As Barack Obama took his first step into the international arena today, with his first foreign trip to… um… Canada, and his Secretary of State fresh off a visit to Japan, it’s fitting that we finally get to see what might be the only thing that hasn’t yet been made with Obama’s face on it: [...]

Every so often, Coca-Cola decides to concoct some sort of new variation of its tried and tested Classic formula to give drinkers a slight, and often sickening, new taste. Usually, these varieties are released with an abundance of corporate fanfare but never stick around long enough to be anything other than an answer to a [...]

What do you get when you mix 4 obese Chinese women, outlandish costumes and some microphones? Well, first you get a singing group called Qian Jin Zu He, a gimmick group composed of a 375-pound chick and three others weighing over a deuce and a half. And second, you get a Washington Post feature story [...]

The competition that has become emblematic of America– shoving as many hot dogs into one’s mouth in 12 minutes– has a new champion. Joey Chestnut, a 23-year-old from San Jose, California downed 66 dogs in 12 minutes, shattering the previous record of 53 held by six-time champ Takeru Kobayashi from Japan. Kobayashi ate 63 hot [...]

While most of China still prefers their fish whole and cooked, sushi has taken hold in the upscale eateries in China’s major cities which spells big trouble for little Japan. One would assume that a Chinese interest in sushi would be good for Japan, since a Chinese interest in any Japanese export is ostensibly a [...]

Could it really get any worse for America? First, they get a Chinese guy to build the next memorial in Washington D.C. Then, Major League Baseball teams begin signing players from China. Now it seems that the apple pie that’s baking in Grandma’s oven is probably made from Chinese apples. A shocking report by the [...]

The Chinese community of Tucson, Arizona is up in arms over the ad fliers used by Eggrolls Etc., a Chinese takeout restaurant in the U.S. city. The flier, which contains the restaurant’s menu, reads as follows: “Every order is delivered via rickshaw by first generation Chinese immigrants… We really should charge more for delivery, old [...]

The people at America’s #2 fast food restaurant Burger King have announced that they will begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers who do not cage their animals. Burger King currently purchases 10% of its pork from cage-free suppliers and vows to double this percentage by the end of the year. For those concerned about [...]

Beginning Wednesday, all the major news outlets reported on a study that found Chinese food to be unhealthy. The AP called a typical Chinese menu “a sea of nutritional no-nos.” The U.S. survey, conducted by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, found that American-style Chinese dishes contain unhealthy amounts of fat, calories, salt [...]

A Flumesday reader in Shanghai sent me a photo over the weekend of a menu at a Chinese restaurant at Chongqing’s Jiangbei Airport. The phenomenon of “Chinglish,” or poorly translated Mandarin to English, is prevalent all over mainland China. For example, there was a sign in my neighborhood at the base of an escalator that [...]