"Judy Cosler" > wrote in message
...
> From Barbara Tropp's "The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking", in a note on
> p. 212 under the recipe for Lettuce-Wrapped Oyster Beef:
> "Raw lettuce wrappers are of Cantonese origin and of very recent date
> and are probably a reflection of foreign taste. The Chinese
> traditionally use human excrement as fertilizer -- witness one of my
> favorite book titles, 'Poo-Poo Make Plant Glow' -- so raw lettuce (on
> account of the poo-poo) was a no-no."

Ah, and so that explains the origins of the ubiquitous "poo-poo
platter".....:-)

Bob M.