Roast Suckling Pig: the Main Dish of the Cornell Chinese New Year Dinner

In Feb 12, 2010, Cornell held the Chinese New Year Dinner. There are several dishes presented at the dinner, such as the dumplings, roasted duck, bbq pork, etc. But among all the dishes, the focus is the Roast Suckling Pig. Here is a picture of the whole pig. Is it a surprise to you?

Rutabaga: One of the Foods We Eat without Consciousness

We were introduced to many foods that are frequently made into familiar foods like fries, but the foods themselves seem quite unfamiliar to us. One of such foods introduced in class today was the rutabaga. Many of us showed great interest in it, and I guess you will be interested in it as well, especially if you have not even heard of it (just as I did)!
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Description - The rutabaga is very similar to the turnip except that it generally has yellowish flesh, a more dense root with more side shoots and they are usually harvested at a larger size. Unlike the turnip, the rutabaga has smooth, waxy leaves.
Culture - Requires the same growing conditions as the turnip--cool conditions for rapid growth and good quality. Planting should be done in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked. In the fall, multiple plantings can be made but should be stopped in order for the rutabaga root to form before extremely cold weather occurs. Rutabagas do better in the fall than in the spring due to the longer time they take to mature -- about 30 to 45 days longer than turnips.
Availability - Rutabagas can be found the year round in Texas, although they are not common in most retail outlets due to low demand. Locally grown rutabaga should be on the market from April through July and from October through December.
Selection - Mature rutabaga roots should be four to six inches in diameter and free of bruises and blemishes. Commercially grown roots are often waxed for storage purposes. Rutabagas are seldom sold with tops.
Storage - If stored between 32 to 35 degrees. F. and at a humidity near 90 percent rutabagas will keep for four to six months. Waxed roots will keep under refrigerator conditions for one to two months.
Nutrition Information - A 3-1/2 ounce cooked serving of rutabaga contains 144 calories, 35 percent of the RDA for vitamin C and only 18 milligrams of sodium.
Preparation - Wash and peel rutabagas as you would a potato.
Microwave Instructions - Wash, peel, and cube about two cups of rutabagas. Place in 1-quart casserole with two tablespoons water. Microwave on high for four to six minutes. Stir once.

