Isn't it a bit... terrifying to buy and eat food, when nobody wants to tell you what that food actually is??
coke secret recipe, KFC secret herbs and spices
Health authorities know those. Street food isn't regulated that way.
A street snack that has baffled botanists
81–90 of 204 posts
Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists
#82I read this article elsewhere. I don't quite get why it says no one know's, then it's genetically and visually matched to a type of agave, and then they go back to not knowing? It seems some of the counter argument is assuming that "Agave" are all the same when specific types will have specific traits. Otherwise it's an interesting read.
Hi. I am the author of this article :) To sum up, most research as of now points to Agave but botanists who did the DNA barcoding don't want to commit to Agave. For two reasons:
1) It is 89% close to Agave, the Sisalana variety but 11% is open to doubts and research.
2)The Agave expert, who tried to make a beverage out of it and has worked on it for years, says it's can't be agave. He has eaten both the snack, as well as agave, that's why.
To complicate things, I have inspected agave (its length and girth) closely and I find it impossible to believe that it can hold within it such a fat and smooth thing. But I am no scientist.
I went to a village recently, which has agave growing left, right and centre. One woman suggested it could be Eetha Gadda, a palm, and my heart sank because its stump did look very fat. But then other villagers said it wasn't possible. They think it's most likely Agave and their ancestors probably ate in the past, during drought.
I plan to do a behind-the-scenes vlog for the article to explain what all I have tried and what all you may take further. For starters, a reader from the US says something similar from Agave is eaten in Mexico. A reader from Iraq says this may belong to a palm tree but the stump isn't as fat.
I hope you and botanists will tell me more.
Good luck.
Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists
#83The whole business sounds very shady. It's likely that the plant is sourced from the side of roads, untended fields, forests, construction companies (selling anything they find for coffee money), etc. It's a completely black area, outside of food regulations, so they can't expose the actual source, no matter what. This can also explain the confusing reports from multiple researchers, because academic "species" don't…
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Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists
#84Isn't it a bit... terrifying to buy and eat food, when nobody wants to tell you what that food actually is??
Do you feel that way when you walk into a Subway?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/22/subway-sandw...
Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no food 'regulation' for the snacks sold in open cart. There are innumerable varieties of such snack which are not 'mysterious'. This seems to be 'mysterious' because of the writing skill of the author. She successfully managed to create a buzz. If finding the answer was the goal it could have been easily found out by offering 10X-50X (approx $150-$700 = Annual income perhaps) the money they offered mentione…
Not if it’s actually toxic. In that case revealing the source could get them in serious trouble and wouldn’t be worth it at any price.
For a year's income the person involved could show them, get the money, and book it to a different part of the city where they'll be impossible to find again.
Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists
#86I 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?
Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists
#87The whole business sounds very shady. It's likely that the plant is sourced from the side of roads, untended fields, forests, construction companies (selling anything they find for coffee money), etc. It's a completely black area, outside of food regulations, so they can't expose the actual source, no matter what. This can also explain the confusing reports from multiple researchers, because academic "species" don't…
There is no food 'regulation' for the snacks sold in open cart. There are innumerable varieties of such snack which are not 'mysterious'. This seems to be 'mysterious' because of the writing skill of the author. She successfully managed to create a buzz. If finding the answer was the goal it could have been easily found out by offering 10X-50X (approx $150-$700 = Annual income perhaps) the money they offered mentione…
This seems to be 'mysterious' because of the writing skill of the author.
While 'mysterious' is hard to quantify objectively, the thing is: it is not known for sure what it is yet widely available, sounds mysterious enough, right? Or is your point that it actualy is known, but the author doesn't happen to know?
it could have been easily found out by offering 10X-50X
What makes you so sure the author can easily come up with what you call an 'annual income perhaps', just to pursue some story?
Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists
#88I 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.
Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists
#89> "We are professors, busy between teaching and administrative work, so we rely on existing literature to come to conclusions"
Is this really what academia is like?