Tips for buying chemical-free banh chung and Tet chicken
Each region has different Tet dishes, but indispensable are banh chung (Tet) and boiled chicken. However, they are very susceptible to chemical contamination.
Tips to distinguish between Vietnamese chicken and Chinese chicken:
Live chicken
Healthy chickens often have bright, alert eyes, bright red combs, small legs and tight breasts. Chinese chickens often have lethargic or closed eyes, dark combs and large legs.If you buy live chicken, you should choose those with a natural light yellow color, only dark yellow in some places such as the breast, wings, and back. Because chickens with dark yellow skin, evenly yellow, are likely to have been dyed with iron powder and you should not choose those with ragged feathers and bald heads.
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Ready made chicken
Chicken skin
The skin of native chickens is usually thin, soft, smooth, with small pores and high elasticity. If it is Chinese chicken, the skin is often thick and wrinkled. You should choose chickens with tight, intact skin, skin that is not darkened, and has no unusual marks.
Chicken feet
The toenails of Chinese reject chickens are usually longer than those of other chickens. In addition, the feet of Chinese chickens are often large and dry.
After boiling
After being boiled, Chinese chicken will be pale white, tough, and even smell like antibiotics... In terms of taste, Chinese chicken often smells rancid or smells like antibiotics because they are chickens that have been dead for a long time or are sick.
Tips for choosing banh chung based on color only
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Besides families who have the habit of wrapping Chung cakes, many families choose to buy ready-made ones because they do not have much time. The only way to choose Chung cakes is to observe the color of the cake when choosing. Currently, many traders choose to boil Chung cakes using batteries to make the sticky rice grains soften quickly, the cakes cook quickly and have beautiful colors, but batteries contain heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic... all of which are highly toxic substances, dangerous to the brain, kidneys, cardiovascular system and human fertility. Lead poisoning will cause infertility, miscarriage, high blood pressure and even reduce children's IQ.
Therefore, you should choose to buy cakes with leaves that have turned yellow. Because when boiled using the traditional method, dong leaves will turn yellow after 8-10 hours of cooking and cannot keep the fresh green color like new leaves. If the leaves used to wrap the cake are fresh green or purple, the leaves may have been contaminated with chemicals or dyes.
To ensure safety, you should only buy banh chung at reputable establishments or stores. Because if you buy it elsewhere, it will be difficult for you to know whether banh chung is made in a hygienic and safe manner or not.
