Tag: food
China’s Salmon..Might be Rainbow Trout
Cucumber Beetle in our Jiecai: Macro Photo

Spotted Cucumber Beetle, Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi, found on our jiecai, from our local Chinese store. I believe there is poo coming out of its butt. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai
Jiaozi Dog, Toronto, Canada

Fresh home made Chinese jiaozi on a hot dog bun. Invented by Little Weed. Heretical but it does taste good. And if you need to ask, the jiaozi was made of pork. Toronto, Canada. Photo by Don Tai
Living in a Chinese Enclave in Toronto, Canada
Toronto Chinatowns: Downtown vs Uptown
Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School student tips
School Uniform
Canadian Tire Weekly Food Specials = Epic Fail

After an epic fail in selling food, will Canadian Tire now sell lingerie? Say it isn't so...
Street Meat in China, Japan and Toronto
It takes very little for me to have flashbacks of eating street meat in places I’ve lived or visited, namely China, HK and Japan. The mere whiff of an exotic spice can easily send me off to places past, transforming me from here to where I’ve been. I literally lose track of what I am doing and will walk off to chase a scent down. Now that I live in Toronto, Canada, where multiculturalism has evolved to mind expanding lengths, I become easily impatient with our city politicians as they dither about what is acceptable street food offerings to Torontonians. Here’s a novel idea: Let anyone offer food on the street and let the general public decide what they want to eat. Make it easy to get a licenses, enforce strict health rules, and punish those that are unclean. That, however, would be too easy.
Female Cochineal Beetle and your Food
Interesting. Here’s an organic additive that creates deep and rich reds for your food or cosmetics. Ground up female cochineal beetles. I’ll be looking for these 5mm critters the next time I go shopping and begin reading packaging ingredients. ___Yes, the ingredient is called cochineal, carmine (carminic acid), or E120. Because beetles are insects it is not considered kosher, halal, or vegetarian. Some people can have allergic reactions to it, as was televised by “60 Minutes”. Yes, this kid almost died of anaphylactic shock. I’m always amazed at what is put into our food that we don’t know about. As usual, Canadian labeling laws do not give you any indication of its origins. While I do not have an aversion to eating bugs (they make a great supplemental protein source), I know most other people do. Cochineal can also be used as organic ant repellent. ___It is interesting that “60 Minutes” omitted to tell us of the long history of this dye and its stellar safety record. There was much sensationalism in the story, as if this was a new additive used by evil food manufacturers to poison us all. So much for unbiased reporting. |