June 18, 2004
No Soup For You!
Chinese govt cracks down on restaurants that put opium poppy seeds in their soups and stews. Hey, they're just trying to establish a clientele.
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Customers described the soup as "A tad moreish".
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I think they were using the sap that's inside poppies before they break open in bloom. IIRC, poppy seeds are pretty harmless, right? I'm not surprised. Dismayed, but not surprised. Last year, Chinese traders bleached rice to sell them at a premium, killing those who ate the rice; rotten, vermin-infested mattresses were re-upholstered and sold as new ones at a discount; waxed sausages from the year before were ground up and re-made into 'new' sausages for this year's Chinese New Year.
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Poppy seeds are harmless, though they do contain an extremely low level of opiates - enough to register on a urinalysis or blood test. That's why if you work for a Big Brother corporation, you don't eat poppy seed danishes anytime near your yearly drug screening.
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*grows poppies*
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I think Dr. Seuss ate there: hot pot stews spicy fish dish opium derivative morphine