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Chinese appetite for "mega-bowl" incites grumbles

Xinhua, September 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

With a population of nearly 1.4 billion and a profound food culture, China likes to see a multitude of people dining together, using super-sized cookers to share the festivity.

However, the tradition stirred up some debate this weekend. On Saturday, the people of Panshan county of northeast China's Liaoning Province set up a 6.6m-diameter pot, weighing 7 tonnes, to steam 2,015 crabs to celebrate the upcoming crab-eating season. When the crustaceans were ready, they had to resort to a crane to lift the giant lid because it was too big and too heavy for mere humans.

The organizers even applied to the Guinness World Records (GWR) in the hope that the massive pot would be listed.

That GWR attempt coincided with two less ambitious but similarly grandiose food events at the weekend.

On Saturday, 2,015 participants enjoyed a super bibimbap served in a 3m-diameter pan at the opening ceremony of a "South Korea Week" in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning, while 1,600 visitors in the city of Huainan of east China's Anhui Province savored their beef soup cooked on a 3.6m tall tripod.

While some foodies are drooling over the photos, many of the Internet users voiced disapproval with the ostentation.

"A waste of food! What's the point?" A netizen with the screenname "Satan's choice", commented about the super bibimbap on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.

Another user expressed similar views about the gigantic pot of steamed crabs. "Other than a stunt and a waste of resources, I can't see anything meaningful in this," he wrote on Weibo.

China might be the world's second largest economy, but it still has more than 70 million people living on less than one U.S. dollar a day. In the poorest regions, people reportedly eat meat only three times a year on average.

On the flip side, some defend the "mega-bowl" activities as a way of attracting tourists, which is good for the local economy. "This is conducive to the tourism boom. As a result, it will help spread wealth," an Internet user with the screenname "Mr.An beats little monsters" wrote on Weibo. Endit