Chicken back in stores. Yet people remain skeptical: they're frozen

Hong Kong (Asia News/SCMP) –   People aren't shocked, they're skeptical to see chicken back on Hong Kong store shelves.

Last Monday poultry reappeared in some supermarkets, packaged from chickens raised in the central mainland China. There had been a temporary ban placed on all poultry imports since last Jan. 30.

Citizens are not so afraid of catching the bird flu per se. This is not what defines their strange reactions. Rather it is the fact that the meat is not fresh, that is, not from live chickens (as is customary according to ancient Chinese culinary tradition). To their disblief, the poultry can only be bought frozen.

It certainly is not easy to put the breaks on the insatiable Asian appetite for fresh fowl. And citizens have logically greeted the arrival of the frozen birds with a "cold" reception, to say the least.  

 "Frozen meat isn't good. It's flavorless and much more difficult to chew," said  Emily Ng, 34, the mother of two children while shopping at a store in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district. "If you chew fresh meat from chickens that have just be been killed and you savor it in your mouth for a bit, they you'll understand why even the bones taste different. It is much juicier."   

 "Fresh fowl meat is an important part of our culinary traditions," explained Teddy Leung, manager of the famous  Spring Moon restaurant in Hong Kong. "If we are forced to serve  frozen chicken to customers, we have to have to tell them first. Chinese will not let themselves be tricked into eating otherwise."  

Underlying the widespread skepticism toward the new frozen chicken is also the fact that the phenomenon is seen as one more example of the invasion of western culture. It is seen as a further erosion of their traditional values, especially those of southern China.

Not everyone has turned their nose up on the frozen birds. Desmond O'Toole, a biologist at Hong Kong City University, says he warmly welcomes the sub-zero poultry: "the difference in flavor between both types of meat is probably due to the toxins that remain the body after chicken heads are cut off, leading to temporary contraction in the muscle fibers. And this is the real reason behind the meat's distinct strong flavor."

O'Toole says live chickens should be eliminated from markets since they expose citizens to risks of infection from diseases found in birds.

Since the ban on chicken imports from Chinese farmland was in place poultry consumption dropped from 150,000 to only 20,000 a day in recent months in Hong Kong.  

Now citizens must eat frozen chicken. But at least it is safe. This is what local health officials have said while conducting rigorous inspections to ensure the birds were not infected with the deadly H5N1 virus. The virus  has now provoked 24 human deaths worldwide, after the most recent one in South Korea last Saturday.

Importing farm-raised live chickens into Hong Kong is set to resume  this May 12.  

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