CHICKEN, HUNAN STYLE

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| Thursday, March 23, 2006 |

IN TODAY'S PAPER

 

THE TELEGRAPH

Opinion > Story

 

CHICKEN, HUNAN STYLE

neha sahay

Bird flu blues in India? We stopped eating chicken months ago. By we, I mean

only cautious Indians in China. For the rest, locals as well as Westerners here,

bird flu is for the birds.

 

In Mumbai, ministers get photographed biting into chicken legs to encourage

people to eat chicken, even though the bird flu virus has been found in

chickens. In China, the government appears to go out of its way to take all

possible measures to fight the flu — culling birds by the million, vaccinating

them, banning the sale of live birds, as well as killing of chickens in markets…

Periodically, Hong Kong bans the import of birds from the mainland. The

agriculture minister warned last month of a possible massive outbreak.

 

As in Mumbai, photographs of luminaries biting into chicken legs appear here

too, that too on page one. Only, here it is not ministers urging people to risk

their health, it is those in the business of selling chicken. Every year, at the

slightest news of bird flu, the local head of KFC is photographed eating

chicken. KFC is the largest fast food brand in China, with over 800 outlets.

 

KFC needn’t bother; most Chinese are quite sceptical about bird flu. Huang, a

30-year-old driver in a multinational, said with a shrug as he bit noisily into

spicy Schezuan chicken, “Chickens have been dying in the villages since I was a

child. The villagers would just cook them and eat them. It was seen as a free

meal. That’s what they do now too.’’ This refusal to believe in the existence of

the most hyped disease after AIDS, is coupled with complete faith in the

government’s claim of having vaccinated all chickens.

 

 

No problem

 

Two days ago, the first batch of 200,000 “disease-free chickens’’ arrived in

Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, and were immediately booked. These come

from 10 designated poultry farms in the city, and have coloured rings and

numbers on their feet, to denote the district they are from. The rings cannot be

removed and hence cannot be re-used on unchecked chicken.

 

However, city markets certainly don’t seem to take the warnings and bans too

seriously. Live birds in cages are available in bird and flower markets. Live

chicken is sold alongside vegetables; the killing, cleaning, and cutting, all

done right there. The chicken sellers’ infants sleep nearby; dogs roam around,

and there’s not even a wash basin in sight! So even if one just wants to buy

fresh vegetables, the risk remains.

 

Factories have not stopped serving chicken in their canteens, and restaurants

continue to sell chicken, with the Indian eateries proudly announcing: “Our

chicken comes from Mexico.”

 

The problem is not with chicken cooked Indian style, but with that cooked Hunan

and Guangdong style: which is so undercooked that you can see traces of blood on

the bones. Chicken claws are a popular snack in Guangdong, kept on the table

along with the small eats. Unappetizing to look at the best of times, in these

times, they are a positive turn-off.

 

The last three years have seen so many infectious diseases strike China that it

makes one wonder. At one stage, it seemed best to turn vegetarian: you couldn’t

eat chicken/duck/goose because of bird flu; pigs were dying mysteriously in

nearby Hong Kong; and with the mad cow disease in Britain, it was best to avoid

steaks in restaurants where menus proudly announced that all their beef was

imported. But no local gave up meat consumption, saying confidently, “No problem

with our beef and pork,” not even bothering to mention bird flu.

 

It’s ironic: as long as Mao ruled China, meat was a luxury for most families.

Now they can’t do without it. It’s the foreigners who are discovering the

exquisite delights of Chinese vegetarian food.

 

2006 The Telegraph.