You run a kaolengmian (grilled cold noodles) stall, but it’s also kind of about food, work, family group chats, and just figuring life out. Just everyday stuff you hear if you hang around a street stall long enough. It’s my little tribute to the kind of quiet, messy, real life you see at street level in today’s China. Wishlist it on Steam if that sounds like your vibe!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3584920/_/

Seattle’s Pier 58 to host a taste of a Taiwan night market | The Seattle Times
Because of the runaway popularity of Taiwan-based chain Din Tai Fung, it’s a food that, for some, has become synonymous with Taiwan. “People think of xiǎo lóng bāo, they think of Taiwan. People think of Taiwan, they think of xiǎo lóng bāo,” 

When xiǎo lóng bāo becomes dish just for Taiwan? Isn't it Chinese dish found everywhere in China and overseas Chinese community?

I just feel sick everytime they'll twist whatever yummy Chinese food as "Taiwanese food". Sick.

China unveiled its first pork product enriched with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on Friday, signaling a structural shift in how the world's largest pork consumer manages public health and its livestock sector.

The launch coincides with a new national agricultural standard, effective May 1, which mandates that omega-3 levels in fortified pork must exceed 2 percent of total fatty acids.

This regulatory milestone aims to bridge the "nutrition gap" in a country where the average daily omega-3 intake is just 49 milligrams — less than 20 percent of the recommended daily allowance.

Wang Xiaohong, deputy head of the Institute of Food and Nutrition Development at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said Chinese people generally consume relatively high levels of dietary fat, but the composition of fatty acids remains unbalanced.

Omega-3 fatty acids play an important role in regulating blood lipids, protecting cardiovascular health, maintaining anti-inflammatory balance and supporting brain development, he said.

"Developing nutritionally fortified pork products could help improve public dietary health while boosting the value of China's pig industry," Wang said.

Ding Gangqiang, chief nutrition expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, emphasized the urgency of improving the fatty-acid structure of the national diet through optimized food sources.

Omega-3-enriched pork could provide an accessible way for consumers to increase their intake of beneficial polyunsaturated fatty acids, he said.

Wang Lixian, chief scientist of the pig genetic breeding innovation team at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said China's black pig industry is shifting from a focus on breed preservation and expansion toward improvements in quality and nutritional value.

"Nutritional enhancement will become a key competitive advantage," he said.

The pork market is currently experiencing a pronounced low-price cycle, with live hog and retail prices in many regions falling to recent lows. Developing higher-quality pork products could offer producers a new growth path and help avoid intense price competition, he added.

The omega-3-enriched pork is produced using the Taihu pig breed, which has been raised in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, for more than 7,000 years, according to developer Qinglian Food.

Local producers introduced mature omega-3-enhancing breeding techniques and developed specialized feed formulas. By incorporating natural ingredients such as flaxseed and other omega-3-rich materials into pigs' diets, the approach enables the natural deposition of omega-3 fatty acids in pork.

Pigs need balanced nutrition to produce healthier food for people, said Miao Yu, head of Qinglian's Taihu black pig brand.

The new standard specifies that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids should account for more than 2 percent of total fatty acids in fortified pork products.

The new standard provides a scientific guideline for the standardized and high-quality development of nutritional pork, Wang Xiaohong said, adding that it also sets requirements across the entire supply chain.

Okinawa is famous today for its pristine waters, gaudy Orion beer T-shirts, stone lions and dishes such as taco rice, but in centuries past it was better known as the centre of the independent Ryukyu Kingdom, which thrived as a maritime trade hub from 1429 to 1879.

Ryukyu was also a tributary state of the Chinese Ming and Qing dynasties. But despite these links to China, it remained a distinct entity with its own language until Japan annexed it in 1879.

“Even during Japan’s Sakoku isolationist period [during the Edo period, when the government drastically restricted foreign trade and the movement of people in and out of the country], Okinawa maintained trade and cultural exchange with other places,” says Yoshiko Iha, the owner of Shuri Tunda Dining, a restaurant dedicated to recreating the Ryukyu Kingdom’s court cuisine for the general public.

The restaurant, which is located in Naha, Okinawa’s biggest city, serves meals in ornate hexagonal Okinawan lacquer boxes called tundabun, which have separate compartments for each dish. Tunda (meaning “eastern road”) is said to be derived from the phrase “lord of the eastern road” in reference to the host.

This unlikely mash-up: Inner Mongolia’s creamy 奶皮子 (naipizi) wrapped around glossy candied is officially China’s hottest snack. Think chewy, milky, crunchy, sweet.

