After wisdom there is peace,freedom, and focus. Before wisdom there is everything else.
This is a very amusing essay….
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.
Over 50% of processed foods for vegetarians found to contain meat
2009-06-14 06:38 PMTaipei, June 14 (CNA) The Investigation Bureau has recently found that some processed foods advertised as vegetarian contained meat, and it has vowed to refer producers who knowingly added meat to their products for prosecution on fraud charges.
Pu Chang-en, a technician at the bureau’s department of forsensic science, said Sunday that among samples collected from 31 vegetarian food vendors in Taipei City and County for safety checks, food taken from 17 vendors were found to contain meat.
DNA tests revealed that in the two most serious cases, the vegetarian patties and ham of one vendor and vegetarian dried shredded pork from another vendor contained at least 20 percent beef or pork, Pu said.
On the plus side the government in Taiwan discovered this on their own accord versus what usually happens in the PRC — over even in the U.S. with peanut plants.
Many Chinese restaurants that offer faux meat dishes get their supplies from Taiwan. Caveat Emptor!
Update:
The problem has been discovered to be worse.
Thanks to Dag for sending me this link to an article about meat and dairy turning up in the food at many LA “vegan” restaurants:
Quarry Girl: Labratory Tests Of Vegan Restaurants In LA
Legumes are low cost, high taste vegan nutrition powerhouses. Protein, calcium, beneficial fibers, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals galore. They are often poo-pooed by people. Hopefully, this news will get some people to give this wonderful food another chance.
100% vegan legume cook book: Fabulous Beans
Update # 2:
A colleague was kind enough to send me these related URL from they year 2008 that describes efforts by Taiwan to create better standards for faux meat labeling. Given the speed of any government, it is in the eye of the beholder whether those efforts failed or they are still in development, given the original article in this post:
Every so often life gives you a good laugh just when you need one. Today is one such day.
A Chinese ( PRC ) friend of mine at work went to some big box store and bought a t-shirt on clearance. She wore it to work today for casual Friday.
She speaks excellent English, not a trace of “Engrish” . However, aside from work she doesn’t interact with Americans much. She has a small daughter at home to take care of. She doesn’t know the culture or the nuances of American slang very well.
She came into my office today to ask me if her t-shirt meant “a bad thing”. It was a white t-shirt with a cartoon of a baby cow with devil’s horns, a licentious facial expression and the text
“Little Miss Naughty”
across the chest.
I told my friend to close the door to my office.
Then I explained to her what the slang meaning of “naughty” in American English is. I did it with a straight face and offered to lend her a company shirt I still had in the package on my shelf. She was ten minutes away from going out to lunch. She had a look of horror on her face.
Once she was out of my office and back on her side of the floor I closed my office door before having the best laugh I’ve had all week.