slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) (08/02/85)
> >What I wonder about is the first guy that cut open an onion and came >running in, crying, that s/he found food :-) > > -Barry Shein, Boston University > The discovery that has always amazed me is that rhubarb is edible. Wonderful stuff--but only if cooked with lots of sugar. (NO, NO, don't flame me for saying SUGAR, I meant honey...crackle, sizzle....AEEEIIIII :-)) And the leaves are poisonous. One has to wonder at the nerve of that person. (Maybe they were just very hungry?) -- Sue Brezden Real World: Room 1B17 Net World: ihnp4!drutx!slb AT&T Information Systems 11900 North Pecos Westminster, Co. 80234 (303)538-3829 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your god may be dead, but mine aren't. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
rlr@stcvax.UUCP (Roger Rose) (08/12/85)
I've always considered tapioca to be one of the most amazing food discoveries,
because it is quite poisonous until it goes through a large number of processes.
I wonder how manu peasant's must have died just because some ruler was sure
that this plant could be made edible.
--
Roger Rose
Storage Technology Corp.
Louisville, Co.
{hao ihnp4 decvax}!stcvax!rlrdkatz@zaphod.UUCP (Dave Katz) (08/12/85)
In article <50@drutx.UUCP> slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) writes: > >The discovery that has always amazed me is that rhubarb is edible. >And the leaves are poisonous. One has to wonder at the nerve of that >person. (Maybe they were just very hungry?) > How about tapioca. I hear it is poisonous unless cooked first! D. Katz
ddyment@ubc-cs.UUCP (Doug Dyment) (08/17/85)
**** Many years ago (i.e., I forget the source), I read the following story of the "discovery" of tapioca. Apparently its poisonous nature was well known to natives, and when someone (acutally, a white person) was lost in the jungle, with apparently no hope of rescue, he decided to speed his demise by eating some of the poisonous root. In an attempt to make it taste better, he cooked it first, and voila!, both a new discovery and a foodstuff to support him during his eventually successful search for civilization.