"Have a Taste of Wuhan! Let These Mouth-Watering Specialties in Wuhan Satisfy Your Stomach"

Apparently a real (though now deleted) Tweet from the People's Daily—the official Chinese Communist Party paper—according to Newsweek (David Brennan):

As a foodie—and someone who loves Chinese food, including various subcuisines (such as Chinese Islamic)—I would be delighted to try some Wuhanese cuisine, of the right sort, in years to come. It's just that right now it seems less appetizing than I'm sure it one day will ….

Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.

Comments

[TwelveInchPianist]

"It's just that right now it seems less appetizing than I'm sure it one day will..."

Betcha it's cheap. Just make sure to ask where they sourced the bats and you'll be fine.

[Commenter_XY]

You mean the Wuhan coronavirus is not enough? We need more from Wuhan? Really?

I have had my fill of anything Wuhan-related.

[Darth Chocolate]

I've got a fever and the cure is more WUHAN!!

[librarian]

Some good news, China has banned the eating of dogs and cats. Surprising China would bend to western culture in such an abrupt move.

[Dr. Ed]

Yes, and they also banned the "wet markets" and public defecation in the streets.

A ban doesn't mean the banned practice ceases....

[librarian]

The latest report is that the "wet markets" are reopening

[Dr. Ed]

I'm really not surprised -- China is too corrupt for the leadership to really have any authority in that country. It is so bad that I wouldn't be surprised to see a revolution for that reason.

[librarian]

Is that before or after Great Awakening?

[Dr. Ed]

They are already burning cop cars -- that is in China...

[DWB]

The commies are now more advanced that San Francisco?

Interesting times indeed!

[santamonica811]

that SF will do what????

[Bob from Ohio]

One city only.

[librarian]

Well, it's a start.

[Bob from Ohio]

Its propaganda.

[AmosArch]

Good thing there is a decent chance this virus came from a lab and not a market after all.

[Darth Chocolate]

It might have been developed in a lab, and was introduced to a market by someone trying to make a buck. If the person who was supposed to destroy the lab animals instead sold them to a vendor in the market, there is the link.

Don't laugh. You would be surprised at what a low paid worker will try to get away with. When I was living there, a driver for the company was purchasing gas for other people using the company CC, and pocketing cash. He got away with a couple of thousand dollars, until he was caught. He was given the chance to work it off on the factory floor or have a conversation with the police.

[Dr. Ed]

"It might have been developed in a lab, and was introduced to a market by someone trying to make a buck. If the person who was supposed to destroy the lab animals instead sold them to a vendor in the market, there is the link."

They've already convicted at least one person of doing exactly this -- selling rats and monkeys that were supposed to be incinerated.

[David Bremer]

The reports I saw said that it does not appear to have been "developed" by a lab, but that there's reason to think it may have been found in a bat, kept in the lab, but then allowed to escape. At least then it's just incompetence, rather than maliciousness.

[Dr. Ed]

"At least then it’s just incompetence, rather than maliciousness."

At what point does this become a distinction without a difference?

In 1966, a USAF B-52 collided with a KC-135 tanker (Boeing 707) over the Spanish fishing village of Palomares, killing seven of the eleven crewmen involved. The B-52 was carrying four hydrogen bombs, one of which went into the Mediterranean Sea and three landed ashore in Palomares -- with the conventional explosive on two of them detonating on impact.

This was not a nuclear explosion (the plutonium sphere has to be compressed for that to happen) but it did spread the plutonium over a square mile area of Spanish territory -- mostly forest and tomato farms.

The USAF dug up the contaminated soil and transported it to South Carolina for disposal. For 50 years, we made reparation payments to Spain as well. And this was an accident.

[Behemoth the Cat]

"It might have been developed in a lab..."

Note that this does NOT mean it was developed in a lab by the henchman of a Bond-villain to be used as a bioweapon. Wuhan scientists may have been tinkering with viruses for the most worthy purpose -- to understand viral genes better so that they could prevent a repeat of SARS in 2003 -- but some way or another, the modified virus made its way to a wet-market.

[Dr. Ed]

Or they could have been tinkering with viruses for biological warfare purposes too. Sometimes it's a very fine line between the two, such as the circa-90's American research on Weaponized Anthrax so as to be able to protect American servicemen from foes believed to possess it (e.g. Iraq).

And sometimes scientists just want to tinker with deadly viri because that's what scientists do -- general research so that they can write journal articles about what they did ("publish or perish"), generally advance the status of human knowledge, and perhaps discover something that might be useful.

Without going too deep into the weeds, water is a bent molecule because of how the Hydrogens bond to the Oxygen. At one point, my brother was using MRI machines to see if he could bend the molecules and make them line up in a straight line -- just to see if he could do it. Now he wasn't working with dangerous microbes in a Level 4 containment lab, and there are issues about such labs, particularly in places such as China that don't have the multi-generational scientific culture to support them.

[Dr. Ed]

We're not even sure of the wet market -- that's just the CCP's official version of what happened. It's equally likely that Patient Zero was an employee of the Wuhan Institute of Virology who became infected and spread it person-to-person.

