There is a wide variety of Chinese food that you might be interested in cooking, but before you start mastering how to prepare this Chinese food, there are a few basics you should learn. Every recipe changes, but there are some ingredients you will see more often than others and some techniques you must know to use. There are also special kitchen utensils, the question of which you should purchase.

Steps

Part 1

Buy lots of rice and noodles. Rice is definitely one of the key ingredients in Chinese cuisine, so you need to have plenty of it on hand when you want to prepare a meal. There are also some varieties of noodles commonly used in Chinese cooking. These noodles are usually rice based.

Use the correct vegetable oil. Many of the cooking methods used in preparing Chinese food require special vegetable oil. You need to make sure that the oil you choose can withstand the heat that you plan to use in cooking. Also keep in mind that some oils have a stronger flavor than others.

Check out common sauces and liquid condiments. As you cook more Chinese food, you will likely be working with a range of sauces, pastes, and other liquid seasoning ingredients. Soy sauce is one ingredient that even novice chefs will recognize, but there are a few more to be aware of as well.

• Soy sauce is used in marinades and sauces, and some even use it as a condiment. It has a salty, zesty taste and the best varieties taste fresh. Look for brands that are naturally brewed.
• Dark soy sauce takes longer to ferment than standard soy sauce and, as a result, tastes sweeter, less salty.
• Tamari is similar to soy sauce in that it is made with a lot of soybeans. It is thicker and has a smoother, more complex flavor. You can also get a gluten-free version if your dietary needs call for it.
• Rice vinegar has a light color and a very mild taste. It is used to provide acidity in Chinese cooking, but its acid content is often lower than American vinegars. Chinese black vinegar, on the other hand, is similar to balsamic vinegar and has a richer flavor.
• Fish and oyster sauces are made from seafood extracts and various spices. They can have a sweet, even savory taste and are usually added to seafood and vegetable dishes.
• Chili sauce is a quick way to add more spice and flavor to a dish, but the amounts you use should vary depending on how much spice you want the final dish to taste.
• Hoisin Sauce is another sauce with a sweet, smoky flavor. You will typically use this pasty sauce in stir-fry or with ribs.
• Rice wine adds a little more variety to the flavor of sauces and marinades. It is more common in Japanese cooking than in Chinese, but there are a few Chinese recipes that require a little rice wine. If you don't have it and can't find it at your local grocery store, you should replace it with dry sherry.

1. Store dry seasonings as well. Dried herbs and spices are not as important as they end up making liquid seasonings, but there are a few that you will use frequently in your dishes, so you need to know about them ahead of time.

   Know what fruits and vegetables to include. While some of the foods you find in Chinese cuisine may sound familiar, others may be a new area for you. Use fresh fruits and vegetables whenever possible and buy high quality canned food when it is impossible.

   Use suitable protein sources. Eggs are a common source of protein in Chinese cuisine. Tofu is another popular choice. However, it should be noted that Chinese food can include large amounts of meat, poultry, and seafood.

   Part 2

   Bring special cooking utensils

   1. Take a wok. A wok is a specific type of bowl-shaped pot used to cook food on the stove. With its high sides and sturdy base, it is suitable for most cooking methods that involve hot oil or other hot liquids. The shape itself is designed to distribute heat evenly.

      Practice using culinary sticks. Chopsticks are an essential food tool if you want to eat Chinese food in a traditional manner, but they are also great cooking utensils. Make sure to use made-for-food chopsticks, as they are generally longer and can be tied at the end with a strip to make it easier to hold them together.

      • Use chopsticks when you need to turn and pick up fried foods, mix fried foods, or stir soups.
      • Although, if you don't have chopsticks, you could perform the same tasks with a standard set of tongs, mixing with a spoon or spatula, depending on the task at hand.

   2. Use a cleaver. A Chinese cleaver is essentially a large knife that you use to cut vegetables and meat. It has a heavy, smooth blade and is very sharp, making it capable of slicing even the toughest vegetables.

   3. Invest in a rice cooker. While a rice cooker is not absolutely essential, owning one will certainly make your life easier if you plan to cook Chinese food frequently. These devices come in many sizes, so make sure you choose it based on the number of people you tend to end up serving food to when you cook.

      • However, if you don't have a rice cooker, you can cook rice on the stovetop with a standard pot with a lid. Thus, it can be more difficult to cook the rice evenly, but it is certainly doable.