At the heart of the craze is 奶皮子 (naipizi), a traditional Mongolian dairy product made by slowly simmering fresh milk until a golden “skin” forms on top. Once a symbol of pastoral life on the grasslands, it’s now being reimagined in the most unexpected ways.

​Queues stretch five hours long. LELECHA turned it into a drink. Shanghai shops are charging ¥98 a stick. And the internet? Fully obsessed.

Source : https://www.instagram.com/p/DQt7QekiPFk/

https://pandayoo.com/post/chinas-vegetable-basket-program-how-a-nation-achieved-food-abundance/

Jiangxi stir-fry, which originated in Jiangxi, has recently gained wider attention in cities across China. One of its defining features is its old-school ordering style. Instead of ordering from a menu, customers choose directly from ingredients displayed in a fridge.

After customers select their ingredients, dishes are cooked immediately over high heat and served within minutes. Meals are typically priced at a few dozen yuan, with many diners describing it as affordable and filling.

Interestingly, much of the early attention came from migrant workers in regions such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, rather than from Jiangxi locals. In some cities, Jiangxi stir-fry restaurants have become more talked about than local specialties, despite often operating in small, inconspicuous locations.

For many young people living alone and working long hours, Jiangxi stir-fry offers a reliable option for a freshly cooked meal without the time or cost associated with cooking at home or dining at higher-priced chain restaurants. Its growing popularity reflects broader preferences for simple, transparent, and reasonably priced food in urban life.

Source : https://www.instagram.com/p/DTzS3dqjsEm/

During many years, coffee and bread were luxury items in Mexico, particularly during the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship. However, Chinese immigrants entered in low level jobs where they learned to make both items and with their ability to administer and manage supplies, decided, it didn't have to be a luxury item. They went straight to producers of flour and of coffee beans, and went to the working class neighborhoods to establish what is called here, "Cafés de Chinos" or Chinese coffee shops. What stood out was that, while the upper class had their portions measured by high end coffee shops, the Chinese would give you a huge glass (with a spoon in it to absorb the heat so it wouldn't crack) and with a very concentrated black coffee would allow clients to choose how much coffee they wanted as well as how much hot milk and sugar they wanted.

During the 1940s through the 1980s, late night dancing and movie theatres (cinemas) were becoming more and more popular in Mexico City. However, regular life stopped after dark. Tired and hungry dancers after leaving dance halls and showings had no options, except, one group that didn't seem to sleep. The Chinese coffee shops. Every single night during these four decades, these businesses were booming from night to early morning of young people who would drink coffee, eat bread, and continue socializing. Eventually, the business owners began making Mexican food for them as one "does not live on bread alone" and slowly introduced Chinese food to the menu as well (they were afraid to do so initially, because the Revolutionary Forces first declared Chinese food to be dangerous and unsanitary, though as during the years after the Revolution, this speech died out as people just wanted to return to normal life) which became a hit with the high school and college aged kids.

During the 1990s and 2000s as interests shifted to other things and more options (fast food chains, starbucks, etc) arrived to the country, the before mentioned crowd grew older, they continued to eat at Chinese coffee shops, though younger people did not. Slowly, these businesses stopped booming, and their menu items became more and more limited.

With the 2020 shutdowns (which technically lasted until 2023 in Mexico), savings were spent to keep owner families and the employees with something to spend and as 2024 rolled around and restrictions were finally fully lifted, these Chinese Coffee Shops, covered in dust, decaying and unmaintained, gave it one last go. Many shut down, some spent their last savings to try to get back on their feet (some did, but many failed), and the last Cafés de Chinos hold open a door to the past, a past in which, these places were so popular, they appeared in Mexican television and movies, a place to popular, if you ask anyone who grew up between the 1940s and 1980s, they will tell you what they always ordered there. A place where nostalgia still holds older Mexicans captive wishing they could go back and dance then end the night eating at a Chinese coffee shop.

The final photo in the series I uploaded is from a Café de Chinos that was booming. The owner is the grandchild of survivors of the Anti-Asian massacres of the 1910s-1940s in Mexico. From the 1940s until Covid-19, the place employed a full kitchen staff that rolled out Mexican and Chinese food all day, all afternoon, and all night as well as a full waiting staff. Jorge Chau still gets up every morning at 3am to bake bread and prepare his coffee grounds, however he no longer has a full staff, so he stopped making Chinese food, and has a few typical Mexican dishes, hamburgers, but he still pours coffee and milk for anyone who visits his shop. He is the owner, but now he is the only waiter and his daughter is the cook. Like the dying crowd of Chinese coffee shops, he sets out a clean glass with a spoon in it, and allows you to choose, how much coffee, milk, and sugar you want.

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