Personal Food Writing: Tzung Tzu and the Stories behind It

People call me "Big O", where the "O" stands for not only my initial but also the word "omnivore". Indeed, I am a real food lover. I once flew 2000 miles from Dalian, my home city in northern China, to Guangzhou, a city in southern China that is famous for its local dishes. There I had five main dishes for dinner, and then I flew back home on the very same day. During the past few years, I have tasted a large variety of famous dishes all over the world. However, my favorite food is a quite ordinary traditional Chinese food, the Tzung Tzu.
Tzung Tzu is also called “rice dumpling”. It is a food that Chinese people would traditionally make and eat on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, commonly known as the Dragon Boat Festival. On the day, people put a bowl of sticky rice in the middle of a lotus leaf, wrap it into a tetrahedron, tie it up with cotton rope, boil it for half an hour, and then a traditional Tzung Tzu is well made. Tzung Tzu is traditionally made of sticky rice and lotus leaf, but nowadays, as people are getting too busy to make Tzung Tzu themselves, factory-produced Tzung Tzu with different flavors becomes available in grocery stores; some common ones are meat Tzung Tzu, jujube Tzung Tzu, and fruit Tzung Tzu. Despite the large variety of Tzung Tzu available now, my favorite kind is always the simplest traditional one with sticky rice and lotus leaf, because the stories behind it mean more to me than the food itself.
The origin of Tzung Tzu dates back to 400 B.C. when China was in the Warring States Period. The country split into seven independent kingdoms, one of which is the Kingdom of Chu. At the time, Chu was controlled by a corrupt aristocracy group who forced heavy tax on the people and embezzled the collected money for personal pleasure-seeking. Then, in around 350 B.C., a young man named Quyuan became the chancellor of Chu. A righteous person, Quyuan stood up against the aristocracies and implemented new laws which reduced the tax burden from the people and combated corruption. Quyuan’s efforts brought temporary prosperity to the Kingdom of Chu, but it did not last for long. Feeling threatened, the aristocracies joined up to put pressure on the monarch of Chu, and since the aristocracies’ forces were too strong, the monarch of Chu finally decided to exile Quyuan. On hearing the despair, Quyuan committed suicide plunge on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month in 340 B.C. The people of Chu were both mournful and indignant at Quyuan’s death. Most of them lacked basic food supply, but they each made a full bowl of rice, wrapped it up with the lotus leaf by the river that Quyuan plunged in, and threw it into the river. They believed this way the fish in the river would eat the rice and leave Quyuan’s body untouched. As time passed by, people repeated the same thing on the same day every year. Gradually, this became a tradition, which was passed down for over 2000 years until today, and the rice wrap evolved into Tzung Tzu, my favorite food.
Besides Quyuan’s story, another reason why Tzung Tzu is my favorite food is associated with a personal story of mine. It was when I was in the fifth grade, our school moved from the downtown of the city to a rural area because of fiscal deficit. As the new school year began, the headmaster asked me to speak at the opening ceremony as the student representative. Actually, I had been told what to say days before the ceremony, and all I had to do was to repeat the speech. On the day of the ceremony, however, standing on the platform in front of all the teachers and students of the school, I suddenly felt an obligation to tell my true thoughts. I hesitated for a while, and then, naïve as I was, I asked the headmaster whether she wanted me to tell the truth; maybe back then, I was still too young to realize that my question could only make the situation even worse since everyone would then know there was collusion beforehand. The result was predictable: the headmaster said yes, and so I told the public exactly what I felt about our current situation and how much I missed our previous campus. After the ceremony, the headmaster was rather irritated. She called my mother, told her about the whole story, and asked her to teach me “some basic philosophy of life”. My mother did so, but her lesson was special. She started the lesson with a homemade Tzung Tzu, and as we ate it, she told me the story of Quyuan, the one I just talked about, and she ended the lesson with the words: “After 2000 years, the names of the aristocracies have long been forgotten, but even today, people still make Tzung Tzu and talk about Quyuan. This is because over the long time of history, only the spirit of righteous people remains forever. What you have done today makes mom proud of you.” The storied took place over ten years ago, and so my quotation of my mother’s words may not be accurate, but since I’m such a food lover, one thing I remember for sure is that the Tzung Tzu she made that day was the traditional type. Ever since then, the traditional Tzung Tzu has become my favorite food.
2000 years have changed a lot of things. Tzung Tzu that was homemade 2000 years ago has become mass produced today; Tzung Tzu that was made for Quyuan 2000 years ago has become a food on people’s own table today. Despite these changes, I still keep making traditional Tzung Tzu on my own on the Dragon Boat Festival every year. However, My Tzung Tzu is made neither for Quyuan nor for myself; it is made for all the people in the world who devote themselves to justice, because I am sure that my favorite food is their favorite food as well.

Summary: The Omnivore's Dilemma Chapter 11&13

In these two chapters, the author talks about the Polyface Farm, a relatively small scaled farm that produces real organic food products. In chapter eleven, the author focuses on the farm itself. The Polyface Farm is characterized by “modeling a natural ecosystem in all its diversity and interdependence” (Pollan 215). The ecological interdependence on this farm allows the waste of one creature to nourish another creature. For example: the compost of the pigs feed the grasses, which might again feed the cows, and the cows’ manure feeds the insects, which then feeds the chickens, and so on. This process eliminates the use of chemical fertilizers or antibiotics, and so it achieves an efficiency which is not measured in monetary forms.
In chapter thirteen, the author focuses on the marketing of the Polyface Farm. The farm’s target consumers are those from the local area only. Some consumers drive to the farm to pick up the products, others are the chefs or owners of the local restaurants. The consumers are willing to buy the relatively expensive and inconvenient food from Polyface Farm since they believe the product is of higher quality, which is worth the price. The author says the Polyface Farm is a representative member of the artisanal economy, where the competitive strategy is based on selling something special. Though such a strategy can get the approval of some consumers, the author feels the least-cost producers in the industrial economy will ultimately prevail.