   4. Learn how to use a steamer. If you plan on steaming a lot of Chinese food, invest in a traditional bamboo steamer. These steamers come in stackable layers so you can cook up to four or five dishes at once. Dishes that require a longer cooking time are placed on the bottom layer, while those that are quickly cooked are placed on a higher level.

      • You can use other types of steamers if you don't have a bamboo steamer. A standard metal steamer will work well. As a last resort, you can also place a fine mesh strainer inside a saucepan with a little boiling water and a lid.

   Part 3

   Practice Key Cooking Techniques

   1. Master the art of frying. This is the most important cooking technique you should know, so learn it as thoroughly as possible. You will heat some oil in a wok or similar saucepan and quickly cook food over high heat.

      • You will usually need to chop or chop your food into small pieces. Small pieces cook faster and more evenly, which makes them suitable for this technique.
      • The oil is added to the preheated wok. The aromatic ingredients prepared thereafter, followed by the main ingredients. Add the sauce and spices just before the meat is browned, then remove the meat and cook any vegetables.

   2. Check out other forms of frying. Even though frying is a culinary technique most often associated with Chinese food, if you want to master Chinese cuisine, you should also learn a few other methods of frying.

      • Quick fry is similar to standard fry, but you use the main sauce to cook the ingredients instead of the vegetable oil.
      • Fast frying is also similar to frying, but you use even more heat to cook food almost instantly. The meat is usually covered with egg and starch to keep the juices in.
      • Deep-frying is done in a heavy-bottomed saucepan with a lot of oil. This oil must be kept close to the smoke point throughout the entire cooking process, and food must be dry when immersed in the oil. Food should also be cooked in small portions at a time and completely immersed in the oil.
      • Paper-wrapped deep fat is similar to standard deep fat, but small pieces of fish or meat are wrapped in cellophane before being dipped in hot oil.
      • Pan frying or shallow frying is done with a little oil and over low heat.

   3. Know how to cook and stew. There are several different cooking methods used in Chinese cuisine, which include several forms of boiling or simmering.

      • Stews are fairly common, but most Chinese stews only have meat instead of meat and vegetables. Traditionally, these stews would be cooked in an earthen pot over low charcoal fires, resulting in a thick stew that is almost like jelly (in terms of softness).
      • You can blanch or simmer. During this process, food is quickly cooked in boiling water or boiling broth. Blanch food only in liquid for a few brief moments when cooked food is cooked until tender.
      • The boiled food is cooked in boiling water, as you would expect. The constituents of the boil include several different ingredients when boiled together.
      • Marinating is the most important thing to know. Standard pickling is used for fruits and vegetables in Chinese cuisine, and involves soaking these ingredients in wine, soy sauce, vinegar, and various condiments. Wine soaking is a specific type of pickling that uses some form of wine.
      • Dry marinating is usually done with meat. Dry spices and seasonings are rubbed onto ingredients and allowed to soak before cooking.
      • Puree marinating is a special type of marinating that involves placing the ingredients in a fermented puree made from grains left over from the winemaking process.
      • Beating - refers to the process of beating meat with the flat side of a cleaver or the end of a cleaver. This softens the meat before cooking.

Amazing food related things. Meat and eggs, it turns out, can also be a Chinese fake. And already in China itself, it is recognized that not all of their products are equally useful, even for trained athletes.

Dr. Zhou has a mission of national importance. She is figuring out which foods are harmless for the PRC national team, which is due to travel to the London Olympics.

“We have already banned them from eating in our restaurants, where the dishes have such additives that it would be simply impossible to pass a drug test in London,” says doctor Zhou He.

One of them is clenbuterol. In small quantities, it is an asthma medicine. But in China, it is also added in huge doses to cattle feed - for weight gain. Following the food chain, it accumulates in the human body, causing not only muscle growth, but also pressure surges and even a failure of the immune system.

"If an athlete eats on the side, he has to report what and where he ate. You will be surprised, but we will check the restaurant. The reputation of our entire sport depends on this," says Zhou He, a doctor.

At the previous Games in Beijing, doubts were already expressed that some Chinese athletes honestly earned gold medals. Especially when weightlifter Liu Chunhong added to the record of Russian Oksana Slivenko not two or five, but all ten kilograms at once. The results of Chinese women in diving competitions were also called unreal. Skeptics hinted - they say, either the doping tests are not up to par, or the Chinese eat something that turns them into superheroes.

