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A street snack that has baffled botanists

atlasobscura.com

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Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#171

Post by yunohn »

Cederfjard wrote: post #170
yunohn wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure where you’re coming from in this discussion. Nobody is saying bribery won’t work in such situations. But you do understand that the author is a journalist (1), and really just aiming to research for an article that presents some intriguing material, right? Not a roadside snacks competitor, with a large budget to spend on getting these sellers to exfiltrate supply chain intel. (1) https://www.atlasobscura…

I didn’t understand from the phrasing in your initial comment that you were saying ”yeah that could’ve worked, but it wouldn’t have been economically feasible for her to do that just for the sake of an article, so it’s not an actual solution in this context”. So I was genuinely wondering why you thought that wasn’t a real solution. Like you had philosophical objections to doing journalism in that way. But now I’m fol…

Why would you not read the entirety of my comment, and miss the context behind “not a real solution”? If you reread it, you’ll see the the gist of it was the same as my follow-up.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#172

Post by Markoff »

4wsn wrote: post #88
p4bl0 wrote: post #86

I can't access this website on mobile. All I can see is a cookie banner that tries to force me to accept all cookies at once with a big unique "accept" button. There is an almost hidden link to a cookie policy page which itself has a small link to revoke consent which… does not work. Seriously why would a website do that? Is there a copy of the content I could read somewhere else that respect their readers?

Just install uBlock Origin and disable JavaScript by default. There's no other practical way to actually use the web on a mobile device these days. For what it's worth it was a great and very entertaining article.

ublock on mobile? good luck installing extensions, since your only options are buggy slow Firefox or just days ago released updated Kiwi Browser

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#173

Post by treis »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #28
nathanvanfleet wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read the article they say the specific Agave that they linked to using DNA analysis.

From the paper > The similarity search showed 89% identity with the partial sequence of the plastid locus maturase of Agave sisalana

89% isn't very similar though.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#174

Post by JoeAltmaier »

addingnumbers wrote: post #164
spoonjim wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What on earth is in a Cheeto? Far more mysterious than this snack, which is clearly some plant matter with some salt and spices that other people eat regularly without falling over dead.

Cheetos are extruded cornmeal paste that's been fried and dusted with powdered cheese, salt, and MSG

That powder is a trade secret. Every year they make it finer, to coat your taste buds more perfectly and have a more intense flavor. But nobody is questioning if eating microscopic particles of (what?) is healthy or has side effects. It's tasty! Don't get between me and my Cheetos!

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#175

Post by sithadmin »

drubio wrote: post #39

This looks like a giant variety of 'Pachyrhizus erosus' or Jicama, which is also a street snack widely sold in Mexico. I'v never seen ones as large as the one in the article, but the watery texture and how it's condimented (lemon, sugar, salt, chili powder) is exactly like Jicama. Seems wikipedia has a reference to ones as large as 2 meters and 20 kg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachyrhizus_erosus so it may be like…

It looks much more like a peeled and shaped west african giant yam than it does any kind of jicama.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#176

Post by matheusmoreira »

dandelany wrote: post #105
girishso wrote: post #10

I have eaten it many times, vendors say it's a root. But the last time I ate it, it was little more fibrous and hard and I ate little more than the usual. For the next couple of days my tongue was itching and I had little difficulty speaking. Then I googled it and read somewhere that it's not edible. It's surprising experts don't know what the thing is given it's so commonly available.

Yikes. Your symptoms were likely caused by calcium oxalate raphides, little mineral needles present in raw agave (and several other plants). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphide

That's extremely interesting. Nature never ceases to amaze.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#177

Post by mekoka »

drubio wrote: post #39

This looks like a giant variety of 'Pachyrhizus erosus' or Jicama, which is also a street snack widely sold in Mexico. I'v never seen ones as large as the one in the article, but the watery texture and how it's condimented (lemon, sugar, salt, chili powder) is exactly like Jicama. Seems wikipedia has a reference to ones as large as 2 meters and 20 kg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachyrhizus_erosus so it may be like…

In 2010, after a long anatomical study, they performed DNA barcoding on a slice of the snack and found it to match that of agave’s by 89 percent [narrowed] down to Agave Sisalana. [...] Next, they chopped off its leaves and there it was: the fat, white, watery trunk familiar to millions of Indians from food carts. They ate a slice from it, and it was tasteless and crunchy just like Ram Kand. The findings were published inCurrent Science the following year.

When I look at the Jicama plant it doesn't even remotely look like an Agave. It certainly doesn't seem to me that DNA barcoding would yield an 89% match with Agave Sisalana.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#178

Post by CarelessExpert »

q-rews wrote: post #158
a_bonobo wrote: post #20

Isn't it a bit... terrifying to buy and eat food, when nobody wants to tell you what that food actually is??

My logic is: If others eat it, it’s fine. It also helps to eat it with someone who’s somewhat familiar with it. My first time in Thailand I ate a disgusting salty soup with a spoon. It turns out you’re supposed to dip vegetables in it. What I did was the equivalent of eating ketchup with a spoon, except it was many times more flavorful. Now I love it: น้ำพริกกะปิ

> My logic is: If others eat it, it’s fine

People used to eat radium, inhale mercury, and play in piles of asbestos before we came to understand their long term health effects.

You might want to rethink this.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#179

Post by darkerside »

mekoka wrote: post #177
drubio wrote: post #39

This looks like a giant variety of 'Pachyrhizus erosus' or Jicama, which is also a street snack widely sold in Mexico. I'v never seen ones as large as the one in the article, but the watery texture and how it's condimented (lemon, sugar, salt, chili powder) is exactly like Jicama. Seems wikipedia has a reference to ones as large as 2 meters and 20 kg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachyrhizus_erosus so it may be like…

In 2010, after a long anatomical study, they performed DNA barcoding on a slice of the snack and found it to match that of agave’s by 89 percent [narrowed] down to Agave Sisalana. [...] Next, they chopped off its leaves and there it was: the fat, white, watery trunk familiar to millions of Indians from food carts. They ate a slice from it, and it was tasteless and crunchy just like Ram Kand. The findings were publish…

The source code for two applications might match 89% and yield completely different results

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#180

Post by esquivalience »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #169
drubio wrote: post #39

This looks like a giant variety of 'Pachyrhizus erosus' or Jicama, which is also a street snack widely sold in Mexico. I'v never seen ones as large as the one in the article, but the watery texture and how it's condimented (lemon, sugar, salt, chili powder) is exactly like Jicama. Seems wikipedia has a reference to ones as large as 2 meters and 20 kg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachyrhizus_erosus so it may be like…

"This looks like a giant variety of Jicama"... A giant variety that has heretofor been unknown to the world? Hacker News, we cracked the case! Edit I feel like I should explain the snark. The comment I'm replying to is coming from a classic flaw in human reasoning. "This looks kinda like this other thing I'm familiar with. So clearly it must be some variety of that!" Then it's couched in some authoritative sounding w…

Respectfully, you inferred the conclusion "So clearly it must be some variety of that!". GF doesn't say that, they merely say it may be like that and that the explanation given in the article doesn't agree with their experience.
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