[Steve]

My wife always surprises with me great food for dinner. She just came back from a trip and I had of course let the fridge pretty well run out of most vegetables and things that she would use to cook with. Still she outdid herself as usual.

We had a little salad, and then she cooked the rice in the rice-cooker, heated up the wok, put in some olive oil and then some crushed garlic, let it really infuse the oil, and then added the cooked rice along with some left over cheese, Parmiggiano, Emmentahl and a bit of Gorgonzola. She let it all cook together and stirred it together in the wok.

That was our pasta dish. Better than spaghetti. Then we had a chicken cacciatore and small fennel side dish again with olive oil. Awesome, all washed down with a nice Cote du Rhone. It is hard to go out when even the left overs are done so well.

[michele]

Sounds tasty! And very like my own 鸡蛋炒米饭 ( I use minced shallot instead of crushed garlic).

[ML]

To my opinion, food is one the most importance pleasures of life. I hardly go out for dinner also because my wife is an excellent chef at home. I have to admit I am quite spoiled with my wife's delicate cuisine.

[bypasser]

The title is very tempting, Chinese and Italian cuisine. When read to the crushed garlic in heated oil, I almost could hear the mouth-watering sizzling sound.

We dine out a lot, probably because neither of us is a good cook. For Chinese food, I like to go to the Hong Kong or Macao style places, since the cuisine there is a mixture of traditional Chinese cooking and other styles from the world. As long as the food tastes good, I do not care whether they are authentic or not. Maybe Chinese fried rice in Italian Cheese and French wine; I assume Cote du Rhone is a French wine, is a genuine Canadian gourmet.

The local sushi place just added a new item on their menu, sushi pizza. The dough was made of rice. The toppings are fish and vegetables. Then they put it in oven and serve when it is hot. I was not impressed with the taste in my first try but will go back to see where the imagination of the chef will lead to.

Sometimes such experiment could result in a total failure. One time, I tried to prepare the Chinese dumplings in a different way. Instead boiling them as tradition dictates, I put them into oven and announced to my family that they were going to have a crispy dumpling dinner this time. It turned out the wrap was stiff instead crispy, and the inside is very dry, a total disaster. So I figured it is better to let the chefs in restaurant try new ways first.

[Aqua]

[quote:84d81501be="Steve"]We had a little salad, and then she cooked the rice in the rice-cooker, heated up the wok, put in some olive oil and then some crushed garlic, let it really infuse the oil, and then added the cooked rice along with some left over cheese, Parmiggiano, Emmentahl and a bit of Gorgonzola. [/quote:84d81501be]
I have read somewhere that the olive oil should not be heated up to a very high temperature because that will create some chemical that leads to a cancer. So I guess it's better not to fry things with olive oil but just to use it for seasoning food (or steaming food? because we all know that steaming temperature won't be higher than 100C, while frying temperature could be several hundred centigrade, or even higher).

Just FYI

[Steve]

While our rice in the wok was not really fried for very long, since we cooked the rice in the rice cooker ahead of time and then added it to the oil and crushed garlic.

I did research olive oil and frying on Google. I saw only positive indications for frying with olive oil, as opposed to other oils. It seemed to be all right to fry with olive oil. I am not talking about deep frying of course. I would interested to know your source of information.

[Aqua]

I also think you were not deep frying and it should be OK. I forgot the source by the way. Since nothing shows up in your googling, there also is a possibility that the warning is a false one

I did google, too, it seems that most sources tell it's good for high temperature except for a few Chinese websites that have a different view, such as www.healthhouse.com.tw.../olive.htm

要看食用油是否適合高溫烹調﹐可以從兩個地方來判斷。一是食用油的脂肪酸比例﹐不飽和脂肪酸含量高的油脂﹐在高溫下比較容易產生化學變化﹐產生自由基等有害物質﹔另一個是食用油的發煙點。什麼是發煙點？就是把油脂加熱到產生油煙的溫度。廚房的油煙﹐容易傷肺﹐也傷皮膚。油煙與肺癌的關係﹐這幾年也被廣泛的研究與討論。一般來說﹐油脂精製度高的﹐發煙點較高﹐也就比較耐高溫。例如未精製的黃豆油﹐發煙點只有約攝氏160度﹐精製後﹐可以提高到約攝氏220度。[7abfea983]橄欖油的不飽和脂肪酸含量高﹐經過實驗﹐大部份的橄欖油發煙點也比較低。因此橄欖油如果經過高溫烹調（如油炸等）﹐會比較容易產生油煙與自由基等有害物質﹐影響健康。　　因此橄欖油最合適的使用方法﹐就是把食物燙熟後﹐再拌入橄欖油吃﹐不宜做為油炸用油。
[/7abfea983]
As most sites say it's not a problem, I guess it's not serious at all. And I guess my previous reading on this must be from a Chinese newspaper or alike. And you know, newspapers are not so trustful