"In London, we want to win everyone again. Maybe our athletes are better off not using other products whose quality leaves much to be desired?" - notes nutritionist Ma Zhongren.

Chinese television footage amazed the entire country: watermelons began to explode in China, like landmines in the fields. It turned out that it was all about the new fertilizers.

"I only had low-quality products. But we also have counterfeit products in China. In terms of quality, they are much worse," says farmer Li Kexin.

The pinnacle of the PRC's grocery know-how is expensive marbled beef. It is made from cheap pork using a special paste with the addition of the same clenbuterol. There are also rice made from potatoes and polymer resins, fake eggs made from gelatin, benzoic acid, paraffin and gypsum powder. Even in restaurants, counterfeits are not always noticed.

"I myself prefer to buy imported eggs. It's more reliable. But the labels in the store can also be re-glued. In general, there is no guarantee," says chef Zheng Tao.

It is not easy to distinguish artificial eggs from natural ones. But you can. Firstly, the shell is a little rough to the touch and sometimes shiny. But the main thing is the white and yolk. After a while, they form a homogeneous mass, since they are made of the same material. But you can only understand this when you break a fake egg.

In China, of course, they root for their national team. But this time, concern for the health of the Olympians caused outrage. "Here we are - amateur footballers. What is this? We are now second-class people, and no one forbids us to eat suspicious food?" - says amateur footballer Bian Shichun.

According to the Chinese, the authorities are not tightening control over the quality of food simply because they fear food shortages. To feed one and a half billion people, and even qualitatively - not a single catering in the world has yet undertaken such a task.

It has long ceased to be exotic, and is popular with gourmets all over the world. You do not have to visit a restaurant to eat Chinese food, the recipes with photos suggested in this article will help you easily cook it at home. Dishes prepared according to traditional recipes can be served both for family gatherings and on holidays to guests.

Chinese food: noodle recipe

The inhabitants of the Celestial Empire are very fond of rice flour or flour mixture of soybeans and green beans. Cooking such noodles is a long and laborious process.

You only need 2 ingredients: half a glass of water and 250 grams of any flour - rice or soy. You need to knead a tough dough, which then chill well. Next, the dough is rolled out very thinly, you need to pull it, toss it up, fold it in half when it reaches its maximum length. You need to continue such manipulations until you get a lot of thin, long threads from the dough, folded in half over and over again - this is the noodles.

This is such a difficult Chinese food to prepare! The recipe is simple, but it takes a lot of time and effort. Today, it is easier to buy noodles in a store than to bother like that, but they are so inexpensive.

Chinese rice with egg and onion

There are a lot of rice recipes in Chinese food! If you are a rice lover, try a new way to cook it. The Chinese know a lot about cooking this cereal, because it is the basis of Chinese cuisine. Let's take the simplest ingredients that every housewife has in stock. Such a side dish will be perfectly combined with both meat and fish.

To cook rice you will need:

• half a cup of rice;
• 250 ml of water;
• onion head;
• a small bunch (about 50 grams) of green onions;
• one egg;
• a tablespoon of sunflower oil and soy sauce;
• a third of a teaspoon of salt.

This small food set will make 2 servings of delicious traditional Chinese food. See the recipe for step-by-step cooking below.

How to cook Chinese rice

1. Pre-boil water in the amount indicated above.
2. Place the rice in boiling water, add salt and cover.
3. From the moment it boils, you need to cook the rice for 15 minutes. During this time, you cannot stir the cereals and open the lid.
4. If after 15 minutes the water has not completely boiled away, then you need to evaporate it: open the lid and turn on the gas to maximum power, stir the cereal, otherwise it will burn.
5. Transfer the rice to a wide dish to cool slightly.
6. Peel the onion, chop into small cubes, fry in sunflower oil for three minutes.
7. Put the rice with the onion in a pan, fry everything together for a couple of minutes.
8. Break the egg into a bowl, beat a little, then pour over the rice and onions, stir, fry everything together until the egg is done.
9. Next, you need to turn off the heat, put the rice in a deep dish. Then pour in the soy sauce, put the chopped green onions, mix.

That's it, the dish can be laid out on plates. The Chinese food recipes we offer are versatile. It can be served as a separate dish or added with meat ingredients. The same applies to all meat dishes described below. They can be served with or without any side dish.

Sweet and sour meat

We propose to consider the preparation of delicious meat according to this recipe. Chinese food is notable for the fact that the taste is difficult to guess; it is sour, sweet, salty and spicy at the same time - true gourmets will appreciate it!

