Trip to China
Next week I leave on a long planned China trip with my family. This will be my second visit to my parent’s homeland since 1987. At that time there were lots of bicycles. Bicycles for commuting, hauling building materials, baskets stacked 10 feet high full of chickens, families of four, you name it, they did everything on those bikes. And the most noteworthy, see Mao lying in state in Tiananmen Square (before the riots!). Things have changed a lot since then. There is some trepidation about what to pack, how smoggy will the cities be, what will I eat and will the trip go smoothly. I’m packing a charcoal filter mask to deal with the smog, something I’ve used while bike commuting in the Bay Area. Since all the publicity about tainted food from China, I am concerned about what will be in the food that I eat. I don’t think I can do a lot of damage from food and pollution in two weeks time. I’m still packing some of snacks to cover a few bases. I’m not very much fun with low blood sugar. I do want to experience the culture and I hear there are good restaurants in Shanghai. I’ll probably still want to detox after I return. I’ll report more on my China trip later…
Other news bits:
Sierra Club Insider says the most deadliest item in the grocery store is the plastic shopping bag. We throw away 100 billion plastic bags each year — the equivalent of 12 million barrels of oil. Yikes! Bring your own bag to the store next time.
Salmonella outbreak in Banquet brand pot pies – From the CDC website: “CDC recommends that people do not eat any Banquet pot pies or pot pies made by ConAgra Foods that have a printed code beginning in “5009†and ending in “P9†or “Est 1059.†Other brands of pot pies made in the ConAgra Foods factory that makes Banquet brand pot pies and sold under other brand names may also be contaminated with Salmonella. These other pot pie boxes also have a printed code ending in “P9†or “Est 1059.†If you have any of these products at home, the safest thing to do is to discard them.â€
More E. Coli scares: Topps brand frozen ground beef patties. Go to the CDC website for details. If you’re going to have ground beef, cook it thoroughly.
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