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Faux Food

Having a title like "Shanghai Yummy" without discussing the topic of food would be in poor taste, so here's one to satiate your appetite. At left is a picture of an ad hoc food market on the side of a busy street. Grocery stores are for the bourgeoisie.

If you're a milk drinker, and you're used to buying a gallon jug of milk from the refrigerated section of the grocery store, you're in for a little bit of a surprise in China. Most of the milk sold here comes in vacuum sealed boxes, and has undergone UHT (Ultra Heat Treatment) so that it can sit in those boxes unrefrigerated for a few months. I imagine this makes the distribution of the product available to a wider range of outlets, but unfortunately, in my humble opinion, quality suffers. It's not that UHT milk is any better or worse nutritionally, to my knowledge, but it definitely tastes different. It's an adjustment that requires a little time. I've actually switched over to making milk from powder because I think it tastes about the same as UHT milk, and it keeps a lot longer than the liquid stuff in my not-so-cool fridge. I made this switch after having a gulp from a glass of white liquid and then saying, "Is this supposed to be milk?" But the USA definitely has the upper end of the world milk industry, as far as I'm concerned.

Now I've already gone over a little bit on the counterfeit clothes and fashion accessories one can find in the markets here. But what may surprise you is that even such items as candy and soft drinks have their imitators! You know those Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolate confections? Well, there's a Chinese knock-off that is wrapped in exactly the same way and has a very, very similar box, but of course tastes like those year-old chocolate bars that you used to have to sell for church fund-raisers. Coca-Cola? Oh yeah, plenty of fakes out there. My brother says his most memorable experience with Con-Cola tasted like "banana nut bread."

Speaking of unauthorized knock-offs, everyone seems to be in on this game. Check out this blatent knock-off of Risk, the board game. Apparently MPAA members are allowed to steal intelluctual property at will, but try watching a pirate DVD and they're all over you. 'Course now that we're moving into the new Era of Totalitarian Secret Police State, your neighbor will probably turn you in for it too... sometimes I wonder why the hell I'm going back to America when privacy seems to have about the same meaning here in Communist China.

Comments

I've had one of those fake Ferrero-Rocher candies! B. bought a box of them in NYC Chinatown by accident.

I knew that there was all sorts of pirated/knock off items in China, but never in my wildest dream would I have imagined that it went as far as food.

How bizzare.