To cook meat in Chinese you will need:

• 400 grams of any meat, but it is better to take beef or boneless chicken;
• two chicken eggs;
• half a glass of flour;
• half a glass of sunflower oil;
• three tablespoons of soy sauce;
• some salt;
• a teaspoon of sugar and the same amount of dried paprika or Korean carrot seasoning.

The dish will appeal to everyone who does not like onions in any form!

How to cook sweet and sour meat

Such a dish should be started "yesterday". That is, in order to serve it on the table tomorrow, we start preparing today, since the meat must be marinated for a day, so that in the end it turns out tender and soft.

1. The meat must be cut into thin, long pieces, rinsed, then placed on a paper towel to remove the moisture.
2. Combine the meat with seasonings, sugar and salt, soy sauce, a spoonful of sunflower oil. Cover the dish with a lid or wrap with cling film, put in the refrigerator to marinate for a day.

The next day, you can start preparing the dish itself.

1. Make a batter with two eggs and half a glass of flour. If it turns out to be thick, then you can dilute with milk, water or mayonnaise.
2. Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan or deep fryer, the amount of which should be such that the pieces of meat are completely immersed in it.
3. Mix meat with batter, or dip each separately, fry until red.

Such meat - The recipe at home can be modified, for example, remove sugar from the ingredients, because not everyone loves the sweet taste in meat dishes. As a result, the meat will be aromatic, with a slight sourness, tender and very tasty. The main thing is to marinate for at least 24 hours in soy sauce.

Pork with sweet and sour sauce

Can you cook authentic Chinese restaurant food at home? The recipe offered here is spied on the chefs of Chinese restaurants; this is a traditional dish that is very popular among the people of the Middle Kingdom.

To cook meat you will need:

• 0.6 kg pork tenderloin without lard;
• a third of a glass of soy sauce;
• large carrots;
• 4 tablespoons of starch;
• a teaspoon of sesame seeds;
• two teaspoons of chopped parsley (you can take both fresh and dried);
• a glass of vegetable oil.

Ingredients for Sweet and Sour Sauce:

• half a glass of water;
• two tablespoons of sunflower oil;
• three tablespoons of 9% vinegar;
• 4 tablespoons of sugar, two - tomato paste (not ketchup, but thick paste);
• half a teaspoon of sesame oil.

There are no supernatural foods on the list, everything is simple and affordable. The preparation itself is also easy, everyone can handle it, even those who have never cooked Chinese food. We will describe the recipe step by step, so you will not get confused.

Cooking Chinese Pork

1. The meat needs to be frozen so that it can be easily cut into thin slices. Chop, fill with soy sauce and remove to marinate for 20 minutes in the refrigerator.
2. Next, add the starch, mix well to envelop each piece.
3. In a deep fryer or in a deep frying pan, you need to heat up the sunflower oil, fry the pieces on both sides in it for about three minutes to form a golden brown crust.
4. Using a slotted spoon, remove the meat from the butter, place it at a distance from each other on a paper towel so that all excess fat is absorbed into it.
5. Carrots should be grated for Korean carrots, or cut into thin, long strips, mixed with parsley.

1. Put sugar and tomato paste in a saucepan, turn on low heat, stirring, fry until sugar dissolves.
2. Then add water and vinegar, simmer for a couple of minutes.
3. Next, you need to add 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil, you can take what is left in the deep fryer after frying the meat.
4. Place the meat in the sauce, then the carrots and parsley, mix well, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the meat when serving.

Rice prepared according to the recipe in this article is suitable as a side dish. You can just boil rice, cook mashed potatoes, noodles (even Chinese, even ordinary), or any other side dish.

Chinese Sweet and Sour Meat

There are many recipes for making sweet and sour sauces for meat in China, and this allows you to choose more preferable for every lover of exotic food. We offer you to consider a very tasty option for cooking meat of traditional Chinese cuisine.

For 4 servings you will need:

• a pound of pork with a small layer of bacon (if you do not like bacon, then take without it);
• 200 grams of pineapple;
• onion head;
• carrot;
• bell pepper;
• a tablespoon of starch, the same amount of flour;
• half a glass of soy sauce;
• some salt.

For the sauce:

• 4 tablespoons tomato paste;
• two tablespoons of sugar and table vinegar (9%).

