Technically poisonous food…

I’m a long-time gardener,  so I was familiar with nearly all of  this list  of foods which have poisonous parts.   But one of them I had never heard of.   I’ll bet that you,  like me,  have eaten the safe parts of quite a few of them.

 

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What is milk?

The reason  this question  has arisen is that there are dozens of different food items called “milk” which are made from soybeans or almonds or other things and contain no dairy whatsoever.   If this sounds utterly ridiculous,  consider that most children have no clue where food come from,  public education doesn’t teach them anything beyond meat-is-bad,  and few of them have ever seen a working farm or a garden.  They know so little of science and have scant training in logic and common sense that they are unable to figure out that milk by customary definition comes from mammals,  not plants and nuts.

 

 

Vanilla failure…

If you bake you already know that vanilla  beans cost  almost as much as gold does now,  so you’re using a lot less of them now than you did a few years ago.   The price is due to a vanilla crop failure in Madagascar,  where 80% of the world’s supply comes from.   Then the island was hit by Cyclone Enawo in March of 2017,  which destroyed many of the vanilla orchids which produce the seed pods,  and this was followed by a major drought.

Because the crop is now so valuable,  it’s a major target of thieves,  and the unstable government will do nothing,  which forces producers to pick too  early,  resulting in lowered quality.   If the producers don’t get their act together,  the use of synthetic vanilla may kill off the natural flavoring.

 

 

Low fat pigs…

As much as I distrust China, it would be lovely if they are really onto something here.   I like my bacon crisp, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if it hit the skillet with a quarter less fat than usual?

Eat your breakfast…

Yet another study says that skipping breakfast or eating a poor one is bad for you.   I’m trying to eat smaller dinners these days,  but I’m still not that hungry when I arise in the morning.  On the other hand,  I love typical breakfast fare  —  eggs,  bacon,   sausage,  omelettes,  frittatas,  crust-less quiches  —  but I prefer eating them at brunch time.

Never mind –  I’m having them  for breakfast  now.

 

 

 

 

No vegans here…

Not even Hurricane Harvey could persuade Texans to eat  the vegetarian fare on offer at this grocery store…

On the menu…

Perhaps on yours, but I am unlikely to dine at any venue featuring even one of  these terms.   Personally,  I tend to find restaurants which include such items snobbish,  and the food way over-priced.   I mean, why not just say your chicken breasts were simmered in broth with a lovely selection of herbs and spices?   Stop attempting to sound sophisticated and elite by using a foreign phrase which translates as  “in broth”.

Sadly,  too many places are selling the “experience” instead of the actual items for sale.  I want to eat at a restaurant which concentrates on the food first,  then the service,  then the atmosphere.   I don’t care if the tablecloth is red-and-white checked oilcloth instead of crisp white linen.   If the food is good enough, it can be on mismatched crockery,  eaten with mismatched cutlery, and atop a bare wood table.  One of the best meals I ever had was at such a place,  many years ago,  in New Orleans,  and there was no menu,  you were served what had been cooked that day — fresh seafood and vegetables and homemade bread still warm from the oven.