School lunches



MikeDT said:

One thinks there might be potato on the menu tomorrow...

...two ladies hand peeling enough spuds to feed 3,500 hungry students.

No doubt in the UK or US there would be a machine doing this rather menial job. Here in China it's often much cheaper to employ full-time 'potato peelers' than it is to buy an expensive potato peeling machine.

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In the US there would be a giant sack of dehydrated, instant potatoes instead of the real thing.

The sad thing is, those Mongolian peasants probably have pretty decent knife skills from doing that to 1500 potatoes a sitting, yet their year's income will be less than the paring knife that mgm just bought from Korin. That's a long way to ask them to look up.



impolyt_one said:

The sad thing is, those Mongolian peasants probably have pretty decent knife skills from doing that to 1500 potatoes a sitting, yet their year's income will be less than the paring knife that mgm just bought from Korin. That's a long way to ask them to look up.

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i literally lol-ed.



impolyt_one said:

The sad thing is, those Mongolian peasants probably have pretty decent knife skills from doing that to 1500 potatoes a sitting, yet their year's income will be less than the paring knife that mgm just bought from Korin. That's a long way to ask them to look up.

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that's so sad.

They may be poor as ****, but they can hold their heads high; they have knife skills and cook professionally.



impolyt_one said:

They may be poor as ****, but they can hold their heads high; they have knife skills and cook professionally.

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but....they're poor!

"Pasta", food courtesy of the SFUSD.



edinatlanta said:

but....they're poor!

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'poor' is a comparative thing. They may be poor compared to what someone might be London or New York, but they're lot richer than some rural peasant breaking their back all day in a paddy field. They actually earn enough to pay rent, buy new clothing and food for themselves and family, plus they do get three completely free meals a day in the school cafeteria.

Myself, I earn much less as a teacher in China than I would doing the same job in the UK, but then I do have my rent and all utility bills paid by the school, including internet, plus free meals in the school cafeteria. Also general living expenses in rural China are very much less than the UK. e.g. bus rides are 1 yuan(about 10p) probably £3.00 in the UK. Taxis are 5 yuan(about 50p) for the whole city, probably £5-£20 in the UK, beer is much cheaper, etc. one return flight to the UK a year is included as well.

They're still poor, even by Chinese standards.

I'm kind of craving a pizza boat right now though. My school introduced them in like 5-6th grade and they blew the square out of the water. I think they added some oregano or something. That and mashed potato day were