Live data from Hacker News

A street snack that has baffled botanists

atlasobscura.com

1–10 of 204 posts

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#4

“The mysterious that has baffled for ” — Click bait sub editor

A lot of "baffled scientists for decades" is more that the scientists know about it but have never taken time to look as there are other things to do. It is a ridiculous spin.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#5

“The mysterious that has baffled for ” — Click bait sub editor

Yeah, the headline certainly follows the clickbait tropes. But in this case, it appears to be legit - experts actually don't know and the vendors keep it a closely guarded secret.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#8

“The mysterious that has baffled for ” — Click bait sub editor

A lot of "baffled scientists for decades" is more that the scientists know about it but have never taken time to look as there are other things to do. It is a ridiculous spin.

Except, as mentioned in the article, they _did_ look into it, to the extent of DNA testing it! And still didn't come to a particularly satisfactory conclusion. "It might be an agave, but also the agave expert says agaves aren't like that" is about as far as anyone seems to have gotten.

Re: A street snack that has baffled botanists

#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.

Post reply on HN