Dowbrigade

A
disturbing item came across the news desk this morning, from the quasi-communist
government of Hong Kong, via the New
York Times, claiming
that
"eating many kinds of dim sum regularly may be bad for your health".

This has caused consternation and confusion in restaurants all across
the city, and now, thanks to the Times, all around the world. Turns out it
is not
Dim Sum per se that is harmful, but rather certain kinds of
dim sum, eaten in excess.

Dim sum, which means "touch of the heart," is usually eaten at
breakfast or lunch and includes steamed or fried pastry dumplings stuffed with
anything from pork and beef to shrimp and egg custard. Many other savories,
like mango pudding and egg tarts, are also dim sum.

But based on laboratory analyses of 750 dim sum samples, Hong Kong’s Food
and Environmental Hygiene Department found high fat and salt and low calcium
and
fiber in everything from fried dumplings to marinated jellyfish. The report
suggested that local residents eat these kinds of dim sum in moderation,
and choose more
dim sum like steamed buns and steamed rice rolls.

Regular dim sum diners should order plates of boiled vegetables to go with
their meals, the report said, and should beware of some steamed dim sum for
which the
ingredients are fried, like bean curd sheets.

Plates of boiled vegetables! We might as well go to a Hare Krishna joint
for the free come on in spread! Seeing as Sunday Dim Sum has become something
of
a tradition for the Berkman
Blogger’s Group, should this report hold up we
may have to consider alternatives.

The Dowbrigade suggests instituting Sunday "Pachamancas", a delicious
Peruvian tradition which involves wrapping goat, sheep and guinea pig meat
in banana leaves
and burying them 3 or 4 feet underground, together with potatoes, yucca, camote
and red hot rocks. After three days you dig it all up, wash off the dirt,
and chow down. Delicious!

We could make a Pachamanca pit in a corner of the garden in front of
the Berkman Center. We would have to do the prep work, heat the rocks, wrap
the
meat, and bury the booty after our regular Thursday
night meetings, in order
to have it be ready for Sunday. But it would be worth it. Especially delicious
with abundant Chicha, Andean corn mash beer….

from the
New York Times

Bonus: click on photo for filmclip