Food — Page 6

The avocado is botanically a fruit.

The avocado is a fruit, in fact a large berry with a single seed. It belongs to the same botanical family as cinnamon…

The Aztecs ate chocolate as a sweet dessert.

The Aztecs consumed chocolate as a bitter, frothy drink, seasoned with chilli and spices. Sweet chocolate as a…

Vanilla is naturally pollinated by bees in all regions of the world.

Outside Mexico, vanilla has no natural pollinators. That is why all vanilla flowers grown in other countries are…

Real wasabi is a type of radish.

Authentic wasabi is made from the root of Eutrema japonicum, a plant in the radish family. The spicy green paste…

Durian is banned on some public transport in Southeast Asia.

Durian has such a strong and penetrating smell that it is banned on some subways, buses and hotels in Singapore…

Fugu, a Japanese fish, contains a deadly poison.

Fugu (pufferfish) contains tetrodotoxin, a poison that can be fatal if ingested. Only licensed chefs in Japan can…

The century egg is an egg fermented for decades.

The century egg, a Chinese delicacy, is preserved for weeks or months in a mixture of clay, ash, salt and lime. The…

Bananas emit natural ionising radiation.

Bananas contain potassium-40, a natural radioactive isotope that exists in all living things. The dose emitted by a…

Carrots are always orange.

The original carrots were purple or yellow. The orange variety was developed in the Netherlands in the 17th century…

The Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency.

The Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency and a unit of exchange. A rabbit cost about 10 beans, and a slave could cost…

A pineapple takes about two months to grow.

The pineapple is a herbaceous plant that can take between 18 and 24 months to produce a single fruit. The plant…

Casu marzu is an Italian cheese with live fly larvae.

Casu marzu, a traditional cheese from Sardinia, is left in the open for the cheese fly to lay its eggs. The larvae…

Hakarl is a fermented cheese from Iceland.

Hakarl is an Icelandic dish made from fermented and dried Greenland shark meat. The meat is buried for weeks to…

Surstromming is considered one of the foods with the strongest smell in the world.

Surstromming is a Swedish fermented herring that undergoes a fermentation process producing acetic acid, propionic…

Huitlacoche is a type of Mexican cheese.

Huitlacoche is an edible fungus that grows on corn, considered a delicacy in Mexico. Also called the Mexican truffle…

Tea contains theanine, an amino acid that promotes relaxation.

Tea, especially green tea, contains theanine, an amino acid that crosses the blood-brain barrier and promotes a state…

Decaffeinated coffee does not stimulate acid production in the stomach.

Coffee, even decaffeinated, stimulates acid production in the stomach. Studies show that other substances in coffee…

The acidity of olive oil is measured in oleic acid.

The acidity of olive oil is expressed as a percentage of free oleic acid. Extra virgin olive oil has an acidity of…

The tomato is a vegetable from a botanical point of view.

The tomato is botanically a fruit, because it develops from the ovary of the flower and contains seeds. Culinarily…

Blueberries owe their colour to a pigment called anthocyanin.

Blueberries contain anthocyanins, water-soluble pigments that give the fruit its blue-purple colour. These substances…

There are only four types of true tea.

There are six main types of true tea (Camellia sinensis): white, green, yellow, oolong, black and pu-erh. The…

Honey crystallises fastest between 10 and 14 degrees Celsius.

Honey crystallises fastest at temperatures between 10 and 14 degrees Celsius. At higher temperatures, crystallisation…

The baguette was invented in Paris in the 19th century.

The baguette was invented in Vienna, Austria, in the 19th century, and brought to France by August Zang, an Austrian…

The wasabi served with sushi is always real wasabi.

Most wasabi served in restaurants is an imitation made from horseradish, mustard and green food colouring. Real…