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Weekly Trivia Quiz is below
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2012
TODAY’S FOOD QUOTE
“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”
Yogi Berra, American baseball player (1925)
TODAY IN FOOD HISTORY
- National Frozen Yogurt Day
- New Zealand: National Day
- Feast of St. Amand, patron of bartenders, brewers, vintners.
- St. Dorothy's Day, patron of brewers, gardeners and florists.
1617 Prospero Alpini died. An Italian physician and botanist, he is said to have introduced coffee and bananas to Europe and to have been the first to artificially fertilize date palms.
1685 Charles II, king of England, died. Known as the 'Merry Monarch.' Tea was introduced to England during his reign. On December 23, 1675, he issued a proclamation suppressing Coffee Houses. The public response was so negative that he had to revoke it on January 8, 1676.
1796 John Stevens Henslow was born. This British clergyman and botanist was a mentor of Charles Darwin. To help get farmers to apply scientific methods, he gave lectures on the fermentation of manure. He also showed Irish farmers how to get starch from rotten potatoes during the potato famine of 1845-1846.
1865 A horse meat banquet is held at the Grand Hotel in Paris.
1898 Rudolf Karl George Friedrich Leuckart died. A German zoologist and pioneer in the modern study of parasites. He showed that trichinosis was caused by a worm-like parasite.
1985 Perrier introduced Perrier with 'a twist of lemon' - its first new product in 125 years.
FOOD TRIVIA QUIZ (new on February 3, 2012)
1) What small vegetable takes its name for its part in the diet of one of the branches of the U.S. military in the second half of the 19th century?
2) This egg-shaped tropical fruit has a brittle, wrinkled rind enclosing flesh-covered seeds. The seeds are edible, so you can eat the orange pulp straight from the shell. Its highly aromatic pulp and juice are used as a flavoring for beverages and sauces. The pulp has an intense aromatic flavor, while the texture is jelly-like and watery. The name of this fruit is:
a) Babaco
b) Pomegranate
c) Mamee Apple
d) Passion Fruit
e) Guava
3) William Mitchell, a research chemist for General Foods, invented a chemical process in 1956. For years the company searched for a way to utilize it, and finally came up with a novelty product in 1974. Can you describe this process and name the novelty food?
(Hint: Periodically a story surfaces (untrue) that when this product is eaten together with a certain beverage, the results will prove deadly.)
4) Cook them, mash them up, dehydrate them. Reconstitute them with moisture to make a dough; cut into a uniform size and shape and package in air tight containers. They were introduced in 1969 by Proctor and Gamble. What were they when they started out, and what is the name of the final packaged product?
5) This relative of buckwheat originated in Western China and neighboring areas. Its traditional role was medicinal - the dried root was a popular remedy for a wide range of illnesses. Its primary function was to induce vomiting, although it is also a mild astringent. This medicinal role caused the price of the dried root to rise. In 1542, it sold for ten times the price of cinnamon in France and in 1657 it sold for over twice the price of opium in England. Beginning in the eighteenth century, it began to be consumed in foods, primarily drinks and meat stews. Botanically speaking, it is considered a vegetable, but it's most often treated as a fruit — though it's rarely eaten raw. It was introduced to the United States at the end of the eighteenth century. Today most of it is frozen for commercial and institutional use; only about a quarter of the crop is sold fresh. What is this strange plant?
6) The origin of English shoe sizing is directly connected with a grass grain and a decree issued by Edward I of England in about the year 1305. What grain and how is it connected with English shoe sizes?
7) This food product, introduced by General Foods in 1965, was added by NASA to the galley of the Gemini astronauts. In July 1969 it traveled to the Moon on the Apollo mission. Name this food product.
8) This relative of the apple and pear is one of the earliest known fruits. For over 4,000 years, trees have grown in Asia and the Mediterranean. Today, it is also found in Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States. The fruit as we know it in the United States is a different fruit from that found in Western Asia and tropical countries, where the fruit is softer and more juicy. In colder climates, the fruit has a fine, handsome shape, a rich golden color when ripe, and a strong fragrance, judged by some to be heavy and overpowering. In the raw form, the rind is rough and woolly, and the flesh is hard and unpalatable, with an astringent, acidulous taste. In hotter countries, the woolly rind disappears and the fruit can be eaten raw. Because it’s rarely used in its raw form in the United States, the hard and dry flesh of this fruit turns light pink to purple, becoming softer and sweeter when it’s cooked. Because of the astringent, tart flavor, they are commonly made into preserves and jellies. Name this fruit.
9) They were first developed in Sicily and were known to both the Greeks and the Romans. In 77 AD the Roman naturalist Pliny called them one of earth's monstrosities, but many continued to eat them. Historical accounts show that wealthy Romans enjoyed them prepared in honey and vinegar, seasoned with cumin, so that this treat would be available year round. It was not until the early twentieth century that they were grown in the United States. All that are commercially grown in the United States are grown in California. They are actually a flower bud, and if allowed to flower, the blossoms measure up to seven inches in diameter and are a violet-blue color. Name this plant.
Click here for the answers to this Culinary Quiz
Dedication
This website is dedicated to:
Gladys Ehler, my mother, who taught me patience and how to make Sauerbraten
(it is still my favorite)
Edward Ehler, my father, who taught me a love of books and history.
Cpl. Thomas E. Saba, my nephew. Died in action on Feb. 7, 2007 in Iraq.
He was 30 yrs. young.
Chef James
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