Personal opinions:
In chapter 13, the author expressed his anti-globalization point of view, and as he says himself: “why should a nation produce its own food when others can produce it more cheaply? A dozen reasons leap to mind, but most of them the Steven Blanks of the world – and they are legion – are quick to dismiss as sentimental” (Pollan 256), most of his reasons actually are not solid. For example, the second reason he gives, “the beauty of an agricultural landscape”, may be enjoyed and thus valued only by a small group of people. Unlike his previous solid arguments, such as the condemnation of the industrial food producers as violating the order of nature, the critiques about globalization are not persuasive to me. According to what I have learned from AEM2300: International Trade and Finance, I believe the globalization is doing the country as well as the people more good than harms. What do you think about globalization’s impact on food industry?

Oriental Food Recipe: Laughing Dates (For the Dinner on New Year's Eve)

The dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve is also known as the family reunion dinner. The Chinese New Year's Eve is extremely important for Chinese people, and so is the family reunion dinner.
The Chinese New Year of 2010 is coming up soon. At this time, I would like to introduce a traditional dish on the family reunion dinner: the laughing dates:



Ingredients: 150 grams of candied dates； 350 grams glutinous rice balls； 20 grams of rock sugar

1. Cut a small crack on the date, and then carefully put the small glutinous rice balls into the date through the crack;
2. Add water and the rock candy into the pot, then put the processed dates in and boil until the dates float;
3. It would be even better to put the dates into a refrigerator after the boiling, and sever after they are completely cooled off.

Pictures of some other family reunion dinner dishes:

Summary: The Omnivore's Dilemma Chapter 8-9

In these two chapters, the author talks about the organic food industry in the United States. As a principal alternative to the industrial food chain which is now prevail in the US, the organic food chain emphasis that “nature rather than the machine should supply the proper model for agriculture” (Pollan 131). The idea of “organic” is best exemplified by pastoral farms that raise diversified perennial species in a traditional way and target solely at the local market. However, most of the “organic food” people consume today is produced from the so-called “industrial organic” farms which, according to the author, belong firmly to the industrial food chain rather than the ideal organic food chain. The author gives three main reasons for the argument. First, the reality of “organic food” chain is largely inaccurately reported. For example, many literary critics focus their reports on some small and non-representative organic farms which follow the “organic ideal”, while making the public believe such is the reality of all the farms producing organic food. Second, the government (e.g. the USDA) sets weak standards on the definition of “organic”. For example, the USDA rules that dairy cows must have “access to pasture”, but such a standard is so vague that many organic farms only keep a tiny and nominal pasture in order to label their products as organic. Third, the organic food industry is dominated by large companies which are more cost-efficient than small farms. The reason is that large companies operate in industrialized ways such as raising large numbers of livestock or poultry in confined places, just as industrial food producers do. They label their product as organic as long as they meet the vague standards set up by the USDA, but such “industrial organic” food does not resemble what “organic” originally means.
Questions to consider:
1. Who is ultimately responsible for the degradation of the organic food chain? (Is it the large companies which have to industrialize their business facing the low demand for expensive “real organic food”? Is it the government which makes vague definition of “organic”? Or is it the consumers who are unwilling to pay higher price for the “real organic food”, which indirectly forced the large companies to industrialize their business?)
2. Though the industrialized organic food chain has deviated from the original idea of “organic”, it nevertheless provides a way to serve foods with higher quality than industry-produced-food to more people at lower prices than those produced by small farms. Should we at least give the large companies credit for that?