How to tell if you've been in China too long

[ChTTay]

1 hour ago, XiaoXi said:

Is it really thousand island dressing?

Thousand island is the go-to now: “The pink sauce”. That Japanese brand Kewpie is it? A little sachet if that with many side salads in Chinese dash food places. 

 

Never had any insanely sweet salad cream ... unless you’re thinking of condensed milk? That’s marketed here as something that goes on bread and salad. 

 

Pizza Hut is pretty okay in China as at least you know what you’ll get. Beijing has a wealth of excellent pizza but Pizza Hut just has so many locations. 

 

I find a lot of stuff here is sweet when it shouldnt be. My biggest pet peeves are the sweet yogurt and sweet pasta sauce. 

[XiaoXi]

2 minutes ago, ChTTay said:

Thousand island is the go-to now: “The pink sauce”. That Japanese brand Kewpie is it? A little sachet if that with many side salads in Chinese dash food places. 

I'm sure it's not imported so they must add more sugar to it. I find everything is sweeter in China than in the west. Sweet fruit flavoured crisps that never caught on in the west seem to be popular here too.

 

3 minutes ago, ChTTay said:

Never had any insanely sweet salad cream ... unless you’re thinking of condensed milk? That’s marketed here as something that goes on bread and salad. 

No idea what they put on salad here but it's always been really sweet. They even often add it on the top of sushi. This was my experience in Dongbei and now in Chengdu but I found in the north like Beijing, TIanjin etc they tend to be slightly less interested in incredibly sweet stuff so in Beijing you might be slightly better off.

 

6 minutes ago, ChTTay said:

I find a lot of stuff here is sweet when it shouldnt be. My biggest pet peeves are the sweet yogurt and sweet pasta sauce. 

Yes! Why is the spaghetti bolognese so sweet. It was funny 'cos a Chinese guy told me he tried spaghetti bolognese and he said it was terrible...like spaghetti bolognese was just terrible full stop. No consideration that perhaps it wasn't in fact prepared by an Italian masterchef and perhaps was adapted (made incredibly sweet) for the Chinese market. I replied 'yes it is terrible....in China'.

 

I guess we're spoilt in the west in that if you go to a Chinese restaurant, you get a Chinese chef, if you go to an Italian restaurant you get an Italian chef...or at least someone who's trained in Italy or by an Italian...or otherwise well trained....unlike in China where everything no matter what it is is prepared by the Chinese, who probably just looked up on the internet how to make it.

[abcdefg]

6 hours ago, XiaoXi said:

So many sweet things in China, it's no wonder they have the highest rate of diabetes in the world now.

 

Interesting. I didn't realize that. 

 

Countries ranked by diabetes prevalence 2017 -- (Adults, age 20 to 79) 

[abcdefg]

3 hours ago, ChTTay said:

My biggest pet peeves are the sweet yogurt and sweet pasta sauce. 

 

Agree. I've been making my own yogurt for about a year now. 

[mungouk]

( @fabiothebest please look away now. )

 

Just spotted that Pizza Express here in Singapore do Laksa pizza...

 

[ChTTay]

Laksa pizza sounds fantastic! Sign me up! 

 

Some Beijing Pizza Hut’s have Gong Bao Ji Ding Pizza ... never tried it. 

[mungouk]

I'm leaving Singapore in 2 weeks... I may have to check it out before I go... ?

 

 

[XiaoXi]

On 12/8/2018 at 5:50 PM, abcdefg said:

Interesting. I didn't realize that. 

 

Countries ranked by diabetes prevalence 2017 -- (Adults, age 20 to 79) 

I remembered it from a Huffington Post news article https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/04/china-diabetes_n_3867778.html not sure how it could have changed so much in just a few years. Obviously diet would not directly affect the rate of diabetes type 1 which your report seems to include. For type 2 diabetes they still must be right up high in the rankings, if not still number 1. There's also this article talking about how diabetes has exploded in the last couple of decades:

 

Rate of diabetes in China “explosive” http://www.wpro.who.int/china/mediacentre/releases/2016/20160406/en/

 

And with this article you can't actually read it since you have to log in, but the title suggest a lot: Half of Chinese Adults Have Prediabetes or Diabetes https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/882145  from 2017. And also

 

China facing largest diabetes epidemic in the world - 2017

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/909326/china-facing-largest-diabetes-epidemic-in-the-world-study

 

It's amazing what you can find with a few searches.