Chinese food storage habits

[GeauxLSU]

They sent them all here.

But we got a good price on 'em.

 

[Bear44]

Refrigeration has not been readily available to most Chinese until recently. Also remember that it wasn't that long ago that our ancestors would hang wild game for days without refrigeration so the meat would tenderize. Our digestive systems have become weak with the use of refrigeration.

Your relative probably doesn't even like watermelon if it's cold.

 

[Horsehat]

Refrigeration has not been readily available to most Chinese until recently. Also remember that it wasn't that long ago that our ancestors would hang wild game for days without refrigeration so the meat would tenderize. Our digestive systems have become weak with the use of refrigeration.

Your relative probably doesn't even like watermelon if it's cold.

Wealthy households had rabbit cups and pheasant cups to place under the hung game to catch any drippings while it “seasoned”

 

[41mag]

I know that most people from Germany, Italy, etc., will not drink stuff cold either. They like their beer, cola, milk, water and all at room temp. No ice, no chill.

 

[MRM]

What do you think is going to grow on that watermelon? I've been around people who are on both extremes.
I left my watermelon half out most of the day, but, I did eventually put it up.
Had I of left it out, all I would have done the next day would be to remove the outside edge.

 

[emptyMAGS]

Agreed. While I lived in Hawaii I stayed in a house owned by a Phillipino lady who grew up on an island with about 200 people on it.

She was a strange bird, and had some strange habits.

Was she hot tho?

 

[GeauxLSU]

What do you think is going to grow on that watermelon? I've been around people who are on both extremes.
I left my watermelon half out most of the day, but, I did eventually put it up.
Had I of left it out, all I would have done the next day would be to remove the outside edge.

My wife left one inside in the kitchen uncut. Apparently she left it too long. It never showed any signs of age, at all, but one day she came home from work and it had literally exploded. That was fun.

 

[Nuke And Juke]

so we have a relative straight outta China and she always stores extra food outside instead of the fridge, we have half a watermelon with just a paper towel over it in a bowl with water outside. Does anyone here know of a cultural reason for this? Our fridge will fit it without the bowl of water

This is Cultural. This is OG way to kepp the moisture of the watermelon. It's not an issue of using refrigeration or not. They were raised without refrigerators.

People have come to attack the use of "wet markets" but the truth is...it's better to buy a live chicken when you can see it walk and look at how it's raised (full feathers or not) and tell whether it is diseased by buying/picking one that clucks and walks. Americans are so used to buy meat that it is assumed the meat you buy is safe and the animal wasnt sick or pumped full of antibiotics.

While working in an Asian country, i wanted to BBQ some chicken wings. I went with a helper and asked them to get me 15 wings. They nearly had a heart attack. it's hard for them to sell a dead chicken, let alone 7 or 8 chickens waiting for the next buyer. Then they said wings come in pairs and they cant just chop off 1 wing and sell it to me. other people will think the chicken had a mutation.
Same with Baby Back ribs...told them i wanted 5 slabs...they didnt know what to do with all the hock and tenderloins.

An off topic aside, I had dinner with some of our colleagues from China (in January) they ordered orange juice with dinner. I asked if they drink a lot of OJ. The Sales Manager said , no. It’s too expensive for folks like them to drink regularly.

Again, this is basically supply and demand given the culture. The Chinese doesnt grow Oranges, Cherries, or Magoes the size of a softball. These are considered delicacies, as is Beef Steaks and real ben and jerry ice cream. so when they are here...it's what they want. And by the way...they dont want seafood because that's all they basically have access to over there...

 

[aFarewellToKings]

Every Chinese knows that in spite of the recent rise of communism, his culture goes back and has fundamentally remained intact for over 4,500 years. By contrast, US culture, if you can call it that..maybe 200 years or so.

Reminds me of a story from Gen. Robert L. Scott in "God is My Copilot".
He was telling about a Flying Tiger landing a badly shot up P-40 on the river, to keep from damaging or blocking the runway. He successfully landed gears up, and got out of the sinking plane. The Americans then spent several days trying to recover it (even a severly damaged was important to them, for spare parts if nothing else). They used rafts, and cranes, and everything they could think of, but couldn't get it unstuck from the mud. The whole time, the local Chinese they used as cooks, etc. kept offering to help. Finally, the Americans gave up, and told them to go ahead and try.

Scott then tells a story he learned later from the locals. Hundreds of years earlier, a village located by a lake heard that invaders were coming their way (Mongols, or some such). They know they would loot everything they found, especially the bell from the town's church. They took down the bell, put it on a raft, took it out to the middle of the lake, and sank it. They invaders showed up and took everything they wanted, and saw the bell in the lake, but couldn't figure out how to get it up. When the invaders eventual went away (decades later), the villagers went into the bamboo woods, cut logs that they could handle, swam them out on the lake and down to the bell, slipping them one at a time under the bell. Eventually, after many trips, the bell floated to the surface.

They did the same thing to the P-40. The Americans then put the gear down, and managed to roll it up the bank. That plane actually flew again.

I'm sure they feel the same about to Communists. Eventually, they will go away, and we will still be here.

 

[eightnsand]

Culturally, while eating in China it was acceptable to spit bones and gristle right the floor of restaurants. Overindulgence of some Rot gut whiskey with a picture of Mao on the bottle led to a hellacious watermelon seed spitting contest. Gracious peoples. **** geo politics.