Introduction: The popular Iraqi dates 50 years ago were introduced into China and eaten as candy, why did they disappear later?
Iraqi dates. Cuban sugar. smoke in Albania; In addition to Cuban sugar and Iraqi dates, there were cigarettes from North Korea on the market at that time, wheat from Mexico, wheat ground into flour pale green, steamed steamed buns a little sticky, the food bureau soon stopped supply, became people's after-dinner talk. Memories from childhood. I don't like Cuban sugar, I always feel a strange smell. In the past, when Iraqi dates were unloaded from the train, they were all large cubes wrapped in brown paper, and I remember that Iraqi dates were about two triangles and one pound. At that time, I was happy to pick up a penny in school, and the years passed so quickly......
The origin of Iraqi dates
Date palms are mainly produced in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and other countries, have eaten Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates four countries, Tunisia is the cheapest price but more water, soft taste and meat, Morocco's sugar content is relatively high very sweet and the nucleus is relatively large and less meat, the UAE price is the most expensive, the taste is generally the most cost-effective, Iran is a little more expensive than Tunisia, the flesh is firm and dry.
I have the impression that Iraqi dates began around 57, and Cuban sugar was about the same time. Sugar bluish gray. In the early 60s, Cuba had a conflict with us, one of which was that we didn't use rice for their sugar (one pound for one pound), at that time I still didn't understand, we one or two cents a pound of rice, five or six cents a pound of sugar, it felt very cost-effective?
It was introduced into Japan and eaten as candy
In August 1958, Iraq established diplomatic relations with the mainland, which coincided with a period of tension in international relations between Iran and the United States, and Iraq was subject to Western sanctions and blockades. At the beginning of 1962, in order to control inflation, and incidentally supported the blockade by Western sanctions, he imported food from some countries into the country to reduce inflationary pressure.
When I was a child, I ate something called dates, and I wrapped it in straw paper for 5 cents. There is at the counter of the commissary. How sweet! Iraqi dates, a delicacy that was rare when I was a child! I always thought it was made with honey. When I was a child, I herded pigs to steal and eat at the winery in my hometown, when Iraqi dates were all packed in sacks and all became a large piece, it was really not easy to tear off a piece, it was delicious at that time, and I didn't eat enough. Don't dare to steal more. You can see a variety of dates every day. Jujube liquid is squeezed out after the inside of the jujube is ripe. This miraculous, auspicious fruit grain is the food and nutrition of generations Chinese difficult times. It is also a feeling in life that is difficult to erase or forget...
About 68 years ago, Iraqi dates were 0.65 yuan a catty, Cuban sugar (brown sugar) 0.69 yuan a catty, and Cuban camel cigarettes (20 square flat boxes) 0.25 yuan a box. It may be that because of the Sino-Soviet war, Cuba and Iraq stopped exporting, and these three things were not sold in 68. I miss Iraqi dates very much, I saw them on the street ten years ago and bought them to taste, and I was disappointed: in the past, Iraqi dates were sticky with sugar, and the dates were all stuck together, and when they were sold, they had to be opened with great effort, the taste was sticky, it was so sweet that the more I ate it, the more I wanted to eat, but I ate too much and burned people. The current dates are quite hard, dry, and have limited sweetness, and I don't want to eat them anymore if I taste them.
At that time, money could not buy white sugar and fruit sugar, and the import of Iraqi dates and Cuban brown sugar made up the gap, so for a few years imported dates and black fruit candy became a sweet food that children could eat, although the dates had sand and black water candy sugar tasted bad, but it is still impressive. When I was a child, I liked only this sweetness, Iraqi dates and Cuban sugar. Later, he said that he ate and got sick, but he never saw it. Then eat the candy of Beijing Yili Candy Factory, lobster candy, and then milk candy and chocolate, now I don't eat sugar!
Why did it disappear later?
In the difficult period of life in the early sixties, three foreign things were unforgettable: Irak dates, Canadian flour, Albanian cigarettes, dates sweet, later called hepatitis virus, Canadian flour is very white, allegedly mixed with talcum powder, Albanian cigarettes are very cheap, and people around them smell a strong smell of smelly feet when smoking.
Before 1960, China only had hepatitis A, no hepatitis B, and after Iraqi dates were sold in China, there were gradually many hepatitis that could not heal itself (hepatitis A is self-healing hepatitis, and hepatitis B is incurable hepatitis), that is, hepatitis B, at that time the Chinese government did not quarantine Iraqi dates, Iraq is a country where hepatitis B is endemic (the Chinese government should understand through the embassy), so China has become a big country with hepatitis B epidemic from the sale of Iraqi dates to China, and it is out of control,
When Iraqi dates were imported, the quarantine was not in place, (there were many hepatitis B patients in Iraq), and later caused a domestic hepatitis B pandemic, and it took China decades to control the epidemic, the cost is too great, the gain is not worth the loss!! At that time, the incidence of hepatitis among Iraqis was extremely high, and we imported their dates, but we were afraid of infecting their diseases, so the dates were sterilized at high temperature, and the dates bought by the common people were lump by piece, slimy, and the nuclear flesh was detached. The sticking was because it was afraid of hepatitis infection at that time, and after entering the customs, it was disinfected at high temperature, which destroyed the protection of the skin of the dates, and the sugar in the dates was stimulated by the high temperature.
In childhood in the sixties, Iraqi dates were imported, and I heard that there was hepatitis virus on that date, but I never saw such dates later,