The Chinese and raw meats

[Kent Wang]

Does native Chinese culture incorporate any raw meats? The Japanese of course have sushi, but even the West has raw oysters, carpaccio and steak tartare.

Are raw meats becoming more accepted? I know that sushi is rather popular now, but how about the aforementioned Western raw dishes?

[hzrt8w]

Eating raw meat is considered barbaric in our culture.

But some people believes in eating raw snake gallbladder: actually need to slaughter a live snake and take his gallbladder out and eat it right away.

(Recent studies pointed out these lead to parasites in the body.)

[liuzhou]

Chinese people traditionally eat very few things raw. My mother-in-law is utterly baffled by the concept of salad.

Raw meat? Certainly not!

See here

Edited September 18, 2006 by liuzhou (log)

[Kent Wang]

I've seen a recipe in a Cantonese cook book for live drunken shrimp that seems fairly authentic. Live shrimp are drowned in rice wine for a few minutes until they appear intoxicated and are then eaten while still alive. Live is a lot more extreme than just raw!

[canucklehead]

that's a shanghainese thing - drunken prawn and druken conches - both live and raw (well dead - drowned in wine). I had that alot in Shanghai when I lived there.

[aprilmei]

In Beijing, there was recently an outbreak of meningitis - people were getting sick from eating raw snails, which were infected with a parasite.

[JasonZ]

I had understood that salad and raw vegetables were not consumed in China because of the traditional use of "night soil" (animal and/or human feces) as fertilizer, and thus the possibility of transmission of parasitic infections.

Re meats, I don't know if the tradition of "steak tartare" would have passed into Chinese gastronomy during the short period of Mongolian rule (Yuan dynasty, 1279-1356), but that seems the closest to "raw" that may appear in Chinese cuisine ...

[Kent Wang]

I also had a dish of "cured" crab, where raw crab is soaked in rice wine for several days. I believe the salt in the wine effectively cures the meat so that is it not technically raw. The texture of the meat is very unique, gooey. It's similar to raw the same way that smoked salmon is. Does anyone know more about this preparation? I believe it is a regional dish.

[gus_tatory]

I have this book at home (not with me): Swallowing Clouds: A Playful Journey Through Chinese Culture, Language, and Cuisine, and I am paraphrasing. But there is something towards the beginning about how (Chinese) Man was given the fire to cook food that represents civilization.

I'll look this up when I get home, but that book is excellent for anyone interested in Chinese cuisine, culture, lore, etc.

[Ben Hong]

The only animal protein/meat that I remember eating was yu sang, raw fish dish at a celebration. Of the twenty+ people at the party, only 3 others beside myself tried it.

[gus_tatory]

I have this book at home (not with me): Swallowing Clouds: A Playful Journey Through Chinese Culture, Language, and Cuisine, and I am paraphrasing. But there is something towards the beginning about how (Chinese) Man was given the fire to cook food that represents civilization.

I'll look this up when I get home, but that book is excellent for anyone interested in Chinese cuisine, culture, lore, etc.

←

okay, the quote is not as persuasive as i remember--he simply says in chapter one that Beijing Man was unquestionably the first to use fire, around 500,000 B.C.

[LuckysticksPRC]

I have this book at home (not with me): Swallowing Clouds: A Playful Journey Through Chinese Culture, Language, and Cuisine, and I am paraphrasing. But there is something towards the beginning about how (Chinese) Man was given the fire to cook food that represents civilization.

I'll look this up when I get home, but that book is excellent for anyone interested in Chinese cuisine, culture, lore, etc.

←

okay, the quote is not as persuasive as i remember--he simply says in chapter one that Beijing Man was unquestionably the first to use fire, around 500,000 B.C.

←

I'm living in China and studying Mandarin now, and in all cultural readings I've done regarding the history of Chinese cuisine, cooked (熟) food (and particularly that prepared in vessels) seems to be the primary difference between the barbaric and civilized times. Combine that with the current, um, preference for things non-Japanese (outside this biggest cities this much more common), and you don't have a very good environment for experimenting with raw foods.

The nightshade/soil thing certainly does keep me from eating salads too often, but I sometimes make them at home, and in doing so have successfully converted my girlfriend. But then again, I'm in Xi'an now where most people eat apples with the skins left on. Go figure.

[Ohba]

The Japanese of course have sushi, but even the West has raw oysters, carpaccio and steak tartare.

←

The Japanese have a lot more than sushi - there's quite a variety of raw meat on offer in restaurants and izakayas. Horsemeat, chicken, and beef are very common, and duck, lamb, wild boar, and others are also eaten. I don't know the full list, but as Japanese restaurant owners and food connoisseurs can be very adventurous, you can bet it will be long.