It’s not just oysters. The world is full of speciality foodstuffs with elaborate methods of preparation along the lines of “it tastes absolutely divine – but first you need to pick out all the minute black bits, then you bury it three feet deep on the lee side of an oak tree no less than two feet in diameter for six weeks, and then you have to heat it to boiling point and let it cool down again three times so it won’t kill you when you eat it”.
One wonders who figured all of that out and how many casualties it took.
“He was a brave man who was the second one to eat a cassava root.”
– Jonathan Swift (probably)
We must acknowledge the courage and ingenuity of the folk (probably women) who 10,000 years ago developed the methods of detoxifying cassava, a staple crop for half a billion people in the developing world, and without which the developed world would have no source of bubble tea.
That’s an interesting thought, but I’m pretty sure that silica gel has never been found in nature on the surface of the Earth.
Natural silicate weathering uses carbon dioxide and water to produce very low concentrations of orthosilicic acid (H4SiO4) in river water (less than 100ppm). In the lab it is possible to carefully concentrate the acid to a point where it forms polymerised acids and then to hydrated silica gel; but I honestly can’t think of a way of getting that to happen in nature as the acids really much prefer reverting straight to silica and water.
The silica gel we buy is usually manufactured by acidifying sodium silicate (itself made by reacting silica with sodium hydroxide) to produce a precipitate.
Scandinavians and their fish dishes … they may be stretching the concept of “edible” in novel and otherwise unseen directions – but it probaby takes Viking genes to find them appealing.
I don’t even know a Norwegian who likes it.
“I Lutefisk” is funny because it is absolutely untrue.
If it has onions, the onions are ok. If it is nouveau and has potatoes, wow, the potatoes are ok. If aquavit is served, ja, now it’s time to roast the Swedes.
Lutefisk” is funny because it is absolutely untrue.