# Mmm...Buns Made Out Of Cardboard, Yummy... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 12, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531 "2007-07-12T19:26:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/41 "2007-07-16T17:02:01Z")
[QUOTE=DMark] Just when you think you have heard all of the horror stories of badly prepared food comes [this article](http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/12/cardboard.food.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories) From the article: "The hidden camera follows the man, whose face is not shown, into a ramshackle building where steamers are filled with the fluffy white buns, traditionally stuffed with minced pork. The surroundings are filthy, with water puddles and piles of old furniture and cardboard on the ground. “What’s in the recipe?” the reporter asks. “Six to four,” the man says. “You mean 60 percent cardboard? What is the other 40 percent?” asks the reporter. “Fatty meat,” the man replies. The bun maker and his assistants then give a demonstration on how the product is made. Squares of cardboard picked from the ground are first soaked to a pulp in a plastic basin of caustic soda – a chemical base commonly used in manufacturing paper and soap – then chopped into tiny morsels with a cleaver. Fatty pork and powdered seasoning are stirred in. Soon, steaming servings of the buns appear on the screen. The reporter takes a bite. “This baozi filling is kind of tough. Not much taste,” he says. “Can other people taste the difference?” “Most people can’t. It fools the average person,” the maker says. “I don’t eat them myself.” [/QUOTE] Could it be, that this place is making diet-style 'food"? maybe the idea is to make pork buns with high-fiber, low-protein contnet. Wasn’t there a plan, a few years ago, to feed cows recycled newspapers? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/42 "2007-07-16T17:24:01Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Wasn’t there a plan, a few years ago, to feed cows recycled newspapers? [/QUOTE] No, just digests. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/43 "2007-07-19T16:12:22Z")
[Update](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070719/od_nm/china_health_fake_odd_dc;_ylt=ApxGngJFDHzCB9sUqXeqWq0SH9EA) > [@](#): > > Beijing police have detained a television reporter for fabricating an investigative story about steamed buns stuffed with cardboard at a time when China’s food safety is under intense international scrutiny. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/44 "2007-07-19T17:34:45Z")
Ooop, if you love your pets, don’t let them watch the Beijing TV news. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/45 "2007-07-19T17:46:56Z")
That reporter is so gonna die. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/46 "2007-07-19T18:08:51Z")
“Beijing police have detained a television reporter for fabricating an investigative story about steamed buns stuffed with cardboard at a time when China’s food safety is under intense international scrutiny.” I had no idea that Karl Rove had moved to China and was working with their government to teach them the concept of freedom of the press. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/47 "2007-07-19T18:10:54Z")
[QUOTE=Turek] [Update](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070719/od_nm/china_health_fake_odd_dc;_ylt=ApxGngJFDHzCB9sUqXeqWq0SH9EA) [/QUOTE] Always being the skeptic, I wonder how trustworthy the Beijing police are in this scenario. Could they, under intense pressure from the government, have framed this TV reporter? Maybe even beaten a confession from him? I mean, the Chinese government is mighty concerned right now about losing literally tons of export business, and with so much at stake, may be sorely tempted to do whatever it can (legal or not) to save face. I’m skeptical because the track record of the Chinese government is really, really bad. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/48 "2007-07-19T18:27:34Z")
[QUOTE=kitemaker\_chuck] How many calories does cardboard have anyway? [/QUOTE] That’s the beauty part! Humans can’t get calories from cellulose at all! It’s all fiber, and NO calories! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/49 "2007-07-19T19:59:16Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] That’s the beauty part! Humans can’t get calories from cellulose at all! It’s all fiber, and NO calories! [/QUOTE] So what you’re saying is, it doesn’t _do_ anything? ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/50 "2007-07-19T20:10:46Z")
[QUOTE=Turek] [Update](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070719/od_nm/china_health_fake_odd_dc;_ylt=ApxGngJFDHzCB9sUqXeqWq0SH9EA) [/QUOTE] Our tv news carried that story tonight. The cardboard buns story was big here, and it’s got to be hurting exports from that country. They did several “as people on the street” interviews in China, who all said they didn’t believe it was faked, so skeptisism abounds. ---
**Author:** ![Borborygmi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/borborygmi/32/217_2.png) [@Borborygmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borborygmi)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/51 "2007-07-19T20:43:07Z")
\*Cardboard buns! Cardboard buns! One renminbi, two renminbi, Cardboard buns! If they don’t like this story, We’ll be thrown in a prison! One renminbi, two renminbi, Cardboard buns!\* ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2007, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531/52 "2007-07-20T03:41:22Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott] Quote: Originally Posted by kitemaker\_chuck How many calories does cardboard have anyway? That’s the beauty part! Humans can’t get calories from cellulose at all! It’s all fiber, and NO calories! [/QUOTE] It’s almost like the vendor had [allegedly] taken his game plan from Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens, in which the character whose unearthly identity was Famine builds a business empire on the purveying of indigestible, non-food “foods”. Yecch, I dunno which prospect is worse: the buns being full of garbage, or the Chinese gov’t framing a freelance TV reporter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-buns-made-out-of-cardboard-yummy/411531.md?page=2)