Oil
Since my first ventures into real Chinese supermarkets in Shenzhen, I have been fascinated by the product mix offered and how they differ from the US. I have a sense I should read more Michael Pollan because maybe this is something he already discusses in one of his many books and documentaries.
Last year I was particularly interested in baby food. Americans talk about first foods helping babies learn about eating, and nutritious variety, and good food habits. We contemplate things like taste and texture. Our pediatricians tell us not to worry about how much they eat in those early months of solid food because their primary nutrition still comes by way of breast milk or formula. Chinese baby food being mostly porridge-based, seem to be just about getting food in the baby. Of course, most Americans are pretty far removed from starvation that we have the luxury of many choices of how to approach introductory eating.
When I make that first trip to the grocery store every time I am home, I remember I wish I had taken pictures at the grocery stores in China so I could compare it to the local Giant Eagle. This time I remembered, days before we were scheduled to leave, to snap the cooking oil aisle at our WalMart.
The picture is an incomplete look at the total selection, actually. In the so-called imported foods section there is another section of five shelves and a few feet wide of Spanish, Greek, and Italian olive oils. Also throughout the store are gift sets and other endcap displays of various vegetable and peanut oils. That's right--gift sets. Especially close to New Year's, when there are shelves upon shelves of cooking oil gift sets, is one reminded how central and necessary cooking oil is to the Chinese diet. It is so important that the Central Government has singled it out as one of the food products subject to price controls; in early 2008 a one-off increase in price greater than 4% required notifying the appropriate authorities (and as poor Adam learned at that time, Potato Chips were not covered by the price control policy). Even the packaging of cooking oil amazes me. Look at how giant those bottles on the lower shelves are. Given that Chinese consumers shop more frequently and for more hours a week than an American consumer, and have significantly less storage space in their home, it is a given that they also go through a lot more oil.
Of course, in the US, we have a slightly different relationship with cooking oil. Yes, we use it, but we like to brag about how moderate we are in our use of oil. Unless, of course, you are a foodie (or wannabe foodie like me) and like to brag about how much olive oil you can eat on the right kind of bread, but then it is a condiment, and not really cooking oil. But in our cooking, many Americans try to limit our use of cooking oil. Perhaps only in the American South would a family go through enough oil to warrant bottles the size of the Chinese bottles. Of course, I have never shopped a member's club on any continent. It is possible that Sam's Clubs in the US have massive bottles. But the cooking oil section of Clarion WalMart is much smaller than at the Changping WalMart.
However, because of the breadth of American cooking, influenced by our country's many ethnicities and changing cooking fashions (how about that for luxury--even our foods go in an out of fashion, not necessarily out of season), I wonder if cooking oil is crucial enough to be subject to the kinds of price controls as China and other countries. I actually have no idea about any food commodity, other than milk at the state level, that might be price-controlled. In the case of milk, though, the states set minimum pricing to protect the farmers, not the consumers.
Last year I was particularly interested in baby food. Americans talk about first foods helping babies learn about eating, and nutritious variety, and good food habits. We contemplate things like taste and texture. Our pediatricians tell us not to worry about how much they eat in those early months of solid food because their primary nutrition still comes by way of breast milk or formula. Chinese baby food being mostly porridge-based, seem to be just about getting food in the baby. Of course, most Americans are pretty far removed from starvation that we have the luxury of many choices of how to approach introductory eating.
When I make that first trip to the grocery store every time I am home, I remember I wish I had taken pictures at the grocery stores in China so I could compare it to the local Giant Eagle. This time I remembered, days before we were scheduled to leave, to snap the cooking oil aisle at our WalMart.
The picture is an incomplete look at the total selection, actually. In the so-called imported foods section there is another section of five shelves and a few feet wide of Spanish, Greek, and Italian olive oils. Also throughout the store are gift sets and other endcap displays of various vegetable and peanut oils. That's right--gift sets. Especially close to New Year's, when there are shelves upon shelves of cooking oil gift sets, is one reminded how central and necessary cooking oil is to the Chinese diet. It is so important that the Central Government has singled it out as one of the food products subject to price controls; in early 2008 a one-off increase in price greater than 4% required notifying the appropriate authorities (and as poor Adam learned at that time, Potato Chips were not covered by the price control policy). Even the packaging of cooking oil amazes me. Look at how giant those bottles on the lower shelves are. Given that Chinese consumers shop more frequently and for more hours a week than an American consumer, and have significantly less storage space in their home, it is a given that they also go through a lot more oil.
Of course, in the US, we have a slightly different relationship with cooking oil. Yes, we use it, but we like to brag about how moderate we are in our use of oil. Unless, of course, you are a foodie (or wannabe foodie like me) and like to brag about how much olive oil you can eat on the right kind of bread, but then it is a condiment, and not really cooking oil. But in our cooking, many Americans try to limit our use of cooking oil. Perhaps only in the American South would a family go through enough oil to warrant bottles the size of the Chinese bottles. Of course, I have never shopped a member's club on any continent. It is possible that Sam's Clubs in the US have massive bottles. But the cooking oil section of Clarion WalMart is much smaller than at the Changping WalMart.
However, because of the breadth of American cooking, influenced by our country's many ethnicities and changing cooking fashions (how about that for luxury--even our foods go in an out of fashion, not necessarily out of season), I wonder if cooking oil is crucial enough to be subject to the kinds of price controls as China and other countries. I actually have no idea about any food commodity, other than milk at the state level, that might be price-controlled. In the case of milk, though, the states set minimum pricing to protect the farmers, not the consumers.
Comments
I keep my tin can of roasted sesame oil in the refrigerator. We're Sam's club members but only buy the small+expensive extra-virgin olive oil so that it never gets time to go rancid!
The variety of flavors in nut oils can be a real treat on salad greens at this time of year but make salads based on root vegetables yummy any time of year!
n.b. sunflowers are an American native species of flowers hybridized for their oily seeds! The world wouldn't have all those fried treats unless America's natural resources had been developed and spread via "globalization" hee hee (chili peppers are the same thing, all that "hot" food in ethnic cultures wasn't so hot before 1492 when Colombus sailed the ocean blue - you're in great company trading is a blessed profession that has peacefully expanded man's horizons -- with the help of the Jesuit scholars of course! )
I'm always amused when the green patchwork of arable land in places I'm visiting via Google Earth (tracing Eastern European ancestors) is spattered with bright yellow parcels of land - abundant rape seed fields grown for cooking oil!