BEIJING, Sept 7 (AP) -- It's dinner time at the Northeast Black Earth Restaurant and pork is the main order of the day -- from sweet-and-sour chops to pork slices with wood ear fungus and the house specialty, braised pig face.

Diners sip beer and smoke cigarettes as they tuck into their favorite dishes, unconcerned about a swine-borne disease in Sichuan province, hundreds of kilometers (miles) away, that has killed 38 people since June.

"What should we be worried about?" said one customer as he crunched on a deep fried chunk of pork.

"We've always eaten only properly inspected meat," said the 50-year-old man who would give only his surname, Shi. "Pork is the meat of the Han Chinese."

Pigs have long figured prominently in Chinese culture and daily life: as a livelihood in the vast rural areas, the Year of the Pig in the traditional horoscope and the comic character Zhu Bajie in the classic novel "Journey to the West."

The country is the world's biggest producer of pork and its most voracious consumer, from dumplings in its north to roast whole suckling pig in the south, and all the other steamed, smoked and boiled variations in between.

In China, the word meat automatically refers to pork and the Chinese character for "home" is made up of the symbol for a pig under that for a roof.

In 2004, more than 618 million pigs were raised and 47 million tons of meat were produced, according to the Web site of the China Animal Husbandry Association. Only 383,000 tons were exported, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

So a disease, primarily spread to humans through handling and butchering of sick pigs, could threaten all of that -- especially in Sichuan, China's biggest pork producing area.

"The impact was huge," said an official from the Sichuan Poultry Association who refused to give his name.

Market sales of pork dropped by between 20 and 40 percent in the province during the outbreak, which health experts said was the largest and deadliest in years. Prices plunged by up to 10 percent, according to the official, who said it was too early to give exact figures.

The central government's efforts to curb the spread of the disease -- which infected more than 200 people and spread to parts of other provinces -- was also swift and strict. Pork exports from affected areas in Sichuan were banned and tighter management of the industry was ordered. Officials who failed to enforce the measures faced punishment.

Even so, experts say the threat of the pig illness, blamed on the bacteria Streptococcus suis, is unlikely to change eating habits anytime soon or have a long-term consequence.

"People have experienced diseases in chickens and cows, but they are still eating chicken meat and beef," said Wang Xiaoju from the Beijing Food Industry Association.

In August, the government declared the outbreak under control in Sichuan and last week, Beijing lifted its ban on pork imports from the province.

"The situation is gradually getting normal," said an official from the China Animal Husbandry Association who would give only his family name, Liu.

"It is not a bad thing for us to have experienced the outbreak, because through this event, our animal husbandry industry is becoming better and sanitation and quarantine work will be much improved in the future," he said.

China is still sensitive after being criticized for being reluctant to release information during its outbreak of severe acute respiratory disease, which killed nearly 800 people around the globe before subsiding in 2003. It has also battled outbreaks of avian influenza, which affected poultry sales.

In Beijing, the Sichuan provincial government office received faxes with information on the disease. Its restaurant suffered a small slump in business at the height of the outbreak, but has since rebounded, said Yang Min, one of the managers.

Customers now line up night after night and specialties such as pork with glutinous rice and pork stuffed buns are usually sold out.

Back at the Black Earth restaurant, the pig face dish remains popular. The meat is first charred, then deep fried, then boiled in soup before being braised for hours in a pressure cooker. The result is a hearty mix of fat and lean pig _ eyes, teeth and tongue intact -- in a rich gravy that can be sopped up with accompanying flour pancakes.

"Very few people have mentioned the sickness," said owner Zhou Jilong. "Sichuan is so far away and the outbreak wasn't that serious. SARS and bird flu had worse effects on my business."

At the Dong Jiao market in central Beijing, hunks of pink-grey pork ribs and loins are displayed on wooden blocks. Vendors are swatting flies with plastic bags tied to sticks.

"There's no change in business," said one vendor who would give only her surname, Wei. "I can't keep track of customers. There are too many of them."

Li Qiang, a restaurant chef who bought a loin of pork from her, said the Sichuan epidemic "made no difference to us."

"It's all been inspected," Li said as he rode away on his bicycle. "It's tradition. Pork will always be in our diet."