Shanghai ChefsAbout the Culinary World of Shanghai

Greetings Chefs!

We hope that everyone enjoyed themselves at last month’s event in MAYA. Brad Turley definitely knows how to throw a party and we are sorry to see him leave the Shanghai scene for a while (though he assures us he’ll be back every so often!)

We want to congratulate Factory on their opening earlier this month, and on the success of their ‘Too Many Chefs’ event; bringing together 10 different top chefs in Shanghai and having the balls to do it on their opening night.

For this month’s event, we advise that everyone get in touch with their feminine side…April’s Chef’s Talk will be held at the Barbie Café. We hope to see you all there.

And wear something pink!

Best regards,

Stefan Stiller

Chef’s Talk @

Host: Chef Tessa Thompson & Manager Hayes Zhou

Venue:

Barbie Cafe

550 Huaihai Zhong Lu,
near Chengdu Nan Lu

淮海中路550号
近成都南路

Tel: +86 21 61716060 x 6098
Mob: +86 137 615 22022

Attendees:
Exec Chefs, Chefs, Pastry Chefs, Baker’s
Restaurant Manager, F&B Managers

Charges:
Free flow of Beer, house wine and soft-drinks, some snacks will be passed around.

Price: 150rmb

Click for a map

While I haven’t had the chance to visit the Shanghai fish markets (okay, well more like don’t really want the chance), we decided to give the fish markets in Guangzhou a go.

Now it’s understood that in this area of the world, you do tend to see the odd turtles, water roaches and slugs up for sale. Not really like wondering through the ample aisles of the Tokyo fish market, but you know all of that before going.

Having said that though, seeing a fat purple-ish slug that resembled an earthworm still made us squirm a little. And we were definitely not expecting to see crates after crates and sacks after sacks of different turtles and tortoises. There were turtles as old as 30 years stuck in tiny ‘aquariums’.

Fair enough, it may be a delicacy here and we have no qualms with that. The Guangzhou port is reportedly one of the busiest and biggest in China. But taking note of the sheer numbers of turtles, it made one of our mates wonder about the possibility that there may be an undiscovered species in one of the crates.

Problem with our aquatic ecosystem? Over-fishing? Guangzhou fish market is probably responsible for causing 70% of turtles to be on the endangered species list.

We’re not even going to get into detail regarding the crocodiles that we saw. We just secretly hoped that at least some of them came from farms…Yes, crocodiles are also eaten in the West and farmed for their skin and meat but the thing that was devastating was the lack of respect for all things living. Dozens of these powerful aquatic reptiles laying on top of each other in a skinny aquarium.

As we cringe and squirm through the aisles, with a feeling of disdain for the country starting to build up, we acknowledge that this is just all part of living in China. We see the bad and the good (the food in Guangzhou is definitely worth a visit), and remember that people are different. We don’t agree with most of their conduct, just as we don’t agree to the existence of ‘puppy mills’ in Utah, but this is China! Hate it, love it, the chances of these practices stopping are slim to none.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/young-critic/2009/04/07/1238869961814.html

Let’s all hope that this isn’t going to be the latest trend in the industry – being judged and reviewed by kids!