal used healthier oils, and by the > time i > was in kathmandu, they used whatever. > > nepal has a large tibetan buddhist community. i chose to learn > nepali > language over the tibetan language so didn't live with a tibetan > family. my > nepali family was poor and only ate rice and lentils. i had a friend > who was > more prosperous and when i went to visit at his house they served > chicken > among other things. when i went to a wedding in the mountains > (nepali hindu, > i think), they killed a chicken for the feast. but water buffalo > meat was > widely consumed and considering the number of shops with goat heads > and > hunks of goat meat sitting out on straw mats, i'd guess lots of goat > was > also consumed. it was clear to me that meat consumption had > everything to do > with income level - those who could afford it, ate it. it was also > common to > sacrifice animals for religious ceremonies. the director of my > program told > us he went to some kind of religious ceremony where they drank the > blood of > various animals. i also spent a week in a village in the foothills > of the > himalayas that might have had a tibetan population. we were > conducting a > study of the village and my partner and i went to interview the > village > council. when we got there they gave us the classic tibetan tea with > ghee in > it. i probably insulted them by not drinking it, but had had it > before and > couldn't stand it. i bet i'd like it now. in any case, the ghee > probably > came from yak butter. if their national drink has ghee in it, i > doubt they > are vegetarian ;-) > > > > nepal would've been a great place to study native diets because they > didn't > allow anyone from the west to enter the country until something like > 1957. > however, i don't know if they allowed imported foods, which could've > eliminated them from price's criteria. although i bet some of the > more > isolated mountain villages had little to no contact with the outside > world > during price's time. i have no idea what their health status was > then, but > barring famine, i'd imagine it was pretty good. we're talking land > of the > hardy sherpas and famous gorkha warriors, after all :-) > > > > Suze Fisher > Lapdog Design, Inc. > Web Design & Development > http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg/ > mailto:s.fisher22@... > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 16, 2003 Report Share Posted July 16, 2003 > before the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan [middle of 16th century], the Japanese had what could be termed a 'water-cuisine'. .. there was not much frying to speak of, most food was either cooked in liquid, steamed, pickled etc.... dishes like Tempura came into being due to Portuguese influence. > > Dedy yeah, that reminds me that the popular dish " ton-katsu " , breaded fried pork, came from the portuguese and is named after a portuguese word, a cognate of " cutlet " . mike parker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 16, 2003 Report Share Posted July 16, 2003 Cheryl L Kruger wrote: > If they had no refrigeration wouldn't the animal fat go rancid.That would > make you sick. Ch It would probably take longer than it does plant oils. I store olive and sunflower oil at room temperature and use them before they go rancid. Roman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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