[Steve]

I did some more research and found that there is quite a range of advice on what oils to use. There are pros and cons to cocnut oil, peanut oil, olive oil, canola oil, sunflower oils and even butter.

My overall impression is that as long as you do not reuse the oil too often you should use whatever oil you like. Usually it is at restaurants that oil is used over and over.

[Steve]

Since I collected these comments from the web into a word file I might as well paste them here.
My conclusion is still that you should be guided by your taste buds. My wife won't use olive oil for sauteing or frying because it is too expensive. When she is not around I fry with extra virgin olive oil because I like the taste.


Cancer Concerns With Olive Oil
by John Deane M.D.
8/8/2001 - There was a deluge of mail from persons concerned about developing cancer from frying with olive oil. It is unknown where this latest food myth comes from but this sort of misinformation seems to spread like a computer virus. Perhaps it was the finding of contaminants in Spanish refined olive oil in early 2001 which prompted the concerns.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are a group of chemicals which are formed when petroleum, petroleum products, coal, wood, cellulose, corn, or oil are burned. There are over 100 PAHs which have been studied. During oxidation and detoxification in the liver they are thought to form substances which damage DNA, starting a chain of events which could lead to cancer. A few of them have been classified by the EPA and The Department of Health and Human Services as carcinogenic to animals in studies and probably carcinogenic to humans.
A person's exposure at home to PAHs would likely be through tobacco smoke, wood smoke, vehicle exhausts, asphalt roads, coal, coal tar, wildfires, agricultural burning, waste incineration, creosote-treated wood products, cereals, grains, flour, bread, vegetables, fruits, meat, processed or pickled foods.
At work you could be exposed to PAHs in coal tar production plants, coking plants, bitumen and asphalt production plants, coal-gasification sites, smoke houses, aluminum production plants, coal tarring facilities, municipal trash incinerators and by inhaling engine exhaust. PAHs can also be found in the mining, oil refining, metalworking, chemical production, transportation, and the electrical industry.
Twenty years ago there was a food scare when PAHs were first being researched. They were found in meat and other foods which had been cooked at high temperatures, such as grilling and charring. The American Institute for Cancer Research recommends to avoid charring meat when grilling, pre-marinade, which somehow minimizes PAH formation, and minimize the amount of grilled meats consumed. (Grilled vegetables or fruit do not form PAHs).
Many foods naturally contain small quantities of PAHs. Olive oil, like other vegetable cooking oils, has been found to contain minute amounts of up to 17 PAHs such as benzanthracene and chrysene. Unripe olives tended to have more than ripe olives.
Burning any cooking oil can increase the amounts of PAHs. Oil of any kind which has been repeatedly heated to its smoking point will lose it's natural antioxidants and begin to accumulate free radicals and other cancer causing substances. Whether this has actually caused cancer in humans has never been proven. Commercial industrial kitchens which fry foods would be where this sort of thing might happen. It is unlikely that you would repeatedly fry at continuous high temperatures with the same oil at home. In commercial operations the oil is examined regularly with a rancidity test and discarded before it gets to a dangerous stage. Olive oil is typically not used in commercial kitchens as it is much too expensive. Cheaper oils like canola, corn or peanut oil are used instead. Extra virgin olive oil has fewer free fatty acids and more antioxidants which soak up free radicals. So heating it would produce fewer free radicals than a lower grade olive oil. It is unlikely that in home use olive oil or other cooking oils would be a significant source of PAHs.
Sometimes when people hear cancer, they panic and forget that we are surrounded by possible carcinogens, ranging from nearly every food we eat to sunlight. Although a substance we are exposed to is capable of causing cancer, the probability that this actually happens may be vanishingly small. Exposure to second hand cigarette smoke or going outside without sun block is probably thousands of times more likely to cause cancer than burning your cooking oil.
References:
Encyclopedia Britannica
Kiritsakaas, Apostolos, Olive Oil From the Tree to the Table,
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 1995. Toxicological profile for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service
Olive Oil and Skin Cancer
