Apparently I am going to die tomorrow...or perhaps tonight. I'm not too clear yet. My crime, you ask? Eating bean sprouts. Perhaps I should start at the beginning.
I bought lots of veggies on my days off, planning to make 3 or 4 stir-frys but only ended up making 2 because Tana and I went out for hot pot in Huairou instead. So, naturally I had some left-overs. Tomatoes make for good breakfasts and cucumbers are fine on their own, but I pulled out a bowl of raw bean sprouts tonight and Tana and Zhan Li Jie just stared at me. Now I know that most people don't eat them raw, but I didn't think it was that odd. On the other hand, Chinese people cook their lettuce so who knows...
I convinced Tana to try some and she actually liked them...until Johnson and Simon -- two of our chefs-- came in, that is. "You can't eat those," they said (in Chinese). I just nodded and kept eating. Finally they got the message across (through Zhan LiJie and the translation software on her phone) that they believe raw bean sprouts to be poisonous.
Being me, I googled it and kept eating. Apparently there is an advisory against eating them raw, but they are said to be about as dangerous as any other raw veggies. I later learned that Tana and her family have gotten horribly sick from eating raw green beans in the past. That's basically the only way I eat green beans...
I hope it's Chinese people who have an odd reaction and not Chinese bean sprouts...
i UNDERSTAND THAT RAW BEANSPROUTS DO WONDERS FOR A SORE TOE
ReplyDeleteI like this story. When we were in France, in some way during a conversation we mentioned eating corn on the cob. The French in the group were shocked. Corn. That was for corns. People don't eat it.
ReplyDeleteWhen we had some French folks hear at our house a year or two later we purposely fed them corn on the cob. There was some reluctance to try it, but with our entreaties (you'll be surprised), they did so. And were delighted.
Poisonous though. That's something to give one pause. Maybe the Chinese beans are different.
I can see by the most recent post, that you lived through it. I'm glad.
As usual. When I am typing fast and not editing slow, I made an important slip up in the previous post. "Corn is for COWS it should have said.
ReplyDelete