Last week a Beijing news reporter reported that steamed buns sold in some of the neighborhoods in Beijing were actually chemically soaked card board mixed with pork fat. This week he is in jail for making up the story.
I remember first hearing about this last week, wondering if people could actually taste the difference between chemically soaked cardboard steam buns, and the real thing. I headed down to the closest Chinese bakery and attempted to make an imaginary comparison. I took pieces of cardboard soaked in acetone and added pork fat. I took the real pork filling out of the steamed bun and added my own Beijing concoction. Surprisingly I could not taste the difference. I mean I did have stomach pains and spent the rest of the night praying to the porcelain gods, but for that split second I could not taste differences between cardboard and the real thing.
Suffice it to say I’m glad that the reporter is getting jail time. It serves him right. He’s getting his just desserts, or more like his just cardboard steamed buns.
