Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't • Hacker News Board

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#151

Post by robbrown451 » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:21 PM UTC

bustadjustme wrote: post #139

robbrown451 wrote: post #119

Yeah and cucumbers are fruit, birds are dinosaurs, ladybugs are not bugs, peanuts are not nuts, etc. Sometimes I think that scientists should just stick to taxonomic categories or other words that don't conflict with their "common usage" meanings. (and while we all seem to agree that whales aren't fish, they are certainly within the "bony fish" clade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteichthyes and are a lot closer rel…

.... whales certainly aren't bony fish. They're in class Mammalia, which is not within the superclass Osteichthyes. I.e. they're mammals, not fish.

Mammals are tetrapods, which are indeed under Osteichthyes (unless you consider Ostreichtyes to be paraphyletic).

If you look at the cladogram on the wikipedia page I linked, you see a picture of a salamander near the top representing the category Tetrapodomorpha. We (and whales) are also on that branch. Sharks are outside of that whole cladogram, as they are cartilaginous fish. ( * )

In other words, any clade which includes all bony fish also includes mammals.

[*] which means that the most recent common ancestor of sharks and goldfish lived longer ago than the most recent common ancestor of whales and goldfish

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#152

Post by gramakri » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:36 PM UTC

davchana wrote: post #114

sk0g wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You eat apples with salt?! Then again, this is an actual thing in India, albeit with _black_ salt, which is more tangy than bitter and salty.

I carry an apple to work every day with black pepper & salt pouches from Taco Bell, & my american co-workers have asked me why I sprinkle salt on fruit? I explain them we sprinkle salt on apples, banana, guava, pineapple, watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes, onion, oranges and many other things. Black salt is not tangy like lemony, it is just rock salt. Sometimes fruitsalts are salts peppered with ground black pepper and…

guava + black salt is an incredible combo. Sadly, it's very hard to get good guava here in bay area. If anyone knows a good place, I am all ears. I love the the green raw guava more than the white-ish ripe ones.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#153

Post by sitharus » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:41 PM UTC

stan_rogers wrote: post #138

masklinn wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We just don’t ordinarily consume the skin and fleshy part.\ Do you mean they're edible?

That depends on what you mean by "edible". Coffee cherries aren't particularly pleasant, at least not for human tastes, but they're strictly edible. Palm civets seem to like 'em, but not enough to make kopi luak cheap.

The cheapness is mostly because the civets are kept in cages and only fed coffee cherries https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/04/160429-kopi-...

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#154

Post by stjohnswarts » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:42 PM UTC

sk0g wrote: post #78

lhotiuerpoiu wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I eat tomatoes like apples (with salt, I'm not a monster). No kink-shaming please.

You eat apples with salt?! Then again, this is an actual thing in India, albeit with _black_ salt, which is more tangy than bitter and salty.

Some Americans, particularly in the South, will salt their apple slices. It's not bad, but I prefer them straight. I do like salt on melons though

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#155

Post by stjohnswarts » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:47 PM UTC

zamadatix wrote: post #87

globuous wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes !! Tomate à la croque au sel as we call'em !! First time I ate a tomato like that in the US, my american friends made so much fun of me "yo, no way brooo ! he's eating a tomato like an apple, da'fu !! Weird frenchman !!". I still eat my tomatoes like that every so often, it's so good ! Although I think I end up eating quite a bit of salt when I do that which isn't so good...

Dumb question but do you take a bite then add salt on the exposed portion as you eat? Or does salt just stick to tomatoes better than I think?

you take a bite first. Salt obviously won't stick to tomato skin.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#156

Post by stjohnswarts » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:48 PM UTC

dv_dt wrote: post #117

asiachick wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and in South East Asia avocados are eaten as a fruit more than a savory thing like in Mexico. Avocado smoothies are delicious! Also there are tomatoes that are much sweeter than your average USA tomato. In Japan they are called Fruit Tomatoes.

The average US tomato was bred for mass shipping and tastes like wet cardboard. Try an heirloom tomato, or something else less mass produce at a farmers market - they taste completely different.

YEah store tomatoes are terrible. I only like the ones I get at the farmers market. They actually have some taste.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#157

Post by stjohnswarts » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

monadic2 wrote: post #4

Is anything actually gained from rigid definitions like this? People clearly use berry in a different way than botanists do.

For botanists yes it makes a huge difference. For people, they are going to group food more in how it is cooked, used, tastes than what it's taxonomic placement is. So the answer is yes and no.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#158

Post by stjohnswarts » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:53 PM UTC

robbrown451 wrote: post #119

Yeah and cucumbers are fruit, birds are dinosaurs, ladybugs are not bugs, peanuts are not nuts, etc. Sometimes I think that scientists should just stick to taxonomic categories or other words that don't conflict with their "common usage" meanings. (and while we all seem to agree that whales aren't fish, they are certainly within the "bony fish" clade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteichthyes and are a lot closer rel…

No one considers whales to be bony fish. No one.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#159

Post by tapland » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:53 PM UTC

jrhurst wrote: post #104

throwaway_tech wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>yes, those delicious red fruits with "berries" literally in the name — aren't officially berries either. Similar to peanuts not being nuts, but in fact legumes.

Strange. I've often see people with peanut allergies have alligeries to nuts like Almonds but not to Legumes like Chickpeas or Lentils.

Where I am I've never heard of 'nut allergies' including peanuts, but people with allergies to peanuts (and other legumes) specifying peanut allergy.

Re: Bananas Are Berries, Strawberries Aren't

#160

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 9:54 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #76

monadic2 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A word having multiple definitions is not a pun or wordplay, it’s just a word.

Pun - A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word. When we say "a strawberry is not a berry" we're playing on the different meanings of the word berry. It's not a humourous pun, but I would still call it a pun. [1] https://www.thefreedictionary.com/pun

[deleted]