Wingless Wednesday, and Counterfeit Beef Balls

Two days down, five to go.  So far the effects of being compelled to eat more greens has made me a very productive waste-removing machine.  That's the polite way to say yesterday I pooped four times.  I even pooped at 8 pm.  Who poops at 8 pm?  I don't, or I mean I never used to before.

Today's China-related meat thought of the day comes from the time I was shopping at Metro-brand grocery store in Guangzhou and I came across a bag of frozen meatballs translated into English as "beef balls urinating."

Just like mom used to make.  

I'm not a fan of frozen food, especially frozen dead things (though like many lazy teenagers, I'll admit to going through a Hot Pocket phase in high school).  However, it not's every day you can say you ate something that was urinating.  I picked them up, transfixed by the English translation.  牛肉 I knew as "beef" and assumed 丸 means "ball."  Shu was with me and said that 撒尿 is more directly "pissing" not urinating.  I guess the English translator thought the latter was more appetizing.

Ok, but whether it's urinating, pissing, tinkling, or draining the lizard—why use any of these words?  Because this style of beef balls are supposed to become so juicy and savory when cooked that they'll squirt out soupy goodness as if they were urinating.  Here's a more graphic 撒尿牛肉丸 packaging label that leaves little to the imagination.

As I continued to giggle like an immature American, a Chinese woman told Shu and I to be careful with the frozen meats.  Apparently, says the woman, lots of supposed beef in China these days is not beef at all, but comparatively cheaper cuts of chicken or pork that have been altered to look like beef on the outside.  Whether this particular brand was real beef or not, I do not know.  But a bit of Googling has turned up that yes, in modern China, sometimes even the beef is counterfeit.