[AmosArch]

And whats so much better about eating bacon? Pigs are pretty smart, maybe even smarter than dogs or cats. While we're at it why do we torture insects and poison the environment with pesticides for our precious vegetables? Its really interesting how easily culture gives us such engrained blindspots.

[librarian]

Dogs and cats evolved to be human companions. Taking advantage of that fact and eating them is objectively wrong.

[AmosArch]

Have you seen some of the dogs they eat? These are animals who have been semiferal or raised for food for probably has long as anyone can remember not your neighbor's Fido. Most dogs throughout herstory have been semiferal scavengers loosely associated with communities. The myth of Rex being passed from generation to generation securely enscounced in a loving home is at best only applicable to a minority, I read it on the internet so it must be true.

[librarian]

" Fitness-related measures of sociality, demography, reproduction, space-use, activity patterns, and feeding ecology in feral dogs tend to support our original hypothesis: feral dogs are not reproductively self-sustaining, suffer from high rates of juvenile mortality, depend
indirectly upon humans for food, co-optable individuals, and space, and their demography
appears dominated by unpredictable mechanisms."
https://www.kora.ch/malme/05_library/5_1_publications/B/Boitani_&_Ciucci_1995_Comparative_social_ecology_of_feral_dogs_and_wolves.pdf

[Absaroka]

And that's different from chickens and cows because ....????

(also note: the most dog dependent society - the Inuit - have no qualms about eating dogs when needed)

[AmosArch]

And whats so much better about eating bacon? Pigs are pretty smart, maybe even smarter than dogs or cats. While we’re at it why do we torture insects and poison the environment with pesticides for our precious vegetables? Its really interesting how easily culture gives us such engrained blindspots.

[Darth Chocolate]

I lived in China for a year, and have made multiple trips (>30) for business since. My stays were anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 months. And we are not always talking somewhat westernized cities - these places were in the boondocks. I have been to Xingjiang (look up Dushanzi), Jilin (where the river does not freeze at -40 C; yes, you heard that right), Yulin (nearish to the Gobi Desert), Maoming, and many others.

Local Chinese "cuisine" is not for the weak of stomach or nose. Remember, these "delicacies" became delicacies because they had nothing else to eat. So you get bats, rats, donkey, crickets, and all sorts of stuff that is decidedly non-kosher.

I once saw a wet market, and while interesting, it was fairly disgusting. They will never close those down, as they are ingrained into the culture.

[Dr. Ed]

-40 C is -40 F -~~ at -30 I have dropped a lit wooden match into a can of gasoline and had it go out like it had been dropped in water. The second and third as well -- it took the fourth to ignite it.

River not freeze because it is moving, or because it is *that* badly polluted?

[Darth Chocolate]

Neither. There is a nuclear power plant up stream and they dump waste heat into the river. Water vapor from the river condenses and freezes on the trees. It is a tourist attraction - a feature, not a bug.

[Dr. Ed]

Reminds me of the Carnival de Quebec -- they have floats that are beachfronts with pools of water and hence (as this is February in Quebec) has to be heated. So you have girls in bikinis somewhat obscured by clouds of steam as the float comes down the street.

After the parade, they bring out the snow plows and road graders to clean up all the empty beer bottles. It was an experience...

[Bob from Ohio]

"They will never close those down"

Then we need to end all travel and trade with China.

[Jmaie]

If nothing else this post prompted me to look up "Chinese Islamic Cuisine" and I must say it looks good....

[Andrew Dhuey]

OFFICIAL PRC NUTRITION INFORMATION
Serving Size 1 full Wuhan meal (appetizer, entrée and dessert)
Calories 17
Total Fat 1g
Saturated Fat 0g
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 10mg
Total Carbohydrate 1g
Dietary Fiber 7g
Total Sugars 0g
Added Sugars 0g
Protein 1g
Vitamin D 550mcg
Calcium 980mg
Iron 1.6mg
Potassium 510mg

[scribe]

There's always bat soup.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7920573/Revolting-footage-shows-Chinese-woman-eating-bat-scientists-link-coronavirus-animal.html
Enjoy.

And when it comes to revolting, I recall stories about days on the farm back in the old country, where the fights were over who would get to eat the cockscombs. As in, who got stuck eating them, not the foodie pleasure of a rare treat.

[Sarcastr0]

Well, this thread is a helluva thing.

Fine OP. A pretty amusing 'way to read the room' observation.

And then...nothing but nationalist and racial rage about the Chinese, and also conspiracy theories about Covid-19.

And just about nothing else. Except, it seems scribe. He's just talking about weird food from around the world. Now that's a tone-appropriate diversion.

In Jamaica there's a fruit that's usually poisonous, but when properly prepared tastes and feels just like scrambled eggs. Seems like the risk/reward isn't there to me.

[Commenter_XY]

Ackee fruit.

[Sarcastr0]

Yep.

I'm afraid it might be the most exotic thing I've had; I don't travel too much.

You?

[Paladin_44]

Ackee, rice and fish are nice...
And the rum is fine any time of year.

[Eddy]

Road Kill Cafe Menu

https://www.cartalk.com/radio/letter/road-kill-cafe-menu