Post #4846399 · Elektrine

2026-09-17 19:47 UTC

I had something similar. I was in this “eat healther class” and the person kept going on and on about how healthy China eats. So finally I’m like, yeah I lived there for almost a decade before coming back to America. It isn’t anything like you’re describing, so much shit is deep fried, re-served to the next customer, or dyed to look fresh when it’s not. Most foreigners get very sick the first few weeks in country because of the lack of enforced food regulations, like using “gutter oil” to save money. Yes, it’s exactly how it sounds, they skim off the floating oil in trash and sewers to reuse it, especially in street food to save money. But I’m wrong, because she has TicTok and had never met anyone who lived there.

Replies (2)

@timochka@lemmy.zip 2026-09-18 06:12

Ahh damn, if I could say I’d only once had the screaming shits over a filthy squat toilet in China, and then had the dawning horror of remembering it’s a bring-your-own-toilet-paper country, I’d be a happy man… Truly there’s nothing like going into your mind palace to Numbers-style work out all the variables like p(shitting-yourself-in-elevator), p(shitting-yourself-in-car), v(elevator-over-45-floors), v(didi-in-mental-traffic), d(to-an-acceptable-toilet)… I love the country dearly. But not for food hygiene or general cleanliness.

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@alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 2026-09-19 07:53

they skim off the floating oil in trash and sewers There is not a meaningful amount of oil in random sewers. Resturaunt grease traps are often located under sidewalks. It gets sold to companies that refine it for industrial uses, but some restaurants were buying that refined product for food. It makes absolutely no sense to put your grease into the grease trap, and then take it back out to reuse it when you could just not change your oil in the first place. There was a backlash, it probably doesn’t happen anymore. Chinese food is healthier than US food simply because there’s more veggies. As far as the other stuff goes, I haven’t seen situations where those would be possible, but I understand things were very different 10 years ago.

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