Actually none of the products I mentioned are imported from China. I'm not sure I've ever bought or seen items from China. Most of the imports in our asian stores (like most of the parents and grandparents in our asian community) are from Southeast Asia, not China.
The Smiling Fish products I've talked about are all from Thailand.
Imports are also fairly strongly regulated, so I'm generally not too concerned Many of the products in ethnic groceries, even the "asian" and other "ethnic" products are actually made in the USA, often by big name manufacturers who may have different brand names in different countries (Maggi Products are owned by Nestle, for example). I bought nori snacks and shrimp crackers recently, and was astonished that they were made in a company in California.
I know that most of the produce in our local stores are locally grown (or grown fairly close), except for those that cannot be grown in the USA, and that fruit imports are strongly regulated.
In our Asian stores most of packaged products are from China that I have bothered to look at anyway. In fact, Fresh fish are generally from China as well there.
I just looked at the items I have in my pantry from the store--fish sauce and coconut milk. They both say "Product of China." It could just be my source. I will check another store to compare.
Now that you mention it, I have seen chinese fish sauce in the store, but I always buy Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce. It wasn't a boycott or fear of chinese products, I just inherited a bit of snobbery for southeast asian fish sauce, from the friend who introduced me to ethnic grocery stores (who himself was introduced to them through a Laotian friend).
I've always been told that the japanese make the best soy sauces, and thailand and vietnam the best fish sauce (fish sauce made from squid or crab, are among the best, and the most expensive).
I've read more about the food safety issues in China (and the steps their government and ours are taking to prevent it from continuing), and I'm not sure that the risk is much higher than USA products. There's been many salmonella and e.coli outbreaks and even botulism from US products. Also cross-contamination issues such as products containing nuts that should not have, or those advertised as vegan containing gelatin and other meat byproducts.
There are always risks when eating food you haven't grown and prepared yourself (which isn't risk-free, either).
Some people are willing to take more risks than others. I won't ever bungee-jump, but I've never been afraid of food. Even some of the food, we've been taught to be very fearful of in this country, like undercooked egg and meat. Our local thai restaurant sells laab (a beef salad dish that in thailand, at least among the Hmong is often eaten raw - but can also be served cooked). The restaurant cannot serve the raw dish in the restaurant, but can sell it for takeout. In becoming friends with the owner, she showed me how they get their beef and why it's safe to eat (it's cryofrozen extremely fresh like "sushimi-grade" tuna), and it's used the day it is thawed. She told me that it isn't something you should eat as left overs, or leave unrefrigerated, and the Hmong patrons know this - whatever isn't eaten the day it's made is cooked for the next day. We've tried the dish, and I never would have thought I would like raw beef so much. I now see the appeal of steak tartar. It smells nothing at all like grocery store beef, and the texture is so completely different. Just amazing stuff.
If most southeast asians are as meticulous about the freshness of their food as the owners of the restaurant we go to, I'm feeling pretty safe. I can't tell you how many times she has told me that a dish isn't available or had to be prepared a little differently because the produce that was delivered to the restaurant didn't look fresh enough for her tastes.
As to how many products in an asian store are imported from one country or another, it probably has more to do with the ethnicity of the owner and the ethnicity of their customers, although I know some stores try to be truly global and will have products from all over the world. I would love to travel (and would eat the street foods), but probably will never have the means to, so ethnic markets are my window to a world I'd love to visit. Export foods are probably generically somewhat safer than street foods (they're certainly more heavily regulated), so I feel reasonably safe.
I do know that my cavalier attitude towards foods probably puts me at slightly greater risk of foodbourne illness than most folks, but I think the odds are still pretty low. And as a bonus, my sense of adventure puts me at virtually no risk of spinal cord injury.
Kaplods, my husband always jokes that I will eat any "disgusting" food item on the menu. He loses his generally fabulous diplomacy and tact when he says this. I forgive his ignorance in this one arena.
most recent find-- in a Chinese Candy Shop-- it is sliced down the middle little fish then dried and dipped in sesame and a sugar chili mixture. yum.
that and dried and sweetened squid (or as my Thai au pair calls it "squiddy")
Kaplods, my husband always jokes that I will eat any "disgusting" food item on the menu. He loses his generally fabulous diplomacy and tact when he says this. I forgive his ignorance in this one arena.
most recent find-- in a Chinese Candy Shop-- it is sliced down the middle little fish then dried and dipped in sesame and a sugar chili mixture. yum.
that and dried and sweetened squid (or as my Thai au pair calls it "squiddy")
Yep, my hubby asks that I eat my "fish products," while he's not home. He's such a big baby, he can't even stand being in the same room when I eat them.
I LOVE the sweetened dried squid, and I a friend gave me bags of rice crackers that had bright shiny little fish in the mix - weirdly the crackers tasted of fish, and the fish had no fish taste - if you ate the litle fish without seeing them, you'd think they were pieces of crunchy toffee. I haven't seen it since, or I'd be buying them regularly. Eating the "toffee" fish was such a hoot (they were obviously whole "real" fish, all shiny and silvery, but if someone said they were made of candy, and not real fish, it would be easy to believe).
I love sardines, my grandmother used to add some spanish onion, red bell pepper and capers and served them with rice or just boiled green bananas...So delicious!
I missed this thread when it started...I'm glad it got revived! Kaplods, I love your descriptive scary canned fish posts.
I used to be very adventurous years ago with my foods and it was probably easier as I had several Asian markets around. Now after years of being caregiver to my parents and no ethnic markets of any sort available, I lost that. My tastebuds seem to be more on the bland side now too. How boring!!! Those crispy clams are calling to me...I may have to order some.
My preference for sardines -- I like the smaller ones, so I look for the tins that say "two layers" (vs. "one layer). You know then the sardines will not be the big chunky ones which seem more "fishy" to me because to fit "two layers" into those skinny tins you know they have to be pretty small.
Kaplods, while I was looking around on the internet today, I stumbled upon a rice cracker snack mix that might be like the one you had with the small dried fish. Here's the link: http://veryasia.com/199204.html
It's called Kongo Mamefubuki Mix Cracker. I don't know if you were willing to order it off of the internet, but just in case...
Kaplods, while I was looking around on the internet today, I stumbled upon a rice cracker snack mix that might be like the one you had with the small dried fish. Here's the link: http://veryasia.com/199204.html
It's called Kongo Mamefubuki Mix Cracker. I don't know if you were willing to order it off of the internet, but just in case...
How boring!!! Those crispy clams are calling to me...I may have to order some. 
