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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

#91

Post by stinos »

wombatmobile wrote: post #74
grenoire wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is literally a Doubt section there, the page isn't well-cited on the food bit.

What do you make of this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlwOrdciEX8 and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7sn42heQ2w Have you ever been to the Champavat region of Uttarakhand?

Interesting; don't speak the language but the first video showa a plant, and then a root/stem, without a link bewteen the two (i.e. harvesting). And the second shows just the stem. So still could go both ways?

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#92

Post by Galaxity »

barkha2803 wrote: post #82
nathanvanfleet wrote: post #23

I 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 wel…

I Just looked up photos of agave sisalana and it actually has a palm like trunk/stem about the size of what is shown being served.

Whereas the agave americana doesn't and seems to grows it's leaves right out from the ground.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisal

Edit: well I guess after looking further I shouldn't say agave americana doesn't have a trunk coming out of the ground. Probably all agaves could if they grow long enough. But it does look like this snack is the trunk of an agave.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#93

Post by jsilence »

daxfohl wrote: post #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?

Usually the professors have a bunch of PhD students working on topics the prof specializes in. So yes and no.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#94

Post by Clewza313 »

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 seems unlikely, since jicama is widely eaten in India as well, and much smaller than what the images depict. (I don't doubt it can grow that large, just that I've never seen it that big.) The texture also looks off for jicama, which is more watery and can't be sliced that thin.

Wikipedia: "In Bengali, it is known as shankhalu (শাঁখ আলু), literally translating to "conch (shankha, শাঁখ) potato (alu, আলু)" for its shape, size, and colour. In Hindi, it is known as mishrikand (मिश्रीकंद). It is eaten during fast (उपवास) in Bihar (India) and is known as kesaur (केसौर). In Odia, it is known as (ଶଙ୍ଖ ସାରୁ) shankha saru."

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#95

Post by Galaxity »

simonh wrote: post #76
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…

According to the article it’s not actually the root, that’s just a story the vendors tell, it’s the stem.

I think it could be the trunk of the agave. I just looked at pictures of agaves and some have short palm like trunks that the leaves come off of at the top instead of being right on the ground like you usually see with the aloe and agave type succulents.

The trunk looks about the same size as the photos of the food object.

The agave sisalana wiki article shows it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisal

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#96

Post by abhi_kr »

Oh, I've eaten this thing once while visiting Dongargarh, a Temple town located in central India.

It was the only time I had seen this thing. There were dozens of vendors selling this lined up on the stairs to the temple.

It seems the snack has gone popular now. It's quite tasteless, felt like eating soft wood.

Never expected to find this on Hackernews!

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#97

Post by danuker »

wombatmobile wrote: post #84
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??

Do you feel that way when you walk into a Subway? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/22/subway-sandw...

De-AMP-ed link (mine was redirecting to the favicon):

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/22/subway-sandw...

I wonder whether it's canned, and whether sterilizing it can make the DNA unreadable (broken down).

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#98

Post by spoonjim »

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??

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.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#99

Post by wombatmobile »

danuker wrote: post #97
wombatmobile wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel that way when you walk into a Subway? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/22/subway-sandw...

De-AMP-ed link (mine was redirecting to the favicon): https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/22/subway-sandw... I wonder whether it's canned, and whether sterilizing it can make the DNA unreadable (broken down).

Thanks. Corrected.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#100

Post by wombatmobile »

sterlind wrote: post #78
bobsmooth wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It kills me that every researcher the writer contacted has never actually seen the plant or bothered to go look for it, including the guy that studied agave!

that's academia for you. lots of book smarts, useless at street smarts.

It's not a question of the competency of academics.

> So why is there still doubt about the identity of this snack? “Which species of agave is it—Sisalana or Americana or any other?” Dr. Shimpale says. “We can’t conclude until the vendors show the plant to us. They keep this as a business secret to create curiosity around it.”

The vendors won't give them access to the source, so the academics can't practice their botany.

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