Cooking sweet and sour meat

1. We wash the meat, cut into wide, thin slices;
2. Soy sauce should be mixed with starch and flour, salt, pour over the meat, put in the refrigerator to marinate for half an hour.
3. Chop carrots, onions, fry until golden brown, then add pineapple and bell pepper, cut into cubes.
4. Fry the meat in a little oil on both sides. When the second side is browned, pour in a mixture of tomato paste with vinegar and sugar, simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Next, pour in the sauce in which the meat was marinated, lay out the fried vegetables, salt, if thick, add a little water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

The best side dish for such meat is simple boiled rice. You can also serve meat without a side dish, because it contains a lot of vegetables.

Chicken in Chinese sauce

This is also a dish from the menu of a Chinese restaurant. Chicken is easy to prepare, all ingredients are available. As a result, the dish turns out to be very tasty and aromatic, will not leave anyone indifferent!

Products for cooking:

• 400 grams of chicken breasts;
• two bell peppers;
• two cloves of garlic;
• two tablespoons each of soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and sunflower oil;
• three tablespoons of water;
• a teaspoon of starch, half - salt;
• a tablespoon of sugar;
• parsley and sesame seeds taste.

How to cook Chinese chicken

1. The first step is to properly cut the breasts - in thin strips and only along the fibers;
2. Heat sunflower oil in a frying pan, fry the pieces on both sides until white.
3. In the same pan, you need to fry the bell pepper cut into strips. Ideally, if the top of the pepper is soft and the inside remains elastic, check with a fork.
4. Now prepare the sauce by mixing sugar, salt, starch, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and water.
5. Transfer the meat to a frying pan with pepper, pour over the sauce and simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, until the liquid thickens.
6. When serving, the chicken should be sprinkled with sesame seeds and parsley.

Rice or Chinese noodles are ideal as a side dish.

In this article, we have suggested popular ways to prepare Chinese food at home. Recipes with photos will help you cook these wonderful dishes correctly and very tasty. Bon Appetit!

A resident of the Oktyabrsky village bought a dozen eggs in Kungur. It turned out, in an effort to save money, he bought a fake chicken egg made from chemicals. “Such surrogate products are prohibited for sale. But the fake eggs, having flooded Siberia, have successfully reached our edges, - reports the newspaper "Vperyod". - The secret is simple: their production is very cheap, and the shelf life is almost unlimited. A fake egg costs less than 0.1 yuan ($ 0.016), while a real egg costs about 0.5 yuan. "

Fake chicken eggs that look very similar to the original ones. The nutritional value of fake eggs is practically zero, moreover, they contain substances that can damage health with prolonged use (for example, potassium alum).

Chemical composition: The shell consists of a mixture of calcium carbonate, paraffin wax and gypsum. Calcium alginate, gelatin, pigments are used for yolk and protein.

Although outwardly distinguishing such eggs is almost impossible, there are a number of ways to recognize them.

The shell is slightly more shiny and rougher. But the differences are quite insignificant, so it is not easy to identify an artificial egg by its appearance. Otherwise, there are practically no differences, there is even an air membrane in its lower part.

If the yolk is broken, then in appearance it is indistinguishable from the real one.

If you boil a fake egg "hard-boiled", then peel it and put it in the refrigerator for 4-8 hours, then the "yolk" does not turn blue, as is the case with a real egg, it becomes elastic, and does not crumble, and the "protein" acquires a yellowish color. The structure of the "protein" is heterogeneous, the protein can fall apart.

After a while, the white and yolk of a broken artificial egg form a homogeneous mass, since they are made of the same material.

Doctors say that long-term consumption of such eggs can lead to excitement of the nervous system, excessive mobility in children and a slowdown in their mental development.

China is famous for many things, including fake goods. From clothes and bags to electronics - even entire fake cities - China has it all. But some "artisans" went further and began to counterfeit food ...

Plastic rice

At first glance, rice cannot be counterfeited, but the resourceful Chinese were able to do it. Fake Chinese rice is also called plastic rice. Made from sweet potatoes and synthetic resin, it looks a lot like real rice.

Artificial rice is commonly sold in Chinese markets in Taiyuan City, Shaanxi Province. This rice is difficult to digest and remains as hard as stone even after being cooked. It should not be eaten. Eating three bowls of this rice is like eating a vinyl bag or a plastic bag.

