Thursday, April 30, 2009

Smelly moo juice

Last year's melamine milk scandal spotlighted the problem of tainted milk in this part of the world. But what I thought was interesting was the number of people feeding their children milk. Cow's milk to be exact. When I was living here 15 odd years ago, the only milk we could find was soy milk and UHT pasteurized milk (is that redundant? I am too lazy to find out right now.). The latter didn't taste right to the Westerners, although I could care less, so long as it was white and didn't taste beany, as soy milk did. And it wasn't sweetened and watery.

These days, there are "milk bars" with a cowhide (black and white) facade, just to make sure people understand that this ain't no soy milk bar, we are all about the cow, people! One of the other teachers says their milk isn't bad, and gave us a taste a few weeks ago. I was and am still a bit leary about drinking milk here, but I have to weigh the chances of dying of some horrible kidney problem or having brittle bones from the lack of calcium. Hmmm.

After leaving my rented rooms a bit later than normal this morning, I signed in, and decided to go find myself some breakfast. I walked a few blocks, and saw the milk bar, busy with customers. Ok, some milk is calling my name (Mila, moooooo, drink me moooo). I grabbed a bottle, not really reading the bottle, plunked down cash and went back to the office. I unsealed the cap and poured myself a cup. Hmmmm, sniff, sniff, what is that smell? Why does this milk smell like sulphur? I was about to pour it down the drain when I looked at the label and saw this "Egg Milk".... I see. I would have thought eggmilk would be a bit richer, creamier, more eggnoggy. But maybe they just figure people will smell the egginess and think, right, I'm drinking an egg in my milk. Taking a sip, it tastes more like a light condensed milk, not too bad really, but the smell is a tad problematic for me. The ladies at work seem to like it though, so I will leave the bottle for them. Brittle bones, oh my.

4 comments:

Katrina said...

Why not take calcium supplemenets? I used to pooh-pooh my mom when she insisted I take them, saying I drank milk and ate yogurt, anyway. But I later realized that I really don't consume enough dairy to meet the requirement, especially for my age, and the fact that I also do things that deplete calcium, like drink alcohol. So now I take supplements. At least I won't have to worry about melamine! ;-)

Watergirl said...

Yeah, I will have to stock up on vitamins and pills when I get home. That stuff is way expensive here!

christine said...

I've never heard of egg milk, though at first it sounds like something I'd like (since I'm such a lover of all dairy). But smell has a lot to do with taste, they go together, and if it smells funky I don't think I can drink it either. If you know anyone going back there from here and you need some supplements, let me know and maybe I can get them for you and send it over.

Watergirl said...

Thanks Nena! I'll be home for a bit in June, time to stock up on necessities like vitamins and fish oil pills.

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