News from China....

You may have heard a news story a couple of weeks ago from China about a factory that was making steamed BBQ pork buns with cardboard filling instead of pork. The story was very graphic about how the factory was cutting up recycled cardboard, soaking it in a chemical to break down the glue, and then soaking it in pork broth to give it "flavor". The story made international news and totally grossed me out. The reportor said that the factory supplied "pork buns" to many restaurants and stores all over China. Note: you can buy frozen buns at the store and then steam them at home.

.....Now go back a few weeks.... Xiao Zhang has been making us "snacks" in the afternoon since Tucker arrived and Abi has been out of school. She has been introducing us to some local Chinese foods and a few times she made us....guess what???.....Steamed Pork Buns!!! These buns are pretty good, they are very filling, and they are not something that I could eat very often. ......A few days after we ate the steamed pork buns the news broke about the "cardboard buns".


.....Wednesday....XZhang makes steamed buns for us again.... I tried but I just could not eat them...all I could think about was cardboard and the dirty floor that the cardboard was sitting on at the factory. Later that night Tucker and I were looking in our freezer and guess what we found????....boxes and boxes of steamed buns. AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!

.......Today.... The Shanghai Daily announced that the story about the "cardboard buns" was false....it says that the TV reporter made up the story because he had a deadline. It said that investigators assigned to the case could not find any "illegalities" at any of the factories they visited. The reporter has been "sacked" (a direct quote) and the senior editors at the TV station were "punished" (another direct quote) for reporting a false story.

Tim read this article to me today while we were driving.....I said....a huh.....Surrrrre it was made up! When we got home I told Abi about the story......and......She said the same thing I did. I think we are becoming.....shall we say....skeptical?