In addition to producing artificial rice, dishonest Chinese sellers add flavorings to regular rice and sell it under the guise of the more expensive Wuchang rice, one of the best brands of rice in the Chinese markets. Only 800 thousand tons of Wuchang rice are produced annually, and 10 million tons are sold. In other words, 9 million tons of rice is fake

Rat lamb

When dishonest sellers don't counterfeit rice, they add chemicals to rat, mink and fox meat and sell it as mutton. The scheme was so popular and successful that the police arrested 900 people in just three months and seized 20,000 tons of this meat. Wei, one of the sellers of this kind of meat, made more than a million pounds on his own. He mixed fox, rat and mink meat with nitrates, gelatin and carmine before selling it on the market to unsuspecting buyers.

The Chinese police have published instructions on how to distinguish real from fake mutton on the largest microbiology website. Differences are difficult to notice at first glance. The white and red parts of real lamb do not separate after the meat is thawed or cooked, but they separate in fake meat

Tofu from chemicals

Also called bean curd, tofu is a cheese made from a mixture of soy milk and a coagulant.

Chinese authorities recently closed two factories in Wuhan, Hebei province for selling counterfeit tofu, which was made by mixing different chemicals. One worker admitted that they mixed soy protein with flour, monosodium glutamate, dye and ice, and then packaged it so that it was not just as close to the real thing as possible, but also outwardly resembled the popular Qianye brand. This is how the plant solved the sales problem from the very beginning.

Fake tofu was widely sold in Chinese markets. Since the counterfeit was sold cheaply, it soon overshadowed the original brand. Deanfa Food Company noticed a drop in sales and sounded the alarm. After the fake manufacturers were caught, it was revealed that they had applied the original laser code to the packaging using equipment worth $ 1.2 million. Using soy protein isn't the most dastardly thing to do, and not all schemes are so innocent.

Another fake tofu gang added rongalite and a cancer-causing industrial bleach to it. The chemical bleached the tofu and made it thicker. This gang, led by three cousins, sold 100 tons of the poisoned product. During a raid on their factory, the police found unsold goods and dirty equipment on which they were produced.

Formaldehyde and duck blood

Duck blood tofu is a delicacy in China. It is made from the blood of slaughtered ducks. The blood is heated until it thickens, then it is cut into cubes and sold. It’s strange, but then more: Vendors mixed deadly ingredients such as formaldehyde with cheaper pig or cow blood, then sold this mixture as duck blood.

The Chinese authorities found the one who counterfeits duck blood, this time it was a couple in Jiangsu province. Only in this case, the spouses did not use the blood of a pig or cow. Instead, they used chicken blood mixed with inedible paint and materials used in printing. The police confiscated one ton of fake duck blood from them.

The use of fake duck blood for tofu is so widespread in China that people have learned to recognize a counterfeit from a natural product by its appearance and smell.

Fake honey

There are two types of fake honey: diluted natural honey with sugar, beetroot or rice syrup, and honey that looks more like natural honey than natural honey itself. It is made from a mixture of water, sugar, alum, and dye.

It costs only 10 yuan to produce one kilogram of counterfeit honey at a selling price of 60 yuan. Seventy percent of the honey sold in China's Jinan province is counterfeit. As usual, Chinese newspapers write about how to distinguish natural honey from fake.

The police searched several clandestine producers and seized 38 buckets of honey. China is the world's largest exporter of honey. Research has shown that 10% of honey sold in France is counterfeit and most likely brought from Eastern Europe or China. US Customs caught smugglers trying to smuggle counterfeit honey into the US from China via Australia.

Dirty bottled water

Selling fake honey is one thing, but selling dirty drinking water is completely different. Police recently found scammers filling plastic bottles with tap or poorly treated water and sealing them on equipment used by popular brands.

They also pasted their labels and quality marks on the bottles. Among other things, E. coli and a harmful fungus were found in the bottles. There are 100 million fake water bottles sold annually in China, valued at $ 120 million. By comparison, Beijing produces 200 million bottles (genuine and counterfeit) annually.

The bottled water scam is not new and has been going on since 2002. The cost of such water is three yuan, and it is sold for ten yuan. It costs six yuan to produce normal bottled water

Rotten rice noodles

Fake Chinese rice noodles were made from rotten, stale, and moldy grains commonly used as animal feed. Then, to obtain the final product, it is mixed with carcinogenic additives such as sulfur dioxide.