8/13/2001 - A Japanese researcher has found that hairless mice exposed to damaging doses of sunlight then soothed with olive oil developed fewer skin cancers. We don't know if people's skin will react the same as hairless mice but its a good bet that the antioxidants in olive oil could prevent cancer in humans too. Sunlight causes damage to DNA and creates free radicals which cause oxidative damage. Olive oil has polyphenols and other natural antioxidants which could prevent the type of damage which leads to cancer. Cheaper refined olive oil didn't seem to help the mice as much as fresh, extra virgin olive oil. The utility of this study is unclear as no amount of olive oil would undo all the damage caused by the sun. A wiser course would be to avoid the sun, use a hat and sunscreens and save the olive oil for a salad.
Olive Oil and a Greek diet lowers cancer
Oliver Spits
Sausalito, California - An article from the September issue of Hippocrates magazine summarized the findings from a new study out of the University of Ste.-Etienne. 605 men and women who had suffered a heart attack were put on one of two diets. One was the American Heart Association's (AHA) diet which permitted meat, cream and butter. "The other half ate like Greeks, consuming less of those items and more fruits, vegetables, cereals, beans, and fish, as well as olive oil and a canola oil margarine". The study was designed to look at the effect of diet on heart disease but found that after four years the "Greek" group had less cancer, just two new cases of cancer verses 12 in the AHA diet group. This is a small study and needs to be followed up with a much bigger one, but the results are very surprising.
Olive Oil May Protect Against Colon Cancer
by John Deane M.D.
Animal studies have show that dietary fats increase the development of colon tumors. Colon cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in Americans. The fact that the Western diet is high in fats and Americans have a much higher risk of colon cancer than people in the rest of the world seems to be related. But different fats have different effects. Doctors in the department of Gastroenterology, University Hospital in Barcelona decided to test olive oil to see if it could safeguard against colon cancer compared to other oils. It is well know that olive oil seems to confer several healthful benefits to Southern Europeans. Investigators studied the effects of a diet rich in safflower, fish oil or olive oil on rats which had been given a chemical which accelerates cancer in the bowel. After five months, twice as many rats in the safflower group had developed tumors as the rats in the other two groups. It is not known what specific property of olive oil lowers the incidence of bowel tumors. Olive Oil is an n9 fatty acid with a different structure from safflower and fish oil. Dietary olive oil was shown to help prevent colon cancer development. The study authors postulated that these effects may be partly due to a lowering of inflammation chemicals made in the gut. Olive Oil has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects in several other studies. Studies also suggest that olive oil can decrease the incidence of breast cancer.
Bartoli R, Fernandez-Banares F, Navarro E, Castella E, Mane J, Alvarez M, Pastor C, Cabre E, Gassull MA
Department of Gastroenterology, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Carretera del Canyet s/n, 08916 Badalona, Spain.
Olive Oil is the Healthy Choice for Frying
by John Deane M.D.
San Rafael - Heating olive oil to frying temperatures ruins its delicate flavor but can also decrease the amount of healthful antioxidants and create hazardous aldehydes. The same is true for any oil. In a study at Ankara University in Turkey, investigators examined the effect of heating olive oil, sunflower oil and soy oil to 180 degrees C. Olive oil fared the best. It retained its natural antioxidant defense potential and formed the fewest potentially cancer causing aldehydes. For more information contact Ankara University, Medical Faculty, Department of Biochemistry, Turkey. durak@pallas.dialup.ankara.edu.tr 1/2000
Can you fry with olive oil?
Yes. But take your cue from some of the best chefs in the Mediterranean: use extra virgin olive oil for sautéeing or stir frying; olive oil,with its relatively high smoke point, can be used for deep fat frying.

............................different opinion in a way but not really

If the taste of olive oil is a problem, or if you are frying or sautéing food, then you should consider coconut oil. Many nutritionally misinformed people would consider this unwise due to coconut oil's nearly exclusive content of saturated fat. However, this is just not the case. Because it has mostly saturated fat, it is much less dangerous to heat. The heat will not tend to cause the oil to transition into dangerous trans fatty acids.