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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Do Chinese never eat their meat rare?
I was cooking meat for a group of Chinese friends a little while ago, and they were first a little startled when I asked them how they wanted their meat, and then shocked and repulsed when they saw me eating mine rare. Was that just my friends or is meat never eaten rare here?
That's a good question and my understanding of it is no -- they do not eat meat that is still rare. There was a bit of an minor diplomatic error over this recently when the head of the country went on a state visit to a Western country that I won't name and unwitting head of this Western government served the entire Chinese delegation very pricey aged steak (again, the Chinese will not eat old meat -- there is the first meat) cooked so that it was extremely rare. Didn't exactly win any friends, to tell the truth. (and the rest of the dinner was a "real down home" kind of dinner most of which the Chinese would find not to their likings).
So yes, it is not your friends -- not at least in my experience.
They don't. I think it's a mix of culture, and the fact that local butchers and supermarkets always break the cold chain, and hyigene isn't exactly great, so the meat better be well-cooked.
At many western type restaurants and steakhouses they ask how you want your steak cooked. They use a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most cooked. I find most of my Chinese friends will order between 6-8.
So there are some people who will eat rarer meat, but nothing bloody.
Most Chinese people I know do not like rare meat. For pork and chicken, of course I can understand this, but lamb and beef....
Mr Spoon is correct though. I think it has to do with the sometimes less than sanitary conditions, the lack of a cold chain, and cultural preference.
Beef here isn't really that good anyway. I usually get some nice aged beef from Australia.
I guess eating it rare never crosses their mind as they chop it up in such tiny pieces that it cooks in a matter of seconds anyways.