And this is not one person - 50 factories operated according to such a scheme in Dongguan city. They produced 50 tons of counterfeit rice noodles a day. Inspection of 35 other factories revealed that 30 of them produced substandard rice noodles. Manufacturers bleached spoiled rice and mixed it with additives to get triple the volume of rice noodles.

Along with using stale rice, some growers use flour, starch, and corn powder. These noodles have a very low protein content - only 1% compared to 7% for pure rice noodles and 4.5% for mixed rice noodles. Some pigs who were fed fake rice noodles experienced limb weakness and other problems.

Clenbuterol Poisoned Pork

Clenbuterol or "lean meat powder" is an additive to animal feed. It burns fat in animals, but can cause nausea, heart problems, sweating, and dizziness in humans. Its use in animal feed began in the 1980s and was banned in 2002 due to health hazards. However, some meat processing companies still give it to their pigs, as it makes their pigs slimmer, and they get more money for these pigs.

Worse, it caught Henan Shuanghui, the largest player in the meat market in China. The company issued an official apology for this act and withdrew 2,000 tons of pork from the market. Twenty-four of the company's employees were fired or suspended.

In an attempt to minimize the company's losses, it suspended the sale of the shares so that the scandal would not affect their price. The China Meat Association also tried to play down the incident so as not to harm the Chinese meat market. Between 1998-2007, 18 cases of clenbuterol use were recorded in China, one person died and 1,700 people were poisoned.

Fake wine

Counterfeit and counterfeit wines are a big problem in China. China Central Television (CTV) reported that half of all wines sold in China are counterfeit. Winemakers say 90% of the premium wines sold in China are counterfeit. To counter the sale of counterfeit wines, a wine authentication center has been set up in Guangdong province. Winemakers have teamed up with the government and released an app to track wine bottles and boxes in order to determine their authenticity.

The scam is simple: the original name, label and design from expensive wine bottles were used in the fake, but the logo and name were slightly changed to differ from the original. Other con men used empty bottles of expensive wines, filling them with cheap wine.

Major hotels and auction houses destroy empty bottles so that they cannot be reused. During a raid on a wine counterfeiting group in China, police found 40,000 bottles of counterfeit wine worth $ 32 million. The group was busy bottling cheap wine into bottles of expensive wine brands. In 2012, police also uncovered 350 cases of wine counterfeiting in Shanghai. The total amount of counterfeits was $ 1.6 million.

Hairy crabs

The hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake are the most expensive crabs in China and it's no wonder people try regular crabs for the more expensive ones. Real crabs come exclusively from Yangcheng Lake, but there are some clever ways to get around this.

Some vendors take water from Yangcheng Lake and soak common crabs in it for several hours before selling them. Other vendors use chemicals to make the crabs look like the ones from the lake.

Of the 300 Yangcheng hairy crabs sold, only one is natural. In total, 100 thousand tons of hairy crabs are sold annually, but only 3 thousand of them are natural. To combat the scammers, the Crab Business Association has demanded that a plastic ring with a unique numeric code be worn for each hairy crab from Yangcheng Lake.

This plan soon fell through when licensed sellers of Yangcheng hairy crabs sold digital codes to crooks who sell fake crabs.

Fake eggs

Fake chicken eggs hit the markets a few years ago. They are very similar to the real ones and the buyers cannot distinguish them from a real egg in appearance. Fake eggs cost half the price of real eggs.

In appearance, the resemblance of fake eggs to real ones does not end there - inside they have white and yolk. Fake eggs are made from gelatin, benzoic acid, alum, calcium chloride, paraffin and other substances. Three-day courses for making such eggs are still found on the Internet, and these courses are sold for $ 150-200.

Fake eggs taste quite similar to real ones, especially if you fry them into fried eggs (Chinese cuisine uses quite a lot of spices that can "mask" any taste). However, when frying, a lot of bubbles will appear on the surface of the protein (which should alert the consumer).

Doctors warn: the use of such eggs causes serious disturbances in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and, according to some scientists, with prolonged use, provokes dementia (dementia)

Cardboard buns

Cardboard buns mixed with pork flavoring chemicals. CTV showed a salesperson making cardboard buns. First, cardboard was mixed with caustic soda, which is used in the manufacture of soap and paper, and then mixed with seasoning and pork. This viral video was spread by several international media outlets at an incredible rate.

The Chinese government later said that foreign media took the news too seriously and that the fake buns were in fact a hoax. The reporter who filmed the video was arrested. The government said he filmed the video to boost the channel's ratings.