Chinese Cuisine to go Vegan? Naah
End of 2007 registered an 11-year inflationary high of 6.9%, most of which has been attributed to rising food prices: October registered a 38.3 percent jump in meat and poultry prices, and 29.9% in fresh veggie costs (as reported by Michael Armstrong in Urbane magazine.
Lucky for diners throughout the nation, the Chinese government is coming to our rescue: it will seek to cap the costs of various foodstuffs, including some meats and dairy, according to Andrew Batson of The Wall Street Journal .
Those who would be most affected by these price increases are home-bodies, people for whom food comprises a good chunk of their incomes and for whom dining out is a rarity. Since most City Weekend readers take advantage of dinner service, however, the rising prices might not have affected our wallets as much. If you're planning to spend 1,000 kuai at The Board Room, for example, what's another 20%?
And since most high-end restaurants in Beijing seem to import their ingredients anyway, China's soaring food costs wouldn't have impacted the bill at dinner. JAAN's truffle oil and Grand Marnier will continue as expensive as ever--and you can be sure the CCP isn't going to cap costs and taxes there.
Restaurants that rely on domestic products are the ones that might need to re-print their menus with higher prices. Which means that, comparatively speaking, eating foreign fare will seem cheaper than local foods.
Unless, of course, you decide to give up on meats and dairy. Could it be time for Chinese cuisine to go vegan?
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Mmmm. Grand Marinier is only 30 RMB a glass at Le Petit Gourmand. Which is odd considering Johnnie Walker Red is 45 ... Anyway, I wonder if a careful Party eye will raise tariffs on imported food to keep imported food's inflation rate in line with domestic fare.
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I wish someone, ahem, City Weekend, would report the prices of average consumer items in Beijing. How much is a dozen eggs? A pork chop? What about rice? It'd be great to have a simple list of all the basic food items in China and see what they used to cost compared to now.
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Collin, average where? Even if you exclude the expat friendly shops prices differ from area to to area.
Jinkelong for example 1 litre of SanYuan milk sells at different prices in different areas. Not checked recently but last time I did the same litre cost 5.5RMB at Jenny Lous, 5.0 RMb at the Jingkelongs near Palm Springs, the same price at the one near Chaoyangyuan and out in DOngba costs 4.8RMB.
It might be interesting to prepare a common shopping list and go to various places and do a price comparison.
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Exactly. Let's see what this "inflation" really means to people. I suppose I would focus on Chinese barrios, as opposed to strictly expat.
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I wonder how much all these rising prices are going to put a damper on the upcoming Spring Festival festivities?