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- Newsgroups: ne.food
- Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!paperboy.osf.org!paperboy!macrakis
- From: macrakis@osf.org (Stavros Macrakis)
- Subject: Re: Deceptive menu practices
- In-Reply-To: rhs@world.std.com's message of 16 Nov 92 16:24:21 GMT
- Message-ID: <MACRAKIS.92Nov18134054@lakatos.osf.org>
- Sender: news@osf.org (USENET News System)
- Organization: OSF Research Institute
- References: <BxtHKM.6Ao@world.std.com>
- Distribution: ne
- Date: 18 Nov 92 13:40:54
- Lines: 48
-
- In article <BxtHKM.6Ao@world.std.com> rhs@world.std.com (Richard H Schwartz) writes:
-
- ... They keep Kosher. That is usually not a problem in Chinese
- restaurants. I order Hot and Sour soup. They order Egg Drop. We
- either eat from the buffet, or we simply don't order pork and
- shellfish dishes, or anything with oyster sauce. On menu items
- we're not familiar with, we ask.
-
- As I understand the Kosher laws, it is pretty much impossible to eat
- Kosher in anything but an explicitly Kosher or vegetarian
- establishment, since there is a concept of ritual contamination which
- has nothing to do with secular standards of cleanliness. Also, you
- say your friend avoids pork and shellfish, but any other meat is
- likely to be non-kosher as well. And the cooking wine (used in many
- dishes) is presumably non-kosher. Alright, perhaps your friend has a
- more relaxed interpretation: avoid any noticeable amount of pork or
- shellfish.
-
- This is feasible, however it is unlikely that simply avoiding dishes
- with pork or shellfish in their names will succeed in this goal. In
- particular, the broth used for soups in Chinese restaurants is usually
- made with whatever meat scraps are handy: mostly chicken carcasses,
- but also pork bones. That's certainly the way I make Chinese soup
- base at home. Other possible problems: dried shrimp are a
- commonly-used flavoring, as is oyster sauce (even if it is not the
- major flavoring); lard is a possible cooking fat (although vegetable
- oil is cheaper and usually considered more healthful, lard tastes
- better in some cases).
-
- We... left feeling that this restaurant was ignoring the needs of
- many customers.
-
- Comments?
-
- There is a vegetarian Chinese restaurant in Boston's Chinatown. If
- they don't serve shellfish (do Chinese vegetarians consider shellfish
- to be meat or not?), you have some chance of a pretty-much Kosher
- Chinese meal there. There are also Kosher Chinese restaurants in New
- York. Apparently there are enough customers who care in New York, but
- not here.
-
- I think you are being grossly unfair to the restaurant. Kosherness is
- not part of the Chinese cooking culture, and as for me, I'd rather the
- cook stay faithful to his Chinese heritage than try to inform himself
- of the needs (or rather desires) of American vegetarians,
- kosher-keepers, health-nuts, etc.
-
- -s
-