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Week Around the Ists
It's only Tuesday, but it already hasn't been a good PR week for the Apple Snail. The Amazonian creatures, popular in fish tanks in the West and restaurants in the East, have been blamed for sending at least 50 Beijingers to the hospital with parasite-caused meningitis (but it's not really the snails' fault people decided to eat them raw or half-cooked). As if that wasn't enough, the mollusks (which can get as big as 6 inches in diameter) have also been credited with the destruction of nearly 400,000 acres of cropland in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Farmers are using pesticides to kill the snails. Sounds like the beginning of some kind of tragic domino effect to us.
Shanghai fish markets have begun banning the sale of the freshwater snails and authorities are issuing some words to live by: Always ask your local shellfish vendor to show you his license.
Not sure if this news should stop you from trying out La Boite, the new gourmet pizza restaurant on Dagu Lu we just learned about -- we doubt the snails they put on their pizzas are raw.
Thanks to A Tribe Called Quest for the headline.
Image from CFP.
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Another reason to ban snails and why people might bet getting so sick from eating them is that snails filter their food from water, and if the water is polluted they will also digest the pollutants.