CHINA: Chinese get a taste of space potatoes on Valentine's Day
- 00:02:44
- ITN Source
CHINA: Chinese get a taste of space potatoes on Valentine's Day
Chinese couples get a taste of purple sweet potatoes grown from seeds that were brought to space for their Valentine's Day dinner. Chinese couples looking to have something special for their Valentine's Day dinner this year were in for a meal of outer space proportions. One restaurant in the Chinese commercial centre of Shanghai is touting a Valentine's dinner with dishes made from a special type of sweet potato grown from seeds that went into space with China's second manned space mission. Carnation Restaurant in downtown Shanghai said the potato was developed by an organic farm in China's southern coastal Hainan province and had a much more purplish tone than a normal sweet potato. The restaurant which has been selling dishes made from the potato for the last few months, decided to push it a step further by fronting its Valentine's Day set dinner with the space potato. The restaurant's head chef, Kent Lee, said the unique colour of the potato, made it the automatic choice. "The reason we chose this sweet potato is because of its natural purple colour. Purple is viewed by people as a romantic and passionate colour. So for Valentine's Day, everyone hopes that it would be a romantic one. I think if you invite your girlfriend to eat such a romantic set dinner, they should be very happy," he said. The potato which is named "Purple Orchid Three" by its Hainan developers was grown from seeds brought into space in 2005 by China's second manned spacecraft, the "Shenzhou VI". The restaurant created a ten-course Valentine's Day dinner with various dishes incorporating the sweet potato - these included a salad, appetizer, dessert and a juice. Twenty-eight-year-old Cai Ming (pron: tsai-ming) said he brought his wife here for the dinner because he read of good reviews on the Internet. "I came here after reading some reviews on the Internet. This is quite special and I have not tried it before, so I decided to come try it today." Cai's wife, 28-year-old Chen Ying (pron: chen-ying) , said she was impressed with the taste of the sweet potato. "After eating this, I feel its taste is similar to a normal sweet potato but it is much smoother . Also, it is quite special to use it to make a fruit juice, I have never tried this before," she said. China has been experimenting with growing crops that have been brought to space after its two manned space missions gave it a chance to observe the mutation of seeds in space.
ITN Source | February 15, 2007
